Anna Hazare may not be a Mahatma Gandhi or a Lok Nayak Jaya Prakash Narayan. He is just a Citizen Hazare who represents the frustration of the people with the pervasive corruption in the political system. It is sad that intellectuals like Pratap Bhanu Mehta ( IE,7/4) have not understood the disgust of the people with the continuing drama of corruption going on for the last few months – 2G scam, CWG scam, Adarsh scam, CVC appointment. All these scams had to be taken to the Supreme Court by the citizens to set the wheels of justice in motion. With all the laws against corruption in the country, the big fish always get away from the net. May be we should have a special bench of the Supreme Court only to deal with scams. Mehta seems to have contempt for ordinary law abiding people who cry for justice when he says " Lokpal Bill agitation has contempt for politics and democracy".
All that Citizen Hazare asks for is the power to prosecute the corrupt and punish them within a time-frame by the institution of Lokpal. He wants a non-partisan selection body. Is it too much to ask from the government? Mehta finds that questioning the representative character of the elected is reprehensible. The reports in newspapers about the distribution of money by the political parties in Tamilnadu is also reprehensible. King's apparel is seen only by the intellectuals, but people see the naked corruption everywhere. Bottle-neck of corruption is at the top of the bottle.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/of-the-few-by-the-few/772773/
April 7,2011.
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