The fight must go on after me, said Anna while parting from the Ramlila grounds in New Delhi. What still baffles people is what is that one thing that keeps this septuagenarian ticking.
Though Anna is today a household name, the fight for a corruption free India is far from over. This is yet another attempt to decipher the madness, the marvel and the genius behind Kisan Babu Rao Hazare aka Anna.
Kisan Babu Rao Hazare has been fighting his lone battle against corruption in the country for these many years. The ex armyman , a social activist , an anti graft crusader and above all a true human being, Hazare might be putting forward a tough demeanour to his fans and well wishers, but somewhere there was a sense of pathos that seeped in with a deadlock over the Jan Lokpal , a fight whichhe eventually won.
Kisan Babu Rao Hazare now popular as Anna once contemplated suicide and even wrote a two-page essay on why he wanted to end his life. Anna Hazare was not driven to such a pass by circumstances. He wanted to live no more because he was frustrated with life and wanted an answer to the purpose of human existence.
Call it a matter of chance or destiny Hazare came across a book at the New Delhi Railway Station on the life and teachings of Swami Vivekananda. This book seemed to give him the right perspective to life and he started living by Swami Vivekananda’s philosophy of “Service to mankind is service to God.”
From that day onwards things changed for him.
The entire country looks upto this man who is the face of India’s fight against corruption. He has taken that fight to the corridors of power and challenged the government at the highest level. People, the common man and well-known personalities alike supported him in his fight at Ramlila Maidan.
Giving a clarion call to people to join the fight he always called the fight against corruption the second struggle of Independence . Hazare himself was part of several wars in the past as a blue blooded soldier of the nation.
He was a soldier for 15 years in the Indian Army. He was part of the 1962 Indo-China war as the government exhorted young men to join the Army. In 1978, he took voluntary retirement from the 9th Maratha Battalion and returned home to Ralegan Siddhi, a village in Maharashtra’s drought-prone Ahmadnagar. He was 39 years old. He found farmers back home struggling for survival and their suffering would prompt him to pioneer rainwater conservation that put his little hamlet on the international map as a model village. From Ralegaon Siddhi to Ramlila Maidan Anna never looked back. He also joined the fight for the cause of One Rank One pension. Irrespective of the fact that his distinctive style has been termed as blackmail he never showed his anger. He forced parties like NCP and the Sena BJP Government to act against their ministers.
He was one man who dared to question those who occupied the topmost rung in the hierarchy. Anna at Ramlila Maidan in the middle of ill health had famously said, “ Anna rahe na rahe bhrashtachar ke khilaf ladayi chalti rahegi..” Every man the day he leaves for his heavenly abode will say what the movie Lage raho Munna Bhai said for Gandhi “Bande mein tha dum”.
Hazare began his first phase of his fast unto death at Jantar Mantar on 5th April 2011 to press for a stronger Lokpal bill.
The key points raised by the team led by Anna were threefold first of all having a Lokayukta in all the states to facilitate proper governance which would be appointed by the Lokpal, including the lawyer bureaucracy under the ambit of the Lokpal and having a Citizen’s Charter in place. All three of them were accepted to be included by the government.
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