My opinion

Me Anna, you Anna
Here Anna, there Anna,
Sky Anna, land Anna
Everywhere Anna…Anna…

     A man who was unknown to most of the public of India till sometime back, has become the face of a fight today,  just within few months. Home, neighborhood, school, college, office, tv, radio, facebook, twitter, blogs…where not is Anna…

    Anna is someone who has become almost equivalent to a reincarnation of Gandhiji for his followers. He has become a voice, a loud one, for everyone who has ever fallen prey to a forced corruption at some point of time in his life, because of some reason or the other. He is a ray of hope for those who have ever been bound to take or give money for wrong resons, even though he did not at all want to. or even if never so in his own life, but still is hurt by the large-scale scams, by the corruption at higher level. Anyone who wants India to get that money back, and wants it to be rather implemented in the good of the country. Anna has brought about the outburst of a cry, a frustration that was hidden suppressed inside the heart of a common man who never had the ‘power’ nor the ‘sources’ to fight the devil alone, but now has thousands of others just like him, fighting for the cause. Truly…Anna is aandhi (storm) !!

    But amidst all this hype and the hulla, where I see that whole of the country is uniting irrespective of the caste and the creed, I notice that the same is now getting broadly divided into two categories : the supporters of Anna, and the non-supporters. At the same time, I have noticed a trend in both the categories.

    The supporters are mostly the strugglers. Common man. And those who somehow manage their basic necessities to survive. Most men in this category, work for an 8-9 hours routine job, come home, spend some time with family and sleep. The world of a common man revolves around his family, his relations, his social circles, run majorly by emotions. Who had always been taught in his childhood, that honesty is everything, never tell lies, help others, etc. But at some point in later life, had to compromise with his own values because he was left with no other option but to yield. Basically the emotional people. And most girls and women in this category are those who have such man in their family. Be it brother or father or anyone. Some are saying everyone is corrupt, but I call such type of corrupt people as ‘forced-corrupts‘. Now, as some of my friends put it, there is always a choice rather than compromising with values. In reply to that I would say, yes of course there is. When a common man visits a bank for a loan, and the person sitting there puts a condition that he can proceed only after getting a particular amount of money from that man, of course he has an option…may be to complain about the culprit? But what would happen if the culprit later on fights back? A common man does not have that much power or sources to defend himself. In that case, he is left with no other choice but to give the money. And believe me, someone who hardly earns enough to survive, somehow managing his own and his people’s lives, for whom rupee-rupee matters, is NEVER happy doing this but is bound to do this. So…he may get the loan done, the chapter may close, but the guilty feeling remains. Anna is that man, who has brought this feeling out. Sure, there are many among his supporters, who don’t understand politics, who don’t know what exactly is specified in the Jan Lokpal Bill. Yes many might not even be knowing the past scams by congress or anyone, might not be knowing the structure of the government, but to them Anna is someone who has made them realize that they are not alone suffering because of this devil called corruption.

    But then…as they say, there is a con to every pro. Here comes the other category. The elite and the highly educated. The ambitious and the practical. Who seem to be not able to digest all what is going on in the country. The non-supporters of Anna. May be not all, but most of such people have a well-off background or even if not, then became wealthy in later life. They perhaps have got enough of money to offer when they see their job is not getting done. Such people would be called ‘chosen corrupts’ and are focusing on the point that we should first kill the corrupt within us. To such people I would say, please do that, it will be highly appreciated by the other category. When a considerable part of the country is busy fighting for the cause, these people are busy demoralising that part. When they have their own reasons to laugh on the Anna Hazare scenario, what makes me laugh about them is that, in their writings, supporting their point, they dont even use the simple language. They write it so complicatedly, that someone who is not highly educated like them, cant even understand. And then they expect the readers to absorb and execute. I think such people forget that a huge number of Indians are still NOT as logical and smart as them. How I wish the whole public of India was as educated as them, to understand the complexities of politics. People in this category of non-supporters are considering this happening as wrong and hoping ‘sense prevails’ as one of my good friends put it. I just wonder what would have happened way back in the past of India, during fight for freedom, if some people in that time also were as ‘sensible’ as these…

    So having read a number of articles from both categories of people, and keeping alive my own belief that we can never force others to think the way we do because everyone’s mentality is based on what all circumstances and experiences one has been through, I would like to place one request each to both the categories.

    Dear non-supporters of Anna, I completely agree that you too have a right of expressing what you feel. But for the sake of the contentment of the people who are fighting for this cause, please try not to say anything that can compel someone, who is gradually joining the battle, to give up the thought. Don’t motivate them if you don’t want, but then please don’t demoralize also.

   And dear supporters of Anna, my request to you is that, if you have decided or even if you are still planning to join the battle, please don’t give up the thought just because someone convinces you to do so. Re-evaluate all your own past experiences in this regard, your own circumstances, people, re-think the possible outcomes and consequences of taking this step, if you are ready to accept that, then keeping all this in mind, do go ahead ! After all, someone would have said this from experience only, that those who try never fail. Even if we try and fail, we will learn something that will help us when we try next time for the same thing or some other. If you are a true Indian, believe you have a hero within you.

   Jai hind !