August 16 is the August day of the history of the Independent India and one of the most significant days of 21st Century India when a democratically elected government becomes hell-bent on killing democratic values and has to bite dust by a 74-year old man with integrity, simplicity and 34 years of experience of experimenting with the Gandhian Satyagraha to bring positives to a society that somewhere seems to have lost its track. What else can we say when our own elected representatives start treating us as secondary citizens in our very own country. They’re okay as long as we’re doing the ordinary chores of the life not affecting their elite circle of reasoning. We become anarchists if we try to question the validity of some archaic provisions or timely introduction of new measures to strengthen checks and balances to maintain a proper public order. Sometimes, it seems, these elected representatives have stopped taking us seriously.
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| Anna giving message to his supporters from inside Tihar. Photograph from http://www.deshgujarat.com/. |
And so the government, on the expected lines, tried to undermine him. The government tried to undermine the source of power in a democracy – the people – the source that gave the humankind Mahatma Gandhi. And this happened in Mahatma’s very own country. The government could not perceive the symbolism behind the mass perception of the figure Anna Hazare then that it is realizing now but still trying to look defiant; still trying to looking not accepting it. Gracefully accepting wrongs is a value they need to learn.
When Anna Hazare chose August 9, 69 years after the Mahatma launched the ‘Quit India Movement’ in 1942, most in the establishment sought to dismiss him. In the desperation, they could not see the well lubricated communication machinery of the people working with Anna Hazare. Hazare’s team conceptualized it really well. They hit the right spots. They hit the bullseye by assimilating the mainstream media and social media to their advantage. The crescendo reached to the top when, on August 15, Anna Hazare dominated not just the airwaves but also the psyche of the common man. It was a day when the PM delivered his I-Day speech but was devoid of the notice usually an I-Day speech by the PM gets. Again it was the Anna factor with high-voltage drama being unfolded every moment in light of the Anna’s proposed fast from August 16.
The prominence of the Anna factor became evident on the morning of August 16 when the government found itself on the backfoot after unprecedented public anger on Anna’s arrest from his house in hurry and everyone, from the PM to the Home Minister to Kapil Sibal, other Congress spokespersons as well as the Delhi Police officials, looked to defend the decision in the garb of law and order maintenance. The remarkable thing was rapid mellowing down of the tone of people from the establishment by the evening, from belligerence and arrogance to the defence made on just plain language of legal technicalities, again to be torn apart. The seven days of judicial custody was suddenly terminated and the government decided to set Anna free. Anna refused to walk out of Tihar and started dictating terms. By then, people were on streets, not just in Delhi, but across India, and this initiation, if was not spontaneous, its build-up was certainly self-driven. It was a well thought of strategy by Anna Hazare group and they played it well again. Media and social media amalgamated and the message to the common man took the unified notion- government was acting dictatorially. And that was enough to create panic among the Congress party members already plagued by incessant corruption charges. But, by then, it was too late to do any damage control. The name Anna was well on the way to become a Symbolism of a Thought Prcoess long ignored.
