The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

ANNA HAZARE WARNS THE GOVERNMENT AGAIN – AND SOUNDS POLITICALLY AND STRATEGICALLY CORRECT

Anna Hazare has spoken again. In a letter written to Manmohan Singh and copied to Sonia Gandhi and Salman Khurshid, he has warned to begin his hunger protest agitation on the last day of the winter session of the Parliament if the Lokpal Bill is not passed by then.

This one is a stern political message. Stand taken by Anna Hazare on issues as conveyed by this letter indicates of a good strategy this time to handle political opponents. And there is nothing wrong is going political. Almost every system reforming movement has been political in nature because in modern administrative set-up of democracies, it is largely the politicians who pollute and vitiate the atmosphere barring few exceptional figures. They misuse the power of democracy then. Correcting their corrupt ways requires political solutions that could effectively be incorporated into the system. System overhaul is no longer a spontaneous process. It requires a thrust cushion now.

Latest letter by Anna Hazare seems to extend the political tell-tale in the similar fashion. He seems to have pondered over the mistakes committed during the last two months by his team and by him. He warns of campaigning in the five states where elections are scheduled next year but says it would not be anti-Congress. The letter says his team would canvass for good candidates irrespective of party affiliations. It is a good damage control statement after the Hisar bypoll fiasco. Another significant thing the letter talks about is many teams embarking on a tour of India. It tells of an imminent expansion of the Team Anna, a much needed step.

And he, too, seems to have made up his mind on exploring and consolidating the Lokpal in the Indian psyche. He wrote on his blog yesterday that says he would soon break his ‘vow of silence’ and would embark on a tour of India to meet all who contributed to the August Movement and to connect more and more people to the cause. He talks of sending teams to various parts of the country to educate people on the Lokpal Movement during the Fast if he were to go on Fast again. This one is again correcting an anomaly post-August Movement success.

Forming and sending teams to different parts of the country was to be the priority on the agenda. It becomes even more important in the light of the multiple instances of the government backtracking on its promises since April 2011 when the Lokpal Bill began its journey to the national conscious. This letter clears the air about one more focus-diverting issue – Anna talks of taking up the ‘Right to recall and reject’ Movement but only after the Lokpal Movement has achieved its target.

These timely warnings are relevant given the ill-intent of the government in the past; a government that is working on ‘reconciliation and targeting at the same time’ strategy. So its PM praises Anna saying his Fast has served the purpose by waking up the country on the issue of corruption while big-mouths like Digvijay Singh and BK Hariprasad continue with their tirade. How can such a government be trusted when we know it has been adopting the similar strategy in the past?

The flame has to burn consistently. No one can say with certainty that the government would pass the Lokpal Bill in the winter session even if it tables the same on the floor of the House. There must be a readiness in us to stand up together and resume the fight again from the point where it was left on August 28.

India needs an Anna on the go now.