"I have been fasting
for the last 16 years. I haven’t got anything from it yet. I am ending my fast
today. I want to try a different agitation now. I will contest against the
Chief Minister of Manipur in the upcoming state elections."
Another activist joining politics - that is always a welcome
step for Indian democracy. On July 31,
Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, two pivots of the 2011 anti-corruption
movement led by Anna Hazare, announced that they would launch their political
party formally on October 2, on the Gandhi Jayanti Day.
Yogendra and Prashant are from the latest crop of the
experimental activists who are joining politics after trying their hands in
activism for a long period and we can hope that their experience would push
them to cleanse the system as they claim and would deliver a politics that
would truly be common man centric.
We can say it all began with the Anna's movement in 2011. It
was a massively successful civil society movement in India after decades that
forced the government to take notice.
First it was Arvind Kejriwal and his group of supporters
from 'India Against Corruption' who took the political plunge after they saw
that their movement was losing direction and the government was getting an
upper hand. Initially, Yogendra and Prashant were with Kejriwal. But later
difference cropped up resulting in Kejriwal expelling Yogendra Yadav, Shanti
Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan from the party. In the wave that began with Anna's
movement, many other activists from across the country soon joined the new
political party that emerged from the movement - the Aam Aadmi Party.
That is a spontaneous reaction from the people who have been
fighting honestly for the last many years - that is spontaneous with Irom
Sharmila who has become a global icon of peace and the struggle for it. It is
heartening for Indian democracy that the trend has continued and Irom Sharmila
is the most notable addition to it after Arvind Kejriwal.
The world has seen the resolve Irom Sharmila has and so we
can say she will follow her course even in the future with same zeal. She is
yet another in the growing list of activists who are taking a plunge in the
mainstream politics and that is a welcome sign for Indian democracy.
Democracy is a participatory process. Every citizen of the
country needs to participate in the process to nurture it, to make it strong.
Likewise, they need to participate in the acts to keep a check on the factors
that weaken it.
A democracy is run by its political institutions.
To continue..
©SantoshChaubey
