Anna Hazare's War For Lokpal Bill Fight Against Corruption

Kisan Baburao Hazare(Anna Hazare) born 15 June 1937 at Bhingar, Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra, is an Indian social activist. A former soldier in the Indian army he has no Spouse he's unmarried . Anna Hazare’s journey of four decades has been unprecedented in terms of a non-violent yet effective campaign. His efforts to empower grampanchayats, protect efficient government officers from frequent transfers and fight against the red tapism in government offices have also received accolades. That Hazare has given his life for social betterment is reflected thus.

Today, Anna Hazare 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, are supporting him in the hundreds swelling to the thousands.

For Anna Hazare, it is another battle. And he has fought quite a few, Including some as a soldier for 15 years in Indian Army. He enlisted after the 1962 Indo-China war when the government exhorted young men to join the Army.

In 1978, he took voluntary retirement from the 9th Maratha Battalion and returned home to Ralegaon 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.

The villagers revere him. Thakaram Raut, a school teacher in Ralegaon Siddhi says, "Thanks to Anna's agitations, we got a school, we got electricity, we got development schemes for farmers.'' While in the army, Hazare used to visit Ralegan Siddhi for two months every year and used to see the miserable condition of farmers due to water scarcity. Ralegan Siddhi falls in the drought-prone area with a mere 400 to 500 mm of annual rainfall. There were no weirs to retain rainwater. During the month of April and May, water tankers were the only means of drinking water. Almost 80 per cent of the villagers were dependent on other villages for food grains. Residents used to walk for more than four to six kilometers in search of work and some of them had opted to open country liquor dens as a source of income.

Anna Hazare's fight against corruption began here. He fought first against corruption that was blocking growth in rural India. His organization - the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan (People's movement against Corruption). His tool of protest - hunger strikes. And his prime target - politicians.

But his weapon is potent. In 1995-96, he forced the Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra to drop two corrupt Cabinet Ministers. In 2003, he forced the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) state government to set up an investigation against four ministers. In April 2011, four days of fasting brought thousands of people out in support of his crusade against corruption. They also made the government realise it could not be dismissive about Anna Hazare and his mass appeal.

Now you hear about Anna Hazare’s fasting until death and most of us were not aware who is Anna Hazare and what is this Lokpal Bill about?

Lokpal Bill and Jan Lokpal Bill

Lokpal bill at the current state has lots of loopholes and does not serves the purpose. The Lokpal cannot, under the proposed Bill, investigate any case against the Prime Minister in the arena of external affairs and defence. As a part of this movement, N. Santosh Hegde, a former justice of the Supreme Court of India, Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court along with the members of the India Against Corruption movement drafted an alternate bill, named as the Jan Lokpal Bill. We need to get this bill passed and implemented with all the loopholes closed, independent from Politicians and bureaucrats, like the Supreme Court of India. This movement from a person like Anna Hazare should be supported by each and every citizen of India and compel the responsible people to take an accepted decision at the earliest.

History of Lokpal Bill
This bill has taken 40 years, still not passed by elected representatives. Among different government in power, but none wanted this to come up as this would be the biggest hurdle for the corrupt politicians. India has changed, the young India, wants a clean India and will do anything and everything to get this done.

The bill was first introduced by Shanti Bhushan in 1968 and passed in the 4th Lok Sabha in 1969. However, it did not get through in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India. Subsequent versions were re-introduced in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and in 2008. But these never passed.

Renewed calls for the bill arose over resentment of the major differences between the draft 2010 Lokpal Bill prepared by the government and that prepared by the members of the associated activists movement - mainly comprising of N. Santosh Hegde a former justice of the Supreme Court of India and Lokayukta of Karnataka, Shanti Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court along with the members of the India Against Corruption movement.

The bill's supporters consider existing laws too weak and insufficiently enforced to stop corruption

On the day the Lokpal Bill was tabled in Parliament, Anna Hazare burnt copies of the government's draft of the legislation along with his supporters in his home town Ralegaon Siddhi in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district.

Members of Team Anna - Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan, Swami Agnivesh, Kiran Bedi and others - too burnt copies of the Bill at Kaushambi in Ghaziabad and accused the government of cheating the common man.

The social activist, who has been campaigning for a stronger anti-graft legislation, exhorted people across the country to do the same.