Hyderabad and Hyderabadis did it once again, they literally drove Shri Anna Hazare and General (retired) V.K. Singh to despair at their apathy, indifference and sheer callousness........
Not more than 400-500 people turned up to hear these two notables and others like Messrs Santosh Bhartiya, the editor of the Chauthi Duniyaa daily newspaper and Mohammad Jilani the muezzin of the sufi dargah at Ajmer Sharief.......
The sheer indifference of Hyderabad and it's citizens to this doyen of anti corruption crusaders did indeed take many by surprise and left them aghast as the earlier public meetings of the very same organisation in it's earlier India Against Corruption avatar had certainly drawn decent sized crowds and also attracted the youth in droves.......
What was even more disheartening was the fact that at least 75% of the gathering comprised of current or erstwhile IAC volunteers and senior citizens; there was also a moment of deep embarrassment and shame when four-five youths suddenly stood up and started shouting pro Telangana slogans in the middle of Anna's public address, however, sanity was soon restored as these pro Telangana elements were escorted away by the police and other saner elements........
Shri Anna Hazare was however undaunted by the pathetic public turnout and exuded supreme confidence about awakening a minimum of 6 out of 121 crore Indians by relentlessly and untiringly traversing the length and breadth of this country in his effort to usher in a "Sampurna Vyavastha Parivartan" or total societal and systemic channge as he preferred to term it.........
Shri Anna Hazare also made an earnest effort to flog a dead horse and only made a fleeting reference to the jan lokpal bill by saying that the same would only be successful in eroding the menace of corruption to a 50-55% extent, but, what of the remaining 50% he wondered........
His solution to the same was the much debated and discussed "right to reject" which has been on the radar of the Election Commission and other such political rights groups for the last decade and a half or so.......
Anna gave the example of an election within a constituency comprising of five candidates: the sixth and most important choice in the same should be the sixth column should be the option that gives the electorate the right to reject all the above candidates, he said, the election in the same constituency would be countermanded and indefinitely postponed if a majority of the electorate rejected all the candidates put up by various political parties........
this would automatically force tha hand of the political parties into putting or nominating candidates with a "clean and exemplary" record and also prevent the free flow and routing of huge funds through dubious means in election campaigns as the fear of being rejected outright would always be a red herring and force the candidates and parties to severely curtail the expenditure that they have been incurring on elections he averred.........
The gram sabhas were the most important tool or implement in ending or then severely restricting the menace of corruption in Anna's opinion: "everyone who attains or reaches the age of 18 automatically becomes a member of the gram sabha and they and only they should have the right to decide how the funds allocated to the village panchayat or zilla parishad for development related activities should be spent, Anna said".........
Adopting this measure post haste would severely curtail corruption at the panchayat and parishad level according to Anna as the residents of the village would be indirectly responsible for overseeing the expenditure incurred on developmental activities within their village and hence would not allow anybody to misuse these very same funds, he concluded.........
Drawing a parallel between the armed forces and the youth which is selflessly supporting the Anna movement, General V.K. Singh said: "the armed forces are the only profession in the world wherein a new entrant signs a bond to the effect that he or she will even lay down their lives in the service of the nation should the need for the same arise; and the youth supporting Anna should develop or inculcate this very same feeling within themselves as lives might have to be laid down during the course of taking this brewing revolution to it's logical conclusion", he opined.......
The evening drew to a close with a soulful rendition of a few patriotic songs by a bunch of enthusiastic school children, the eventful evening may have certainly been memorable for Anna's dedicated supporters, but the apathy of the common Hyderabadi to the newly launched jantantra morcha was surely a cause for concern............
Not more than 400-500 people turned up to hear these two notables and others like Messrs Santosh Bhartiya, the editor of the Chauthi Duniyaa daily newspaper and Mohammad Jilani the muezzin of the sufi dargah at Ajmer Sharief.......
The sheer indifference of Hyderabad and it's citizens to this doyen of anti corruption crusaders did indeed take many by surprise and left them aghast as the earlier public meetings of the very same organisation in it's earlier India Against Corruption avatar had certainly drawn decent sized crowds and also attracted the youth in droves.......
What was even more disheartening was the fact that at least 75% of the gathering comprised of current or erstwhile IAC volunteers and senior citizens; there was also a moment of deep embarrassment and shame when four-five youths suddenly stood up and started shouting pro Telangana slogans in the middle of Anna's public address, however, sanity was soon restored as these pro Telangana elements were escorted away by the police and other saner elements........
Shri Anna Hazare was however undaunted by the pathetic public turnout and exuded supreme confidence about awakening a minimum of 6 out of 121 crore Indians by relentlessly and untiringly traversing the length and breadth of this country in his effort to usher in a "Sampurna Vyavastha Parivartan" or total societal and systemic channge as he preferred to term it.........
Shri Anna Hazare also made an earnest effort to flog a dead horse and only made a fleeting reference to the jan lokpal bill by saying that the same would only be successful in eroding the menace of corruption to a 50-55% extent, but, what of the remaining 50% he wondered........
His solution to the same was the much debated and discussed "right to reject" which has been on the radar of the Election Commission and other such political rights groups for the last decade and a half or so.......
Anna gave the example of an election within a constituency comprising of five candidates: the sixth and most important choice in the same should be the sixth column should be the option that gives the electorate the right to reject all the above candidates, he said, the election in the same constituency would be countermanded and indefinitely postponed if a majority of the electorate rejected all the candidates put up by various political parties........
this would automatically force tha hand of the political parties into putting or nominating candidates with a "clean and exemplary" record and also prevent the free flow and routing of huge funds through dubious means in election campaigns as the fear of being rejected outright would always be a red herring and force the candidates and parties to severely curtail the expenditure that they have been incurring on elections he averred.........
The gram sabhas were the most important tool or implement in ending or then severely restricting the menace of corruption in Anna's opinion: "everyone who attains or reaches the age of 18 automatically becomes a member of the gram sabha and they and only they should have the right to decide how the funds allocated to the village panchayat or zilla parishad for development related activities should be spent, Anna said".........
Adopting this measure post haste would severely curtail corruption at the panchayat and parishad level according to Anna as the residents of the village would be indirectly responsible for overseeing the expenditure incurred on developmental activities within their village and hence would not allow anybody to misuse these very same funds, he concluded.........
Drawing a parallel between the armed forces and the youth which is selflessly supporting the Anna movement, General V.K. Singh said: "the armed forces are the only profession in the world wherein a new entrant signs a bond to the effect that he or she will even lay down their lives in the service of the nation should the need for the same arise; and the youth supporting Anna should develop or inculcate this very same feeling within themselves as lives might have to be laid down during the course of taking this brewing revolution to it's logical conclusion", he opined.......
The evening drew to a close with a soulful rendition of a few patriotic songs by a bunch of enthusiastic school children, the eventful evening may have certainly been memorable for Anna's dedicated supporters, but the apathy of the common Hyderabadi to the newly launched jantantra morcha was surely a cause for concern............
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