Analyzing Anna

He is old, he is stubborn and he claims to represent the aam aadmi. Anna Hazare's rise in terms of publicity has sky-rocketed since his first fast. He claims that as a citizen he is above the parliament. As a citizen, he is entitled to express whatever views he has, but he cannot impose his views on others. The parliament is the collective consciousness of the people of India. The people sitting there might be corrupt, but that is only because the people have voted for them despite having apprehensions of them being corrupt. When we exercise our right to vote, the only question we ask ourselves is whether we would vote for the BJP, Congress or any other party. How often do we vote keeping the candidate standing for the Lok Sabha elections above his party? At the end of the day, parliament is both a body of individuals and a consortium of political parties. The voter ought not to turn a blind eye towards the personality of the candidate merely because he or she is affiliated towards a particular party. This disturbing trend may be noticed by observing the number of independent MP's compared to the number of MP's affiliated with any party. If we are to truly eliminate corruption in the legislature, then we must endorse electoral reforms and voter-awareness measures instead of fasting unto death.

Anna's method will always be anti-people and elitist unless he works with the government and not against it. Let us assume we have the most corrupt parliament ever. In that case, it would be because our collective conscience decided to do so and hence forth our very collective conscience is corrupt. Anna cannot claim to be above this, no matter how corrupt it is. Anna's movement is dominated by the upper class and hence makes demands which they think ought to curb corruption. Yes, there is wisdom in their demands, however they must realize that the entire country is neither educated nor elitist and it is possible that some of their demands would be in conflict with the aspirations of the cumulative public. Yes, there is no denying that as a country we all support Anna's cause, however we cannot be forced to accept the Jan Lokpal as it is without accommodating some of the aspirations of people who voted for the government.

Anna must realize that a democratic process requires patience. Yes, at times we all do feel frustrated due to the time our politicians take to make decisions, however we must understand that it takes time to establish a parliamentary majority. Like every Indian, I have a vote. If Anna's fast forces the person I voted for to make a decision, I will feel cheated, for I voted keeping in mind my candidates' decision-making abilities and not Anna's. If you are an ardent supporter of Anna, kindly ask him to stand for elections so that you may exercise your right to vote and not render my vote futile.

- Ryan Gerard Wilson