This all began with a campaign for an enforceable law for Transparent Government was started in India in January 2011 with the first rallies in 55 locations across India, on 30th January 2011. The Humanist Party of India supported this campaign immediately, since it met the two main criteria of “Active Non-violence” and of “Anti-Discrimination”.
Anna Hazare, a Gandhian activist, known for having shaken the state governments more than once on the issue of corruption, joined this campaign and proposed the government create a joint committee, with government and civil society representatives, to draft a law that would be acceptable to both sides.
The campaign has gone ahead, from strength to strength, from those few first locations to across India, with young and old joining, and the campaign became an emotional call for millions of people across India.
After a fast of 5 days by thousands of people all over India, led by Anna Hazare, the campaign succeeded in forcing the government to come to the negotiating table to draft the said law (Jan LokPal Bill – People’s Ombudsman Law) and these meetings went on for over 6 weeks, resulting in a stalemate created by the government rejecting key elements of the proposed law. The Government went ahead by submitting a watered down and indeed tooth-less law to the parliament and this provoked further protests.
Anna Hazare declared a fast-unto-death from 16th August 2011, if the government did not agree to the draft proposed by the civil society team lead by him.
“Come 16th August the fast was due to start,” explains Humanist Party of India member Sudhir Gandotra. “The corrupt government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, hiding behind its police forces, started putting unprecedented conditions for allowing this fast to go ahead such as: You cannot bring more than 5,000 protesters and the protest can be only for 3 days and a similarly illogical conditions. These conditions were rejected by Anna’s team and Anna and his team were arrested on the morning of 16 August, even before anyone reached the fasting place.”
Police took Anna and his team to a magistrate (judge), but Anna refused to apply for bail for his release. Anna was sent to jail (judicial custody) for 7 days. This provoked bigger protests all over India and Anna urged all his followers and the country to remain peaceful and non-violent under all conditions and situations.
“By the evening, the protests had grown so much, while remaining commendably non-violent and peaceful, that the Government buckled down and ordered the release of Anna Hazare and his team,” continued Mr Gandotra. “The order of release reached the jail authorities at an unprecedented time after-sunset when indeed Anna Hazare was released.”
But, that was not the end but the start of something even bigger!
“Anna Hazare refused to leave the jail and demanded unconditional release with a clearly written guarantee from the government for him to resume his fast and protest as planned.
This turned the tables on the government, demonstrating the real power of non-violence, so fine tuned by the Gandhian Anna Hazare.”
People gathered outside the jail in thousands and remained there the whole night, demonstrating in practice what we all can achieved using non-violent action by ordinary people, thus proving once again the power of non-violence in action.
“The campaign is going on and in different sections of society whose peoples are going forward to support this demand for fundamental and systemic changes in India. The demand is for a complete transformation of India into a democracy that is REAL and PARTICIPATORY, which is a basic demand of the Humanist Party, in India and internationally,” Mr Gandotra ended.
Arresting Anna was never the motive of the government. The real motive was to delay, disperse and deny the protest and not let it get hold of the national imagination. The government lost the plot with TV media once again playing the role of catalyst and people jumping on to the streets in hundreds and thousands. Government finally released Anna. So, what next?
