The little old man who could

To see peaceful protesters dancing around with their demonstrating paraphernalia is a sight for sore eyes. Only those can truly appreciate the value of this whose society is bereft of harmony, tolerance and non-violence. Even if it’s the enemy, one can’t be but envious of the peace and independence afforded to them. On the one hand there’s us: half the country is swathed in bloodshed while the other half has no hope achieving peace. Rivers of blood flow feely; human bodies are being blown to smithereens. Schools are being destroyed. The faithful are being bombed in mosques and imam bargahs. Target killings are taking place and innocent people are being kidnapped, tortured and then turning up in gunny sacks strewn on the roads. Rockets are being launched on houses where people are entrapped along with their children. The leaders cannot even think about mixing with the public without a coterie of armed guards. The police and security agencies seem to be at wit’s end if any religious procession takes to the streets. It was Hazrat Ali’s (may Allah be pleased with him) day of martyrdom and the security apparatus couldn’t even breathe a sigh of relief till it was over despite them having taken extraordinary measures for security.

While living in such a violence-ridden society, one looks to a country with a population of more than a billion people and see protests and sit-ins taking place there without a hitch and the police is nowhere in sight while thousands of women, children, elderly, youths and disable people march and shout slogans and reach their homes with safety. Witnessing such a situation gives ones a peculiar sense of joy.

All these people are rallying for the end of corruption in their society. Their leader is a 74-year old dark-complexioned man in white cotton garb who has never partaken in politics all his life. But he has spent all his life serving the public. He has gone on countless hunger strikes. He has protested and had his demands for the needy and exploited accepted. He left his house years ago. Now he resides in an 8×10 room in a temple. That room houses nothing but a sleeping mat and a plate for eating. But this man of few means is conducting a war against the rulers of nuclear-capable state and he has wrought a revolution in the world’s second-most populous country. A ‘revolution’ in which even a single nosebleed has not taken place and no glass has been smashed. The government, the opposition, capitalists, powerful bureaucrats, the judiciary, the PM and all powerful and influential people are in awe and fear of this little old man. He has had 6 ministers stripped of their ministries and has even succeeded in sending some to jail.

As I write this column, he has been on his fast for 8 days. He has lost 5 kilos in weight. Now, his body’s fat is being metabolised for his nutritional needs. The government is feckless in front of this old, withered man. He is adamant on his demands and now refuses to talk to any minister. Either the PM or Rahul Gandhi – the heir apparent in the Congress. Right now, he has just agreed to talk to them. What he will talk about still remains unclear.

I wrote a column about this when he started this movement and said that this human cataclysm could overtake India. The government had given in to the storm and had conceded by agreeing to effectively legislate about corruption. But the bill that was presented in the Lok Sabha was a watered down version of what Anna and his team had envisaged. Which is why he threatened to goon a fast again unless the bill was redrafted to make it more effective.

Since there was a break in the movement, the government mistakenly thought that it would not be able to gather steam again. During the break, Baba Ramdev raised the slogan against illegally accumulated wealth but he absconded disguised as a woman as soon as police action was taken against him. This further bolstered the morale of the government and they paid no heed to Anna’s demands. Instead, they threw him into the slammer. But the freedom this incarceration afforded him was exemplary. His arrest was met with furious protests throughout the country and the government had no choice but to release him.

Thousands of his supporters bore a candle light vigil outside the jail awaiting his release but he refused to come out unless his demands were met. The protests escalated and the crowds outside the jail swelled. In the end, the government buckled and it had to allow the protests to take place in the Ramlila ground – the venue at which it was disallowing the protest beforehand. It also had to extend the 3-day limit for using the ground for the fats into 15 days.

The Indian parliament is reeling. There are fractures in the ruling coalition and the opposition is at a loss of what stand to take. It can neither side with the government nor with Anna. Because if Anna’s demands are met, all players in the power game will be held accountable. This little old man is giving sleepless nights to all the ruling elites of India. The TV channels of the world are broadcasting scenes of this groundswell. History has never witnessed such a peaceful movement from such a populous country spread over so many days. Gandhi’s examples are there. But the public of coming out in droves together in response to a single statement is unprecedented. Obviously, one reason could have been the lack of information technology in those days. Now the media’s reach is extensive. As soon as Anna utters a word, it spreads through India and people follow his every order like clockwork.

The way women, children, the youth and the elderly have participated in these protests and processions is unique. Many have national flags in their hands. Girls and boys have the colours of the flag painted across their cheeks. Women have plates in their hands which they beat with spoons. Children have flowers in their hand. Some devil-may-cares are dressed up as monsters to signify corruption while people then pretend-slap and pretend-kick and hit them. Hindus, Sikh, Muslim and Christians and people from other religions are taking part in this movement together. They have one slogan: End corruption. At the point of pen-to-paper, this human tsunami had been gaining traction.

Nobody knows what turn events will take. Today, I haven’t attempted to analyse this human experiment, but have sufficed with mere exposition. When I see the desire of becoming Anna in the hearts of politicos yearning for power in the political cradle of Pakistan, I can’t help but laugh. The people who can’t bear hunger for a day and can’t live outside their airconditioned quarters want to enter the halls of power by becoming Anna. These people have just witnessed the phenomenon on TV. They do not understand that to become Anna Hazare, one needs to give up the comforts of life and the greed for power. India’s society has all those problems that plague our society. But there is that has befallen us but not the lucky citizens of India: a nationwide martial law.

The writer is one of Pakistan’s most widely read columnists.