Anna / Arvind: A Split That Hardly Bothers

They have worked together for years and have been a great force behind the introduction of the Right to Information act. They have fought together for months lobbying for a strong bill against corruption. Yet there are many aspects which indicate that the split between Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal was for the good. They have been quite effective individually as they decided to take different paths for achieving their common goal – abolishing corruption.

Both Kejriwal and Hazare are go-getters and have shown a never-die attitude in their field of work so far. However, they exhibit a difference in approach. Anna seems to target the hearts of people and Arvind goes with the brain. While the former comes with inspirational speeches, talks about ideology and tries to touch the emotional chords of people, the latter moves every step forward with strategy, adequate data, defending logic and high-level research.

The positive gesture that Anna and Arvind have given for each other even after splitting shows that both believe in each others’ potential. Where Anna says that he will go and campaign for Arvind if the latter contests an election because the latter’s wrong-doings are not evident, Arvind says that he is missing Anna as a moral support. Joining hands with former Army Chief B K Singh, Anna is on his way to form a new Team Anna. With many members from India against Corruption, Arvind is almost ready to register and announce the name of his political party in November 2012.

The development after the split between Anna and Arvind has answered the question what the need of the split was when both have a common goal. The exposés demonstrated against Robert Vadra, Salman Khurshid and Nitin Gadkari were call of the time and the way the movement against the Delhi power tariff was conducted was phenomenon. When was the last time we had seen a social activist on TV throughout the day? Arvind Kejriwal could make the issue of corruption a conversation toping in the drawing rooms.

Therefore, the split was for choosing the best path suitable for an individual. The split was for standing by what one believes. The split, the biggest question raised against the intention of the fighters against corruption, itself proved how much integrity both of these personalities have. They are not only concerned about achieving their goal but also being particular about the way through which it should be achieved.

Blog! Opine! Share!

It has been almost five years since I started blogging. In the beginning, Blogging, for me, was “giving my opinion”. Initially, I limited myself to reading others’ blogs and giving my comments. Gradually I started to use this platform as a medium of sharing my experiences. As I am writing this 50^th article on this blog, let me tell you that the experience is amazing.

To read others’ experiences in life is fun. It’s fun to read the stories written by people who have experienced it themselves. There is no editor involved in the process to correct the language, to improve the flow and to kill the essence. What is written is simply words that come out straight from someone’s heart.

Through these years, I advised many of my friends to start blogging. Some of them started and were exhilarated by the feeling of seeing their own article published on the Internet within a few minutes. What made them happier is that their blog has a global audience. It’s not restricted within the boundaries of any region or country.

One of my friends once asked me why we need to blog. Why will anyone be interested in knowing what we are doing in life? I took the opportunity to explain her that blogging is not only about describing what you are doing in life. It can also be used to give your opinion on different issues and advise people on something you already have experienced. For those who think why anyone will be interested in reading what you are doing in life, I can tell this from experience that every article has an audience. You get 500 people saying what crap you have written and then you get that one reader who appreciates your article and says he/she has the same opinion or experience. You feel like your purpose of blogging is served.

The best thing about blogging, I think, is that it is beyond the time boundaries – ever present on the Internet. You can also use this medium for socializing just like any other social media; however, it has its own class. 

Do We Really Have to Surrender to the Fish of Corruption?

“Baro barsara tapasya sukhua pudare gala”, this is a saying in the Oriya language which means “an effort of years gets spoilt because of a small mistake”.  I grew up listening to this proverb and grew up wondering how come a small mistake drains away a great effort. For a better insight, let's have a look at the below anecdote. 

Have you come across people who turn vegetarian only on auspicious days? I have a friend who follows the same practice. Once what happened is that he swallowed a piece of fish by mistake on such a day. He realized the mistake immediately. Biting his tongue, he hit his forehead with his right palm and said, “uiiiiiii….what a mistake I made!” As he was feeling guilty, to make him comfortable, I said, “No problem. You have not done it knowingly. Now keep it and take another plate of food.” What he said is something to think about. “Now that I have already eaten a piece, let me have it fully.”

This directs us to consider another situation. We may find some people who did not get indulged in corruption for a long time until the first time they did. Then they found it almost impossible to stop the noose of corruption from tightening. If someone who is known to have accepted bribe even once says that some practice is wrong, everyone will tell him “at least you don’t tell this.” This is enough to shut his mouth. The argument that can be given here is that if you have been involved in a wrong practice at some point of your life, this doesn’t take your rights away from you to raise your voice against the other wrong practices. It is never too late to make up for your mistakes.

These days on switching on a news channel, what you find is a story about Fight against Corruption. I was wondering whether these news-stories make it easy to watch for people, who ever became a victim of the system, who could not gather the courage to fight against the wrong-practices, hence surrendered to it. 

Therefore, NOW is the time when we need an example of someone whose conscience has arisen, someone who can come to the front and say, “I have received bribe at some point of my life. This was a wrong thing I did. I promise I will not accept it anymore.” They can comfortably fight hand-in-hand with the front runners for a good cause as it is evident that the common practice is to suppress the whistle-blowers by bringing their wrong-doings to the front. Afterwards, the number of people fighting against corruption will definitely increase manifold. Truly, we do not have to eat the full fish because we have tasted it either knowingly or unknowingly. After all, it’s not for the society but for our own conscience.

So the question that arises here is that whether we should not hate the corrupt. Why should we? The corrupt are like patients of the disease called Corruption which in turn is created by a virus called Bad System or Bad Morale. We would need to make the patients free from the disease and help them live in the society with respect, with dignity. One more thing - let's spread awareness about the virus and hope to get some vaccine ready.