Anna Hazare's agitation in defence of his version of the Lokpal Bill seems to have revived public memories of the 1974-75 Jayaprakash Narayan-led anti-corruption mass agitation, especially among the new generation of technology-driven middle class youth in metropolitan towns of India. But can Anna Hazare's anti-corruption crusade become a benchmark comparable with the historical mass mobilisation movements launched by Gandhi from 1920 to 1947 or the one popularly known as the...
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Anna Hazare: Muslims, Dalits sceptical
-India Today Their heart is with Anna Hazare but their mind refuses to accept the anti-corruption crusader's mode of protest. Muslim and Dalit organisations supported Anna's fight against corruption, but feared that the Sangh Parivar could hijack the campaign. They also warned him about it. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has decided to stay away from Anna's a campaign "because of its political overtones". "Our organisation believes this issue doesn't...
More »Parties back Anna's right to dissent, but reject his main demand by Neena Vyas
The government, no doubt, has been rightly accused of mishandling the Anna Hazare protest and, worse, of misjudging the public mood. But it is equally true that even the worst critics of the government in Parliament want nothing to do with the central demand of Team Anna: Parliament must consider their ‘Jan Lokpal Bill.' After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement on the emotive subject of Mr. Hazare's arrest — and the...
More »Farmers on holiday by M Suchitra
Andhra farmers shun growing paddy this kharif in absence of buyers, storage space Achanta, a small village in Andhra Pradesh, hit the headlines in 1967 with a record rice yield in the kharif or monsoon crop season. It was the time of the Green Revolution. N Subba Rao, a farmer from the village, harvested three tonnes of paddy from just one kilogramme of seeds. Other farmers followed suit and the village...
More »Delhi delusions by Ramachandra Guha
A Tamil economist, the late S. Guhan, used to say that Delhi was a capital in search of a country. I was reminded of that remark during the fortnight of May 29 to June 11, 2011. In that fortnight, if one watched the ‘national’ channels or read the ‘national’ newspapers, one would think all of India was involved in one way or the other with the ideas and practices of...
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