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Pakistan needs an Anna Hazare | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online
By S.m. Hali | Published: August 24, 2011
The killing fields of Karachi, the human slaughterhouses of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, unbridled corruption and, above all, total lack of compassion for the meaningless carnage on the part of Pakistans ruling elite, as well as intelligentsia, demand that a messiah akin to Indias social activist Anna Hazare appears to save the Pakistani nation from total disintegration. Anna Hazare is neither a politician, nor a millionaire turned philanthropist, who appeared on Indias bleak horizon to save humanity.
Born on June 15, 1937, to an impoverished labour class family of the village of Parner Taluka of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, Kisan Baburao Hazare has done wonders for transforming rural India from poverty to self-sufficiency and has now vigorously take up the task of eradicating the evil of corruption from the Indian society. How the son of an unskilled labourer gets inspired enough to achieve such major accomplishments is a fascinating story by itself.
Hazare and his six younger siblings faced significant hardships. He studied till class seven with the support of a childless aunt, but then started selling flowers to sustain his younger brothers.
During the 1962 Sino-Indian war, he got the opportunity to serve in the Indian Army as driver. When in 1965 Pak-India war, he was deployed at the Khemkaran sector where a Pakistani attack killed all his comrades in his convoy. His near brush with death convinced Hazare that he had been saved for a purpose, which he soon discovered through a booklet titled "Call to the youth for nation building" by Swami Vivekananda in a book stall at the New Delhi railway station. He realised that saints sacrificed their own happiness for others. That he needed to work towards ameliorating the sufferings of the poor. He vowed not to marry to avoid being distracted by a family and set upon his noble task. After voluntary retirement from the army, he started social work from his native village, Ralegan Siddhi, located in drought-prone, rain-shadow zone of Ahmadnagar, which had fallen into an acute state of poverty, deprivation and hopelessness and driven its residents to alcoholism and other moral depravities. Hazare studied the ecological process of water preservation and with the help of volunteers managed to transform his village from total calamitous state into award winning prosperity by utilising the will and resolve of the villagers themselves that made Ralegan Siddhi an oasis of manmade regeneration.
Hazares next major challenge was tackling alcoholism. Appeals through volunteer groups uprooted the menace of alcoholism. He also managed to have the state government modify the Bombay Prohibition Act 1949, and promulgated a ban on the sale of tobacco, paan and bidies in his locality. In 1980, he started the unique system of a Grain Bank, where farmers would donate grain to be borrowed in period of need or drought.
After the successful implementation of dairy projects, education systems and mass marriages for the poor - shunning untouchability - it was now time for him to take up the major challenge of corruption. He started a campaign against it from the Forest Department, and through his canvassing managed to get influential ministers punished. He moved against corrupt leaders although he suffered immensely in his struggle; being incarcerated on trumped up charges, attempts on his life and threats to his being. His one modus operandi has been his fast unto death, which has borne positive results and enlarged his following. He succeeded in getting the Regulation of Transfers and Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act to the institution of the Right of Information Act passed/sanctioned.
On April 5, 2011, he, now commonly known as Anna, went on a fast unto death to exert pressure on the Government of India to enact a strong anti-corruption act as envisaged in the Jan Lokpal Bill - a law to establish a Lokpal (ombudsman) with the power to deal with corruption in public offices. His demands were met through the issuance of a gazette notification of a joint committee to draft an effective bill by August 15, 2011. When the government hedged and jailed him, he started another fast unto death and this time he is joined by most of India.
We in Pakistan are in greater despair than the Indians owing to the apathy, callousness and selfish motives of our political leaders, who are letting the country slide into political anarchy and economic meltdown for their personal interests. We pray that an Anna Hazare will rise from among us to slay our dragons.
The writer is a political and defence analyst.
By S.m. Hali | Published: August 24, 2011
The killing fields of Karachi, the human slaughterhouses of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, unbridled corruption and, above all, total lack of compassion for the meaningless carnage on the part of Pakistans ruling elite, as well as intelligentsia, demand that a messiah akin to Indias social activist Anna Hazare appears to save the Pakistani nation from total disintegration. Anna Hazare is neither a politician, nor a millionaire turned philanthropist, who appeared on Indias bleak horizon to save humanity.
Born on June 15, 1937, to an impoverished labour class family of the village of Parner Taluka of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, Kisan Baburao Hazare has done wonders for transforming rural India from poverty to self-sufficiency and has now vigorously take up the task of eradicating the evil of corruption from the Indian society. How the son of an unskilled labourer gets inspired enough to achieve such major accomplishments is a fascinating story by itself.
Hazare and his six younger siblings faced significant hardships. He studied till class seven with the support of a childless aunt, but then started selling flowers to sustain his younger brothers.
During the 1962 Sino-Indian war, he got the opportunity to serve in the Indian Army as driver. When in 1965 Pak-India war, he was deployed at the Khemkaran sector where a Pakistani attack killed all his comrades in his convoy. His near brush with death convinced Hazare that he had been saved for a purpose, which he soon discovered through a booklet titled "Call to the youth for nation building" by Swami Vivekananda in a book stall at the New Delhi railway station. He realised that saints sacrificed their own happiness for others. That he needed to work towards ameliorating the sufferings of the poor. He vowed not to marry to avoid being distracted by a family and set upon his noble task. After voluntary retirement from the army, he started social work from his native village, Ralegan Siddhi, located in drought-prone, rain-shadow zone of Ahmadnagar, which had fallen into an acute state of poverty, deprivation and hopelessness and driven its residents to alcoholism and other moral depravities. Hazare studied the ecological process of water preservation and with the help of volunteers managed to transform his village from total calamitous state into award winning prosperity by utilising the will and resolve of the villagers themselves that made Ralegan Siddhi an oasis of manmade regeneration.
Hazares next major challenge was tackling alcoholism. Appeals through volunteer groups uprooted the menace of alcoholism. He also managed to have the state government modify the Bombay Prohibition Act 1949, and promulgated a ban on the sale of tobacco, paan and bidies in his locality. In 1980, he started the unique system of a Grain Bank, where farmers would donate grain to be borrowed in period of need or drought.
After the successful implementation of dairy projects, education systems and mass marriages for the poor - shunning untouchability - it was now time for him to take up the major challenge of corruption. He started a campaign against it from the Forest Department, and through his canvassing managed to get influential ministers punished. He moved against corrupt leaders although he suffered immensely in his struggle; being incarcerated on trumped up charges, attempts on his life and threats to his being. His one modus operandi has been his fast unto death, which has borne positive results and enlarged his following. He succeeded in getting the Regulation of Transfers and Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act to the institution of the Right of Information Act passed/sanctioned.
On April 5, 2011, he, now commonly known as Anna, went on a fast unto death to exert pressure on the Government of India to enact a strong anti-corruption act as envisaged in the Jan Lokpal Bill - a law to establish a Lokpal (ombudsman) with the power to deal with corruption in public offices. His demands were met through the issuance of a gazette notification of a joint committee to draft an effective bill by August 15, 2011. When the government hedged and jailed him, he started another fast unto death and this time he is joined by most of India.
We in Pakistan are in greater despair than the Indians owing to the apathy, callousness and selfish motives of our political leaders, who are letting the country slide into political anarchy and economic meltdown for their personal interests. We pray that an Anna Hazare will rise from among us to slay our dragons.
The writer is a political and defence analyst.
