A cursory look at the morning newspapers and you will find the name of Anna Hazare staring at you. If Gandhiji used the weapon of Satyagraha to drive out the British and gain Independence for the country, Anna Hazare has used the weapon of fast unto death to get his demands accepted. This one man has forced the Union Government to accept all demands and issue a notification in the Gazette of India on formation of a joint committee on Jan Lokpal bill on April 9, 2011.

He began a fast for the notification on April 5 and by the evening of April 8 the government finally consented to Anna’s demands. Though there are many troubles on the way, the bill should be ready by June 30, 2011 so as to be presented in the Monsoon Session of the Parliament and passed by August 15, 2011. Currently discussions are on, on who will come under the purview of the Bill.

Anna Hazare says that the real fight begins now and there is a lot of struggle ahead of us in drafting the new legislation. The youth power is more important in getting the Bill passed, says Anna, adding that if the Bill fails to get the assent, he would launch a nation-wide agitation. The great reformer calls it ‘second struggle for independence’. The government finally accepted the formula of a politician Chairman and an activist, nonpolitician Co-Chairman. According to the notification, Pranab Mukherjee is the Chairman of the draft committee, while Shanti Bhushan is the co-chairman.

The Joint Drafting Committee consists of five nominee ministers of the Government of India and five nominees of the civil society. The five nominee Ministers of the Government of India are Pranab Mukherjee, Union Minister of Finance, P. Chidambaram, Union Minister of Home Affairs, M. Veerappa Moily, Union Minister of Law and Justice, Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Human Resource and Development and Minister of  Communication and Information Technology and Salman Khursheed, Union Minister of Water Resources and Minister of Minority Affairs. The five nominees of the civil society are Anna Hazare, N. Santosh Hegde, Shanti Bhushan Senior Advocate, Prashant  Bhushan, Advocate and Arvind Kejriwal. Even though the intricacies of the Bill have to be worked out, Anna Hazare is leading the struggle from the front with many stalwarts and youth supporting him.

One may wonder why Anna launched a campaign against corruption. This states back to 1991, when Anna felt that development was marred by corruption and launched the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Aandolan (BVJA) or public movement against corruption. The movement was launched after some 42 forest officers had duped the state government of crores of rupees through corruption in confederacy. Hazare submitted the evidences to the government but the latter was reluctant to take action against the officers as one of the ministers of the ruling party was involved in the scam.

To make his point clear, an upset Anna returned the Padmashree Award to the President of India and also returned the Vriksha Mitra Award presented by the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. In Alandi, in a bid to force the government to take action, Anna went on an indefinite hunger strike. The government axed six ministers and more than 400 officers from different government offices were sent home. It was during this agitation that Anna realised that the entire system needs to be changed as it had many loopholes and championed for the Right to Information Act. The state government failed to take note of Anna’s campaign and subsequently, in 1997, Anna toured Maharashtra state to create public awareness about RTI. In order to put pressure on the government, in the last week of July 2003, Anna went on an indefinite hunger strike at Azad Maidan, Mumbai, and after 12 days of hunger strike, the President of India signed the draft of the Right to Information Act. The same draft was considered as the base document for making of the National Right to Information Act-2005. Anna Hazare travelled to the interiors of the country to educate the people on their rights. Hazare, who has worked for the uplift of his brethren, says that he has a home in the village but it is more than three decades since he has entered it. He says, he has implemented several schemes costing more than several crores of rupees, but he has no bank balance. Anna says, he appeals for money wherever he goes and the money collected is counted in front of the villagers and a receipt is duly issued. Anna Hazare is of the firm view that the dream of India as a strong nation would not be realised without self-reliant, self-sufficient villages, this could be achieved only through social commitment and involvement of the common man.

Born on January 15, 1940, in Bhingar, a small village near the city of Ahmednagar, in Maharashtra, to Laxmibai Hazare and Baburao Hazare, Anna Hazare was initially named Kisan Baburao Hazare. In 1952, Hazare’s father resigned his job and returned to his village, Ralegan Siddhi. With six younger siblings, Hazare was soon sent into the care of his aunt in Mumbai. However, the economic conditions
at home forced him to look for employment after completing Class VII. He began selling flowers and soon his two brothers joined him.

Inheriting his grandfather’s genes of working in the army, in 1963, Anna Hazare joined the army as a driver after the government asked young men to come forward and enroll with the army. Anna got two lives, firstly during the 1965 Indo- Pakistani War and secondly during the mid 1970s following a car mishap. In the 1965 war, Anna was the only survivor in an exchange of border fire while driving a truck in Khem Karan sector. With seeds of serving the society embedded in him, Anna spent reading the works of Vivekananda, Gandhi, and Vinoba Bhave during his free time. After taking voluntary retirement,Anna Hazare returned his village Ralegan Siddhi in 1975 and launched the Tarun Mandal and Pani Puravatha Mandals for proper distribution of water. He soon persuaded the Maharashtra government to amend the Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949, by which prohibition would come into force in a village if 25% of the women demanded it. With this, his village became totally free of alcohol. Soon the sale of tobacco, cigarettes, and beedies too were banned in the village.

On the advice of Anna Hazare, Ralegan Siddhi villagers got together and constructed a watershed embankment to stop water and allow it to percolate and increase the ground water level to help improve irrigation in the area. With drought looming large in many areas, the Union Government plans to start a training centre in Ralegan Siddhi to understand and implement Anna Hazare’s watershed development model in other villages. Thanks to Anna, the village too boasts of milk production. Prior to 1975, village cows produced 100 litres of milk daily and today it is around 2,500 litres per day.Thakaram Raut, a school teacher in Ralegaon Siddhi says that thanks to Anna’s agitations, they got school, electricity and development schemes for farmers. Currently, Anna Hazare is the country’s face of crusade against corruption. The common man and well-known personalities are supporting him in this fight and many demonstrated their support during his 96-hour fast in April 2011.

AWARDS

2011 – Rabindranath Tagore International Peace Prize, awarded by the Indian Institute of Planning and Management.
2008 – On April 15, 2008 Hazare received the World Bank’s 2008 Jit Gill Memorial Award for Outstanding Public Service:
“Hazare created a thriving model village in Ralegaon Siddhi, in the impoverished Ahmednagar region of Maharashtra state, and championed the right to information and the fight against corruption.”
1992 – Padma Bhushan award.
1990 – Padma Shri award.
1989 – Krishi Bhushana award by Maharashtra Government.
1986 – Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra award.
1986 – Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra award.