>
>>
>> http://in.news.yahoo.com/behold-indias-unfolding-democratic-revolution-074216078.html
>>
>> Behold India's unfolding democratic revolution (Comment)
>>
>> By Sudip Mazumdar (13:23)
>> A unique revolution is unfolding across India. No matter what is the
>> immediate outcome of this popular upsurge, triggered by the inspiring
>> determination of a 74-year-old man's refusal to eat food till the first step
>> towards containing the hydra-headed monster of state-encouraged corruption
>> is taken, Anna Hazare's fast has already become an event of great historic
>> proportions.
>>
>> Take a few recent developments in the so-called developed democracies of the
>> West. In the United Kingdom marauding mobs robbed innocent people, burned
>> down neighbourhood shops and houses and attacked police with guns and petrol
>> bombs. In otherwise placid Norway, extreme hate-filled anti-Muslim and
>> anti-immigrant mindset led to the mass carnage of innocent students and
>> bombing of buildings in Oslo. In the preacher of democracy, the United
>> States, a prolonged recession, mounting unemployment and venal partisan
>> politics have led to hardening of anti-immigrant prejudices, instead of a
>> pan-American protest movement. A similar narrow-minded response is on
>> display across crisis-ridden Europe.
>>
>> Now contrast that with India's sweeping mass movement. It is peaceful,
>> non-violent and all-inclusive, propagating a "middle path" shunning the
>> extremism of Maoists on the one hand and rightwing bigotry on the other. We
>> must remember that ordinary Indians have been brutalised for far too long by
>> tyrannical state functionaries ranging from a ruthless policeman to a
>> shameless minister looting public money to a pitiless judge allowing the
>> innocent to rot in prison.
>>
>> And yet, Indians have not swung either to the extreme left or to the extreme
>> right. They have steadfastly remained on the middle path. In a dazzling
>> display of noble human emotions, Indians are helping each other in this mass
>> uprising in a spirit of service and fellow feeling. Look at that family of
>> 40 from Ludhiana distributing food and water at Ramlila grounds and the
>> traders from Shahdara who are running community kitchens to feed people and
>> the grandmother from Kurukshetra who cooks food and brings it to Delhi and
>> shares it with anyone sitting next to her at Ramlila grounds. Such stories
>> abound across the country.
>>
>> There is, as if, a race to do as much as one can to help the fellow human
>> being braving the punishing heat and a callous government apparatus. There
>> was a blind teacher from Delhi University who came with his blind wife so
>> that they could let their one-year-old son see and hear Anna Hazare. There
>> was an 80-year-old ailing professor from Patna who was brought in a
>> wheelchair by his daughter-in-law so that he could be part of this social
>> churning before he dies. Groups of poor homemakers from the suburb of Palwal
>> came every day after finishing their household chores along with babies in
>> their arms. Taxi-drivers skipped their work one evening and brought their
>> taxis in a procession and many gave free rides to fellow protesters.
>> Diasporic Indians also took to streets from Toronto to London and New York
>> to feel emotionally connected with the movement back home.
>>
>> No other popular movement since independence has been able to generate such
>> nationwide enthusiasm in such a grand scale that is totally peaceful and
>> non-violent. Even the "total revolution" call by Jayaprakash Narayan in the
>> seventies evoked a response mainly among the youth and stayed confined to
>> northern and western India and sometimes degenerated into violent outbursts.
>>
>> Cynics and sceptics, unwittingly propping up the indefensible case of an
>> insensitive and insular ruling establishment, have variously tried to run
>> down the uprising by picking up a stray slogan here or an out-of-context
>> comment there or by plainly circulating lies and misinformation. That is why
>> they are as disconnected from the ground reality and popular aspirations as
>> the government and its corrupt minions are.
>>
>> We must celebrate the swelling popular participation in the uprising that
>> has forced the elected representatives to be accountable in an unprecedented
>> way. If the legislators were truly representing the people, they would be
>> milling among the peaceful crowds, and not hide in fear in their
>> well-guarded, fenced and usurped prime real estate.
>>
>> This churning will go toward strengthening democracy and making it more
>> meaningful and relevant. Democracy does not mean voting once in five years
>> and allowing the elected politician to lord over people and to loot public
>> money and resources, secured in comfortable enclaves and protected by phony
>> legalese.
>>
>> It is the criminal masquerading as politician who has degraded parliament
>> and its procedures, not the long suffering Indian people who are out on the
>> street today demanding accountability and transparency - two hallmarks of
>> real democracy. And the citadel of corruption is shaking. It is time to be
>> proud of India's vibrant and exemplary democratic revolution.
>>
>> (24.8.2011 -Sudip Mazumdar is long-time foreign correspondent based in New
>> Delhi and a keen political observer. The views expressed are personal. He
>> can be contacted at sud...@gmail.com)
>>
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