Understandably, the piece of news that has consumed me completely since the Cricket World Cup has been the Anti-Corruption movement. Here are some thoughts that come to my mind (in no particular order).
- At the time of writing this article, 10,36,582 across India people have joined the anti-corruption movement. H.D. Devegowda won the 2009 Elections by a Margin of 2.9L votes from a single constituency(Hassan, Karnataka). The Largest Margin the the 2009 elections was by Anil Basu of CPM by 5.9L votes (Arambagh, West Bengal). Remember these are "margins", not the total number of votes.
- The average age of "civil society" representatives for the Lok Pal bill drafting committee is 65.2 Years (71,86,55,71,43). So much for being the "movement of youth"
- How on earth is the Lok Ayukta of Karnataka (Santosh Hegde) part of "Civil Society"?!
- Everyone who believes "Civil Society" should be a part of law making should realize that Rahul Mahajan is part of the same civil society that Kiran Bedi is.
- The city contacts page on the IAC website is worth visiting. There's Belgaum and there's Belgaum (Karantaka). Interesting!
- We suddenly have a Billion Navjot Sidhu's. Rajdeep Sardesai called Jantar Mantar the "Tahrir Square of India". Pritish Nandy said "If the people unite behind Anna Hazare as they united behind MS Dhoni, the war against corruption will be won". Not to mention half of my FB friends feel "History has been made"
- For the first time in four years, IPL news has taken a back seat in Times of India, NDTV and ibnlive to something more meaningful. Never mind the constantly increasing font size on NDTV's Home page (It's time they hire an engineer who has at-least heard of the term CSS)
- "candle light vigils" and "protest rally's" have gone beyond the biggest cities of India. When was the last time we saw "citizen activism" in Agra and Ghorakpur? Bravo!
- There is hope!
Lastly, I hope everyone who's shouted a slogan, lit a candle or attended a rally in the last fortnight goes out and votes in an election next time they have a chance! While politician bashing is fancy and feels patriotic, the only one's who can really weed out corruption are politicians. Everyone else can at most become Suhel Set; Loud, Annoying and MIA when he has a chance to join the movement. While it is tempting to declare victory, we need to remember (As Anna Hazare says) the battle has only begun.
