Anna Hazare, widely known as the last Gandhian, who forced the federal government to agree to introduce stringent anti-graft legislation, has become a rallying point for youths in India.
The 71-year-old former Indian army driver-turned-social reformer’s five-day hunger-strike, at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi galvanized youths across religions.
It also imitated freedom fighter Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who drove the mighty British imperialists out of India.
Hundreds of thousands of people joined Hazare’s crusade. As the wave of support grew into an avalanche through candle-lit rallies in many towns and cities in India and from around the world through social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the April 5-9 fast for an anti-graft law shook the Congress-led federal government and brought it to its knees to concede to the popular demand.
Since then a team of federal ministers and Hazare and his representatives have had two meetings to draft an anti-corruption bill to be introduced in the monsoon session of parliament. Hazare has threatened another hunger-strike if the anti-corruption bill is not passed before Independence Day on August 15.
Hazare would not have evoked such unprecedented public support had it not been for his austere Gandhian lifestyle. The white topi (cap) worn and popularized by Gandhi is back, and has captured the popular imagination of the masses.
Writing about the “Father of the Nation,” Einstein said that “generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this [Gandhi] ever in flesh and blood walked on this earth.”
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