The Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Ms. Mayawati
ji has expressed profound grief over the unfortunate death of 41 people in a
tractor-trolley collision that occurred in Nagra area of district Ballia today.
Conveying heartfelt condolences to the family members of the deceased, she
announced Rs. one lakh assistance for the dependent of each deceased. She also announced
Rs. 50,000 assistance for those suffering grievous injuries and Rs. 25,000 assistance
for persons suffering minor injuries. She directed district administration to
provide proper medical treatment to the injured persons free of cost.

BSP was founded to
fight against corruption 

Anna hazare’sissue of corruption is good BSP supports that, but
his method is wrong.(anna ka mudda sahi hai lekin tarika galat hai)-UP CM Bahen
Mayawati Ji. As a social movement, we must counter and organize our people.

Anna’s team outrightly rejected inclusion of NGO’s today in the
lokpal bill.Kejriwal,Sisodia, Kiran Bedi, Sandeep Pandey, AkhilGogai,Swami
Agnivesh & Anna himself all run NGOs. What a honest team? India has around
33 lakh NGOs all owned by corrupt politicians, beaurocrats, Government  Officers and people like Anna. These NGOs
receive around 50,000 crore every year fromIndia and abroad. They received
around 5-6 lakh croresuring last decade. Nobody knows how it was spent. They
are not accountableand answerable eo anybody.-Dr.Rahul

[dhamma_voice]
Ambedkar’s way & Anna Hazare’s methods

sshankar@cmi.ac.in

[http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article2386062.ece

Ambedkar’s way & Anna Hazare’s methods
Sukhadeo Thorat

A group of people, with placards showing Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, staged a
demonstration in Delhi a few days ago against Anna Hazare’s proposals on
the Lokpal and the methods used by his team. More often than not, SC/STs
look with suspicion on any attempt to tamper with the Constitution. Team
Anna has, however, suggested that its Lokpal bill would benefit SC/STs
more than anyone else. This led me to look at Dr. Ambedkar’s position as
compared to the mode of agitation being deployed by Anna Hazare and his
team.

In his last, visionary speech after the submission of the drafted
Constitution on November 25, 1949, Dr. Ambedkar warned of three possible
dangers to the new-born democracy. These related to social and economic
inequalities, the use of unconstitutional methods, and hero-worship.

Dr. Ambedkar first pointed to the contradiction between equality in
politics in the form of one-person-one-vote and the inequalities in social
and economic life. He argued that for political democracy to succeed, it
needed to be founded on the tissues and fibres of social and economic
equality. He warned that we must remove this contradiction at the earliest
possible moment, or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the
structure of political democracy. Although we in India are trying hard to
reduce the vast inequalities that exist, the working of political
democracy is already under heavy stress due to discontent in some parts of
country.

Dr. Ambedkar’s second, and more important, warning in the present context
related to the methods to achieve social and economic objectives. He urged
the people to abandon bloody as well as coercive methods to bring about
change. This means abandoning methods of civil disobedience,
non-cooperation, coercive forms of satyagraha and fast. Referring to the
use of these methods during the British period, Dr. Ambedkar observed:
“When there was no way left for the constitutional methods for achieving
economic and social objectives, there was a great deal of justification
for unconstitutional methods.” But using them since that period, in his
view, was “nothing less than the Grammar of Anarchy.” He advocated that
“the sooner they are abandoned, the better for us as a nation.”

Dr. Ambedkar’s third warning related to “hero worship.” He was immensely
concerned over the political culture of “laying down the liberties at the
feet of great men or to trust them with powers which enable them to
subvert their institutions.” He believed that there is nothing wrong in
being grateful to great men who have rendered life-long services to the
country. But there are limits to gratefulness. No man can be grateful at
the cost of his honour, and no nation can be grateful at the cost of its
liberty. This caution is far more necessary in the case of the people of
India than in the case of any other country, for in India, /bhakti/ , or
what may be called the path of devotion or hero-worship, plays a part in
politics, unequalled in magnitude to the part it plays in the politics of
any other country in the world, argued Dr. Ambedkar. He went on to add
that /bhakti/ or hero-worship in religion may be a road to the salvation
of the soul, but in politics, /bhakti/ or hero-worship is a sure road to
degradation and to eventual dictatorship.

These views of Dr. Ambedkar also evolved through a much deeper commitment
to constitutional methods and their use in the anti-untouchability
movement during the 1920s and the 1930s. The 1920s and the 1930s saw a
series of agitations led by Dr. Ambedkar to get public wells, tanks and
Hindu temples opened to “untouchables.” In the present context, recalling
two such incidents is very relevant, namely, the agitation for access to a
water tank in Mahad, and for entry into the famous Kalaram temple in
Nasik. In both cases, Dr. Ambedkar was up against violent high-caste
Hindus, with the British sitting on the fence.

Dr. Ambedkar started the Mahad agitation in 1927, but the “untouchables”
got access to the tank only in 1937 through a court order. The people of
the high castes had managed a court order to ban the entry of
“untouchables” into the tank on the grounds that it was a private tank.
Dr. Ambedkar accepted the court order and discontinued a second march to
the tank. But he fought through the courts and got justice in 1937, almost
after 10 years. He did this using legal instruments and a peaceful mass
movement, without the coercive means of fasts and hunger strikes.

Similarly, the agitation for entry into the Kalaram temple went on for
four years, from 1930 to 1934. He discontinued the agitation in 1934
following opposition by priests, notwithstanding the support extended by
Gandhiji. But he fought a legal battle, along with a peaceful agitation,
for the next four years, and in 1939 ultimately secured entry to the
temple for “untouchables.”

During the 1920s and the 1930s, Dr. Ambedkar combined mass mobilisation
with legal methods in the anti-untouchability movement, but never allowed
unconstitutional and coercive methods to take hold, despite instances of
violent attack on “untouchables.” Once he came face to face with Gandhiji
with the latter’s fast-unto-death and he had to compromise on the demand
for a separate electorate with what is the present-day political
reservation. Coercive means forced him to surrender the demand for a
separate electorate, the consequences of which are visible today.

Team Anna should realise that the Indian Constitution provides ample
opportunities for advocacy, through discussion and lobbying with
parliamentary Standing Committees, Groups of Ministers, the Ministers
concerned, the Prime Minister, courts, and above all through a peaceful
agitation. With several political parties on their side, the possibility
of reaching a middle ground is high. Experience with constitutional means
shows that civil society activists, through their constant struggles, have
persuaded the two successive United Progressive Alliance governments to
acknowledge several basic rights and convert these into laws. The right to
employment through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act (MGNREGA), the right to information, rights under the Forest Act, the
right to education, and now the right to food, are some of the
revolutionary measures that civil society has been able to accomplish
through constitutional methods. It is an opportunity for Team Anna to use
constitutional methods and enhance the faith of people in these; otherwise
Team Anna will convey the message that only coercive and unconstitutional
methods work.

As Dr. Ambedkar observed, due to certain aspects of Indian culture our
people are highly vulnerable to hero-worship. How a yoga teacher could
convert yoga devotees into religious devotees and finally into political
supporters within a few years’ time is a classic example of what
hero-worship and /bhakti/ can do. Another religious preacher has
threatened that he would use his religious followers for political end
which he thinks does not require discussion with them as they follow him
in whatever he tells them to do.

Anna and his team should recognise that for a new democracy like ours,
which is operating within the framework of undemocratic relations based on
the caste system, constitutional methods and social morality need to be
cultivated and promoted with a purpose. The Lokpal Bill is too important a
piece of legislation to be passed under threat and unreasonable deadlines.
All its aspects need to be discussed with extreme care and with consensus
among all sections. Dalits have begun to express concern about its
implications for them. In a society where the anti-caste spirit and
prejudices are present in abundance, they feel that given its proposed
wide-ranging powers, it may be misused. The Commissioner for Scheduled
Castes reported about 11,469 complaints by SC/ST government employees
during the period from 2004 to 2010 that were linked to caste prejudice.
Several thousand more complaints under the provisions of the Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, such as
giving “false or frivolous information to any public servant and thereby
cause such public servant to use his lawful power to the injury or
annoyance of member of SC/ST” are waiting for justice. Therefore, SC/STs
have begun to seek safeguards against the complaints emanating from caste
prejudices in the Lokpal Bill. I think the government has rightly brought
the bill for an open discussion before the Standing Committee that
comprises MPs from all parties, so that the Bill is discussed by all
sections in a peaceful milieu and not under duress and force.

Anna Hazare knows that the road to social change is a difficult one. He
helped SC/STs in a number of ways, including by repaying loans taken by
SC/STs with contributions from villagers. Yet he could not bring about
fraternity between them — SC/STs continue to stay in segregated localities
in his village. Corruption, like untouchability, is deeply embedded in the
social fabric of our society. Therefore, besides legislation its
eradication requires changes through education and moral regeneration.

/(Sukhadeo Thorat is Professor of Economics, Centre for the Study of
Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University. E-mail:
thoratsukhadeo@yahoo.co.in
thoratsukhadeo@yahoo.co.in>)/

/*Following Dr. Ambedkar’s example, Team Anna should use constitutional
methods and enhance people’s faith in them. Otherwise it will convey the
message that only coercive and unconstitutional methods work.*/humanrightsactivist]
‘Decline’ of Parliament?

VOICE of SARVAJAN

Brahminism is the biggest corruption in this world. Rooting out
brahminism is the only way to end corruption in India.A Brahmin can not fight againstcorruption.Congress,
BJP and Communist parties are all led by upper caste manuvadis. Anti-corruption
movement also led by Brahmin (anna).-KB Vasu

Lokpal bill led by anna hajare who is a member in SONIA’s
advisory taem and fighting against congress is not a drama of 15% people (Upper
castes) against 85% of Indiain the name of cpruptionand black money. Why 15%
were not supported on the same issue to RAMDEV? It means corruption and black
money is not a main issue. Main issue is 
how to change present Constitutionthrough Lokpal Bill- Jai Bheemfrom KB
Vasu-9740722317

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