THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA

August 27^th 2011 and August 28^th, 2011 are the two great days, which will be remembered in our history. August 28^th, 2011 was the day when Anna broke his fast after winning for the cause for which he was asking the Indian Parliament for the enactment of a law to deal with corruption very forcefully. On August 27, 2011, Saturday he won!

Anna’s win heralded the beginning of the win over a monster by the name “corruption’ that was devouring much of the excellence of the nation! Anna won for the people of India! Anna made history! Anna was able to maneuver his craft through the rough waters of ‘ego’ of some politicians and leaders of the country; but he knew that he had many friends even outside of his group to assist. And he was right! Otherwise, how could he prolong his tough journey for 13 days (up to Sunday morning, August 28, 2011 for over 290 hours) without food at the age of seventy four? He could wait for long enough time to find the transformation in the mind- set of the majority of powerful people to become real to his wishes.

What happened in the Indian Parliament on the ‘draftLokpalBill2011’ on Saturday August 27, 2011 is the triumph of the power of people over politicians. But the politicians are also people; some of them with great wisdom realized that ‘ego’ hurts everyone howsoever small or big he or she may be. It cannot be true that every politician of any country is corrupt. There are many who indeed, put every materialistic things of gain of their own at stake to serve the people. Many such people and other right-thinking politicians must have realized that Anna was fighting for a right cause. These individuals were trying to find ways to bridge the gap between what could be done within the system and how much the system could be bent to accommodate the cause. Pranab Mukherjee’s assertion that ‘our democracy is powerful enough…..…flexible enough to accommodate different viewpoints……’ in the Parliament on Saturday dated August 27, 2011 was something to listen to and adore. Arun Jaitley’s statement that “People are no longer willing to accept status quo…. The time has come to raise the bar of accountability in India” was the summary of the mood of most Indians. But the best strike came from the Prime Minister at the right moment when he had to overrule some seasoned politicians to make the Parliament to adopt the language ‘ the House agrees in principle’ …..in the final adopted resolution of the Parliament on the matter to accommodate the three last issues that Anna asked to include ; the points of Anna to prevent corruption from the public life were thus included. The LOKPAL BILL 2011 to be enacted is therefore, anticipated to be stronger than its present form. The present draft can be read at http://persmin.gov.in/Lokpal/DraftLokpalBill2011.pdf on the net.

The economy of several large nations is going through severe crisis. The recent market collapse that followed the debt scaffold of some countries is one factor that has been firmly identified. But there is more to it. At least some of the other major ones need raft attention. Many nations have extremely low saving habits (contributing to low generation of money for the future resulting in to low capital formation, thus leading to low national investment); high medical coverage expenses (high insurance cost) with low capacity of the government for reimbursement, thereby increasing the burden on the exchequer, which is anticipated to rise phenomenally in the future years; heavy but avoidable expense on military base that are created at different global locations outside their own country ; heavy consumption of energy, where the per capita consumption is very high, which can be modulated and rationalized; and food habits that depend mainly on meat consumption, thereby decreasing the efficiency of conversion of plant-derived food/ feed for human and animals .

The economic health of the poor and developing countries is also entering in to troubled areas in many ways, which can perhaps be modulated through technological means. Agricultural productivity-increase has to be achieved in every developing country; added to this , there is colossal loss of food grains , distributed through weak logistics due to lack of infrastructure ( inadequate and inefficient storage capacity, poor distribution net work etc.). Loss of large quantities of fruits and fresh vegetables on their way to the consumers is yet another sad story, on which massive improvements are possible, if collectively efforts are put. Serious attempts are to be made with concerted activities and action plans to find cheaper source of energy; how long can poor countries pay for the increased cost of crude, which is rising very fast? Corruption is another monster, which is the root-cause for many evils, has to be has eliminated from public life. Methods for upgrading the sanitation, making available safe drinking water and improving the health of average citizens through sharing of affordable technologies, making available healthy food and better medicines are also equally important. Education is the right of every citizen. Every education has to have standards that catch-up and qualify international standards. There is much that developing nations can do to improve these factors.

Much of the inadequacies are to be fought collectively by the people of different nations. Technologies, human deployment policies and leadership qualities shall be the forerunners in the game .Today’s nations are closely interlinked. Leaders have to modulate the linkages by balancing the greed and exploitation. Every nation can contribute to its development with its own people. For transformation very fast, corruption must be eliminated from the public life. It is not that corrupt nations do not prosper; every nation prospers with time. But nations with strong character with traits that are good for others and for its own would show quicker results, where betterments are diffused more profoundly with extra-evenness among its entire people.

Anna’s steps to tackle corruption are in the right direction therefore. This is the beginning of a new era in our history. This is also reinforcing the belief that methods of non-violence can deliver.