Capital city of India Delhi like many other cities witnessed an unprecedented people’s march against corruption when people in thousands marched from Ramlila Grounds to Jantar Mantar on January 30, martyrdom day of Mahatma Gandhi, raising voice to replace sarkari toothless Lokpal Bill by a Janta Lokpal Bill prepared by veteran jurists and legal luminaries in consultation with prominent members of Civil Society. Most important aspect of the march was that people from all walks of life, rich or poor, joined the march voluntarily without being hired as is usually done by political parties.
Notable feature was that prominent personalities serving or retired from official postings including even some Central Information Commissioners also joined the march like commoners without any aim to be media-highlighted or photographed on the dais. It was indeed a tough task to convince fasting veterans in their eighties and nineties to break their fast for giving youngsters some chance at least to put pressure on government to establish a real ant-corruption mechanism including adopting the Janta Lokpal Bill. Unfortunately, India does not have a single political party which can be termed ‘honest’. India does need a Hongkong type revolution of 1970s when people united to induce anti-corruption mechanism which ultimately made their country among top ranking honest countries.
In the present era, it is only seldom that dignitaries like Dr APJ Abdul Kalam known for their effective sincerity and honesty could reach to top position, an aspect which was not liked by any of the political party to give him a repeat for post of President of nation!
Madhu Agrawal
Delhi