It may be well known to people connected with India that Anna Hazare and his team started a protest against corruption in India. They like to pass a strong Lokpal bill which will act as best governing organization to stop corruption. There is mass support in India for this cause. How is your reaction to it and do mention if you faced any issue with corruption during visit in India.

This Anti-Corruption movement is a farce!!

There is nothing like non-corruptible, everything has a price.

Love is priceless. For everything else there is mastercard.

Never heard of Anna Hazare in the history of India in the last 60 years and now suddenly him and Baba Ramdev are after corruption.

Someone should tell them "Fast until death" didnot achieve anything for our nation during the freedom struggle.

If they want to achieve "sainthood" they should follow the path of Mother Teressa and if they want to be politicians they should get elected by the public go to the parliament and negotiate.

Just creating nuisance and derailing the country from a growth path will not achieve anti-corruption.

Hey Praveen,
thanks for your thread...
The Indian govt is behaving like Gadaffi and is hell bent on crushing the mass movement in India against corruption led by Anna Hazare.
The International media should strongly condemn the action taken by Indian govt against Anna hazare and thousands of protestors who were peacefully protesting against Corruption.

It is a known fact that the policitians of India are most corrupt and have their money stashed away in tax heaven countries and now a fight by common people to bring back the money is not going well with the govt.

Hope all Indians & here in EF get together in Zurich for mass support for Anna Hazare and condemn the atrocities of useless Congress government.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/i...ow/9620918.cms

http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-F...e1-733774.aspx

Cheers,
Manish.

I am sure there are lots of Indians in Zurich...I am in if we are going to get together to support Anna Hazare

Transformer,
Good that at least now you heard about Anna hazare. Atleast he is speaking for common man and try to google and find more abt him. Ofcourse corruption is part of life for almost everyone in India and we have to deal it in day to day life. Atleast he has made few lakhs if not millions to realise and fight the govt for corruption. He may not be successful - but to some extent it will create awareness(in fact it has created to a very large extent). By making this mass movement, Anna and other leaders like Kiran bedi and Bhusan have already become elected leaders.....so no need for them to negotiate for power.

And if you are talking about growth part - It is corruption which is stoping the growth and not the other way round.

cheers,
manish

Well said Manish. In democratic country getting elected as MP is not everything. People should contribute as Anna did. Today Indian admin system is so corrupt that only powerful and rich people can get elected due to their influence in different mode. Don’t expect a common man can fight in election and win. It is unity of people in the country which make or break.

lrmanish - just to clarify any doubts for you I was born in India and grew up in India. I meant I have read a lot of history (specific to India) and not once in the last 60 years has Anna Hazare appeared anywhere except in the last 6 months.

As you also know the Indian Janta is thankless and merciless in there criticism. If you dont believe me ask our World Cup Winning Cricketers.

Coming back to the point of "common man" which is a very misused word but for the sake of it - the common man has been enjoying the wealth and benefits for Economic Liberalisation since 1991 when Mr. Manmohan Singh opened the economy to Foreign Direct Investment. You, me and a lot of other common people would have been out of jobs and in similar situation to the Arab world today if not for the policies introduced by our current PM and then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh.

All this common man rhetoric and nationalistic romanticism is good for romantics like Anna and Ramdev but will not eradicate corruption.

Also like in business a politician cannot where his heart on his sleeve. Certain things are good if they remain secret and not everyone needs to know everything.

If you had not heard of Anna Hazare till now, could that possibly point to your ignorance ? Anna Hazare has been known in Maharashtra for decades. He is a retired soldier. He completely transformed his village Ralegan-Siddhi after his retirement and has been steadily taking on more and more complex issues confronting Indian society.

In spite of billions of dollars being plundered by the politicians, bureaucrats, greedy businessmen with impunity for decades, the number of persons being held accountable and punished can still be counted on the fingers of one's hand.

The Indians should have tackled this issue of corruption long time ago. Most just accept it is part of their destiny and carry on.There is this one man who is at least trying to do something. Let him.

Trans - India was not champ always - only in 1983 they became champs and then there was a mass following for Cricket in India which is true till date. That was a change. In same way - this movement may and will change to awake people to some extent on corruption and fight it.
We are talking here abt corruption not in terms of just few millions. It is corruption by these politicians and the industries(which they own as benami or are part of owners in big companies) which runs in to thousands of millions of rupees by almost all politicians of India - say Kalmadi, Raja, YSR's Son, DMK regime, Reddy Brothers, BSY, Gandhi parivar, Chidambaram (Vasan grup etc), Sharad pawar etc - these all are in to Rs 10000 crore plus scandalers....

MM Singh did a gr8 job as FM in 1990's which is still appreciated, he was great economist but now he shud move on...he is now just used as a tool...there are no concrete decisions by him in last 2.5 years....he is one among vvery very few politiican who can be respected but losing his respect by still holding the chair....last 1 year the cong has been just trying to cover one scam after other rather than taking any positive decisions...
You should be thankful to atleast few of these people who are trying to get some aspect straight rather than being thankless...as a Indian janta u can try to have a romance for a movement rather than criticising people who are doing atleast something for nation....

cheers,
Manish

Transformer I don't see the point how ecnomic liberalisation justify the corruption in system now. Doing good thing doesn't mean you can do wrong thing later.

I support the cause against Corruption. Any one who is from India, knows that it has been the need of the hour, off lately.

The current movement made one thing very clear that if it's the Qs of eradicating corruption, no political party shows outright support. I like mentioning BJP president's latest quote that he would join if his party is invited .

If only the people in power have been selfless, such movements wouldn't be necessary at all. An article truly said that Anna has united people in a way only cricket does in India!!

I know wiki is not always the best or accurate. Still, this should give you some idea:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Hazare

India only pretends to be a demrocracy. She is a great country if you belong to the right family or the right class otherwise forget it. The sort of class system India has, was fought againstwhen SA had it. alas in India though it has nothing to do with the colour of your skin

No correct at all, not in today's India. Not in the India of the last 20 years at least. Things have changed. More and more people are getting educated (i.e. educating themselves) and pushing themselves up the prosperity ladder. The size of Indian middle class is almost as big as the entire population of the US. Of course there is still a huge number who are poor but the sheer momentum of economic growth is pushing things in the right direction.

If you want to be in politics or may be bureaucracy, your family connections and your "class" might matter. Not otherwise.

You said it youself " the size of Indian middle class" Poor will stay poor whilst the rest tread on them!

Sorry, that was purely from the economic perspective...just to indicate that people are getting out poverty and being able to better their lot in terms of necessities and comforts. Nothing else.

But that won't answer the fact that the middle classes look down on and treat the lower classes like shit!

I am not sure how you could make such a blanket statement about a country as big as India. Admittedly, this does happen, and a little more often in the states which are orthodox and economically poor. However it is definitely not a norm as your sweeping statement implies.

Your yardstick "the middle classes look down on and treat the lower classes like shit!" could easily fit some seemingly very emancipated countries here in Europe as well.

Today is 6th day Anna Hazare is on fast.

10th day of fast, shame on Indian government.

Dear supporters please send petition to prime minister office mentioning strong support to jan lokpal bill email id : pmosb@pmo.nic.in

Regards,
Praveen