The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

last word
ANNA HAZARE
From a fasting old man, a feast of hope
The Lokpal Bill agitation may have brought Anna on the national scene, but fasting and satyagrah have been a way of life for him. Eyes are now set on ‘right to recall’.
By Shiv Kumar

The mandarins of Delhi have finally had a taste of the man who held the fate of successive state governments in Maharashtra in his careworn hands. For more than two decades since he set his eyes beyond his native village of Ralegan Siddhi in the state’s Ahmednagar district, chief ministers have shuddered every time Kisan Bapat Baburao Hazare threatened a hunger strike against corruption.

Fondly called Anna, or elder brother, by his followers, Hazare enjoys enough clout in the state to force bureaucrats and even ministers to wing down to his humble dwelling, lugging bulky files to dispel allegations of corruption. Using the Right to Information Act — which Hazare forced first the Maharashtra government and subsequently the Centre to enact — scores of activists under various organisations promoted by him pore through documents to expose allegations of wrongdoing in high places.

Over the years, it has been taken for granted in Maharashtra that any politician at the receiving end of Hazare faced the exit door. Manohar Joshi of the Shiv Sena, who went on to arrest Hazare, his party-colleague-turned-Congressman Narayan Rane, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan, all of them have seen their political careers slip several notches after coming under the glare of Hazare’s soda-bottle lens.

So it came as little surprise in Mumbai when the Union government passed the Lokpal Bill in both houses of Parliament 10 days after Hazare began yet another hunger strike. Anna himself remained unfazed about the adulation showered on him for his role in arm-twisting the government into passing a legislation kept in the cold storage for more than 40 years.

If the past is anything to go by, the law is only the first step before Anna begins working out its implementation.

“The law will be meaningless unless it is implemented and enforced properly. I will constitute watchdog bodies at all levels... In states, districts everywhere... these bodies having retired judges, state police chiefs and others with impeccable integrity will keep an eye on the implementation of the law. Only then the people will benefit from this law,” Anna told his supporters, who included retired army chief Gen VK Singh and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi.

New team

It is not clear whether the duo will remain with Anna in the journey ahead. Typically, Anna is known to change horses mid-stream. The road to Lokpal was led by Anna’s then lieutenants like Arvind Kejriwal who broke away to form the Aam Aadmi Party. Only Kiran Bedi remains of the old group even as several newcomers have joined the activist’s bandwagon.

Critics of Hazare say the social worker has become a lightning rod for disgruntled elements with political scores to settle. Regional satraps, leaders with strong local bases, politicians who control co-operative societies in Maharashtra have all come under attack from Hazare. In 2003 he took on leaders like the strongman of Jalgaon Sureshdada Jain; Padamsinh Patil, a relative of Sharad Pawar; Nawab Malik; and Vijay Kumar Gavit.

Jain retaliated by going on a hunger strike himself against Hazare but faced severe embarrassment when an inquiry commission set up by the Maharashtra government indicted him for corruption. Like Jain, Malik too had to quit but Padamsinh Patil turned Hazare into a well-known icon in Maharashtra.

After Hazare levelled allegations against Patil, the NCP leader allegedly hired some goons to kill the social worker. However, the hitmen refused to kill Hazare and the contract put out on him had to be withdrawn. Instead, Patil allegedly got his own cousin and political rival Pavanraje Nimbalkar killed to settle political scores after the duo fell out.

The matter came to light three years later in 2009 when the two hitmen alleged confessed before the CBI that they were originally hired to kill Hazare for Rs 25 lakh but were later tasked to kill Nimbalkar. Apparently Nimbalkar had provided the social worker with incriminating documents against Patil.

The past several years have seen Hazare look into the functioning of Maharashtra’s Public Works and Road Transport departments, said to be the most corrupt. Revelations by Hazare that toll contractors were extracting more money from road users than mandated by the contracts have caused violent attacks on toll booths across the state.

The veteran social activist’s decision to take his fight for the office of Lokpal to New Delhi is thus a culmination of a life-long battle against corruption.

Mission recall

The political class which quietly decided to reverse its stand and back the Lokpal Bill may still find that it has only unleashed a genie in the form of Anna Hazare at the national level. While accepting that the Lokpal bill did not fully meet his expectations, Hazare said he was making the compromise as he had other battles to find. The veteran Gandhian, now 76, has indicated that his next battle would be the Right to Recall legislation to empower people to recall lawmakers who do not perform satisfactorily.

Few would have thought that Hazare would come this far when he dropped out of Class 7 due to financial problems. After a number of odd jobs that included peddling flowers outside a temple, Hazare joined the Army where he drove a truck. He is said to have twice survived attacks in the 1965 war.

Convinced that he was divinely ordained to do something in life, Hazare took voluntary retirement from the Army and returned home to his ancestral village Ralegan Siddhi, where rampant poverty and mass alcoholism awaited him.

Showing early signs of his public management skills, Hazare abandoned his house to live in the temple housing the village deity, Yadavbaba, adopting the life of a bachelor. Utilising his retirement benefits, Hazare spruced up the almost abandoned shrine and took up residence in a 100 sq ft room adjoining it. Having won over the villagers, Hazare set about getting them to take up a vow against alcoholism.

Soon, Hazare got working on the rural economy, pushing rainwater harvesting to improve the water table. Afforestation programmes and a ban on open grazing of cattle apart from a population control programme worked wonders for the people of Ralegan Siddhi. Hazare also pushed the villagers into selling their old cattle to butchers, thereby releasing them from the burden of supporting useless beasts.

Other initiatives which followed turned Ralegan Siddhi into one of Maharashtra’s ideal villages where local people did not have to migrate to cities for survival.

Hazare’s efforts did not go unnoticed and he went on to win awards like the Padma Vibhushan and a Padma Bhushan. The accolades only pushed him to go ahead and launch a battle against corruption. His first battle was against the Shiv Sena-BJP government in 1995, which was then in power for only about a year. Hazare’s initial hat-trick in claiming the scalps of three ministers — Shashikant Sutar, Mahadeo Shivankar and Baban Gholap — set the stage for what was to follow.

The institute of Lokpal has a ready role model.

on record
‘Tradition as India’s USP is uninspiring’
Nonika Singh talks to
Navtej Singh Johar
acclaimed Bharatnatyam dancer

Tribune photo: S Chandan

For someone who is constantly trying to break free of conventions and stereotypes, he is remarkably consistent in his ideas and beliefs. There is no dichotomy in what Navtej Singh Johar, one of India’s most acclaimed dancers feels, observes and expresses. An accomplished Bharatnatyam dancer trained at Rukmini Devi Arundale’s Kalashetra and with Leela Samson at Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra, New Delhi, he is not just another Punjabi trained in the demanding dance form. As his creativity stretches boundaries, more pertinently metaphysical, it finds a palpable resonance in several of his dance productions like ‘Dravya Kaya’ and ‘Fana’a: Ranjha Revisited’. While his odyssey is dotted with many achievements such as Charles Wallace Fellowship, being the performance-director of the Commonwealth Parade for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Celebrations at London in 2002, it’s the pursuit of intangible that engages him. Excerpts:

As one of the first Sikh dancers in the country, do you think society has shed its prejudices about male dancers?

Yes, male dancers are becoming more and more acceptable. People are breaking free from the idea of only a female dancer. Women’s emancipation has also freed the female desire to see a dancing male body. I personally have never felt that I am different or an oddity. For me dance is beyond image, idea, race and gender.

Do you agree that your work is often characterised by a distinct language of abstraction?

I believe in the abstract. Art deals with that which is closer to the ‘essence’ and it is that which I am after. I do not know if my work is abstract enough yet, but I am definitely moving towards it. I am not sure if I have a distinct vocabulary as my works vary, but I certainly have a distinct aesthetics.

What has been the trigger for creating dance pieces on national heroes?

In 2004, I was commissioned to make a short dance film on Gandhi and then on Rabindranath Tagore for his birth centenary. I realised there is so little we know about them. Tagore inspired me deeply. To my mind he is the tallest Indian figure since the 19th century. He was not seduced by idealism like the others and retained the sanest voice, deeply political but anti-nationalistic during a time when nationalism was sweeping all over India. I marvel at his clarity. It is a shame that we don’t know enough about these incredibly inspiring people from whom we can learn so much. The idea to bring out the struggle, insight and wisdom of these geniuses inspired me to work on nodal personalities who participated, witnessed and insightfully commented upon the formation of India, a pivotal historical event that no Indian can escape.

What is the status on your piece on Guru Teg Bahadur?

I haven’t started work on it yet. I intend to make this work in Punjab and hope to start it soon.

Is tradition a source of inspiration for your contemporary works?

I would like to make a distinction here. There is tradition that we live, that we are continuously informed by, that flows through the way we live, eat, think, perceive and render the larger reality for ourselves. That is very exciting, unique, rich, poetic and experience-inducing. Then there is the ‘idea of India’ that has been part of the nationalistic project which converts culture and traditions into its USP, uses tradition to bolster the idea as well as the Indian identity. I have serious differences with the latter. My work is entrenched and deeply inspired by the Indian tradition which I love, but I am equally resistant, if not defiant, to the idea of appropriating tradition into the image-making machinery of India.

Is it right to call you a mixture of North and South?

I love and identify with Punjab and Tamil Nadu. I freely draw from them and consider them to be the two bookends of India and its culture; and for me there is continuity between the two, even if there may be differences.

Fana’a is one of your most acclaimed works. What does it represent to you?

It represents my love for Punjab and Tamil Nadu, and is a rebuttal to the idea of low and high culture.

Any concern that is particularly dear to you?

There are a number of things that inspire and agitate me. These include things that I love, and few things that I hate. I love the possibility of creating beauty through movement, poetry, music and design. I love the Indian way of imagining the body as in yoga and ‘tantra’. I love the possibility of entering the spiritual realm through the physical. I am fascinated by the fluid connection between the tangible and the intangible. I love the possibility of bringing about an attitudinal shift in the mind through the use of movement, word, sound and design. On the other hand, I hate the exhibition of culture, more so the cultural police. I abhor artificial binaries between moral and immoral; sacred and profane; modern and traditional. I detest social inequality and resist the use of culture in the building up of national identity.

Has Indian contemporary dance found its idiom?

Dance has traditionally not had an autonomous voice in this country. Today, I see a handful of dancers who are beginning to speak with an independent voice. They are beginning to tell their own story, their own point of view; and that is very encouraging.

Do you still hold the dismal view that Punjabi culture is not going anywhere?

I love Punjab, its ethos and the language. It offers incredible sensitivity, spaciousness, abandon and deep spirituality. However, I feel Punjab has been culturally undermined and intimidated. Punjabis seem to have forgotten that our cultural richness lies in the poetic resonance-filled word. Our literature, poetry, music are unparalleled and deeply insightful. Our cultural richness is of the intangible variety, which makes it richer because it hovers closely to the ‘essence’. The project of Indian image-making has so far privileged tangible culture, which can be showcased and flaunted. India has used culture to flirt with the western world, to seduce it, to impress it with its uniqueness. Punjab does not have too many tangible images to offer. We don’t have an Ajanta or a Konark. But what we can create is an incredible, transformative inner landscape through the power and beauty of our poetry and music. Punjab needs to wake up to its poetic magnitude. But we are bent upon entrenching ourselves in our ostensible cultural bankruptcy by abandoning our language. It is tragic and very disturbing. At this point in history, we are culturally and, therefore, spiritually derailed.

You have collaborated with composers Stephen Rush, Shubha Mudgal and installation artist Sheeba Chachi. How important is this interdisciplinary partnership?

I feel that today, more than ever before, answers lie in interdependence. Classical Indian arts are no longer about externalising the truth of the human condition. They are about conforming to the idea of India and about showcasing India in a flattering light. So, something very vital has become fixed and fossilised between the highly self-conscious display of the ‘self’ and the viewing ‘other’. This equation has to be challenged. There are things about ourselves that we might not be able to break free from as the conditioning may run deep. A creative partner can serve as a sympathetic other to help break the patterns of ‘censored showing’ and ‘passive viewing’.

Where does tradition fit in your attempt to break free and not conform?

Tradition is not fixed, it is fluid. It flows through me, informs me, equips me to handle or negotiate my reality over which I have no control. Tradition does not dictate, it involuntarily runs in my veins, but it does not lay conditions. My resistance is against the idea of tradition obsessed with prescriptions desperately trying to confine its free fluidity within a recognisable definition.

What is the place of yoga in your art?

It plays a central role in my life. It is my guiding spirit. My enquiry into yoga, its history, philosophy plus the practice and teaching of yoga influences my work.

Off the cuff

Whenever someone from the Nehru-Gandhi family is available and willing, he or she is the natural leader of the Congress. The family is the force of unity within the party.

Shashi Tharoor, MoS for education
In his all-out support to Rahul Gandhi

Narendra Modi or whichever Modi, I am here now. I am ready. I will chase away communal forces. My rivals should not make the mistake of writing me off.

Lalu Prasad Yadav, rjd president
After his release on bail

People who clamour for his resignation have neither met him nor the girl. She may be an honest girl. Everything is possible but it is not true that all men speak lies and all women speak the truth.

Ram Jethmalani, former law minister
On harassment charge against Justice Ganguly

Intolerance is violence. And accepted intolerance is violence with the acquiescence of society. There is no point wrapping yourself in a flag when you don't realise that the flag has more than one component.

Vikram Seth, author
Reacting to the SC order on Section 377, IPC

I follow her. She is a great girl. It is amazing how this young woman in India is doing boxing, which is considered an American game. I find her achievements great.

Evander Holyfield, us boxing legend
On Mary Kom during his recent visit to India

When I had told my mother that I wanted to be a writer, she had said, ‘Don’t be silly, go join the Army’. Today things are different, Writing is encouraged.

Ruskin Bond, veteran author
Talking about books and writing