{"id":9189,"date":"2011-06-03T01:06:03","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T01:06:03","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-06-03T01:06:03","modified_gmt":"2011-06-03T01:06:03","slug":"With-Yoga-and-Fasting-Graft-Fighters-Shake-India","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=9189","title":{"rendered":"With Yoga and Fasting, Graft Fighters Shake India"},"content":{"rendered":"

For more than 40 years, reformers and other agitators have tried in vain to cleanse India of corruption. They have staged demonstrations, candlelight vigils and protest marches for naught. In Parliament, efforts to create an independent anticorruption agency began in 1968. It still does not exist. Given this legacy of failure, an unexpected development is now stirring up the world\u2019s largest and most raucous democracy: the agitators are on a hot streak. Government ministers are frantically trying to persuade one of India\u2019s most popular gurus to call off a nationwide yoga rally against corruption \u2014 yes, a yoga protest \u2014 and a mass hunger strike, scheduled to begin Saturday. Already, the government has capitulated to the demands of another hunger-striking anticorruption crusader.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

For an Indian public disgusted by worsening corruption, the hunger strikes and yoga sit-ins are spectacles of political theater embroidering what is actually a fight over how to fix the rusted gears of India\u2019s democracy.<\/strong> Reformers want an anticorruption agency with sweeping powers, and the governing Congress Party has promised to propose legislation in the summer session of Parliament. \u201cThis is a real serious breakthrough,\u201d said Sriram Panchu, a lawyer specializing in constitutional law. \u201cThere is a chance of something going through, provided the civil society groups handle it carefully.\u201d Indeed, the reform camp, having shaken the government, is now finding itself under attack, in some instances by natural enemies, in others by natural allies. One issue is the cure itself; even some allies worry that the proposed anticorruption body could become an unchecked superagency. Another complaint is about tactics; critics have accused reformers of conducting \u201cdemocracy by blackmail\u201d \u2014 threatening more hunger strikes unless the government bends to their demands. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf somebody thinks we blackmailed democracy with our fasting, we\u2019ll keep on blackmailing for these things,\u201d countered Anna Hazare, one of the leading figures in the anticorruption movement. \u201cDemocracy is not blackmailed. It is strengthened.\u201d For months, the national coalition government, led by the Congress Party, has been reeling from high-profile corruption scandals, including cases involving the allocation of telecom licenses and the staging of the Commonwealth Games. Almost every day, the India news media is awash with new allegations of corruption, large and small, even as public cynicism is deepened by the failure of the system to hold the political class accountable.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

SOURCE<\/a>
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