This refers to your edit “Steam Anna” (August 17). The “outpourings of public support” don’t make the Hazare-led struggle a “second freedom struggle” since people from the lower strata of society are conspicuously absent from the demonstrations. The upper crust of society is busy making history without the impoverished multitudes anywhere in the picture. The latter appear indifferent to team-Anna’s appeals, while the English-speaking protesters fluently and frenetically provide sound-bytes to TV channels. Clearly, they are under the delusion that worshiping Anna blindly will eradicate corruption.
Pertinent questions like why there were no massive protests when Binayak Sen was arrested and put behind bars; when poor and illiterate women in Andhra Pradesh were made guinea pigs; and when the police opened fire on farmers resisting forcible acquisition of land cannot be left unasked.
The UPA lacks the moral authority to speak against corruption and the political will to work for the poor. The BJP sees these developments as the countdown to mid-term polls. How men of political acumen like Swami Agnivesh, Prashanth Bhushan and Sitaram Yechury can fail to see through the political machinations of reactionary forces surprises and saddens us.
G David Milton, Maruthancode
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