Anna Hazare - A beacon of hope or A mirage of desperation?

In light of recent events, with Anna 'ji' Hazare fasting unto death (I hope not!); I started googling to get a view on what the blogosphere thinks about the God Man.

Following are some of the snippets of the articles which I got from the net and their links have been provided alongside for purview of the complete article.

1) A Request to Anna Hazare from a Corrupt Indian

As a Corrupt Indian, who has got Driving License, Passport, Registered sale deeds, Registered FIRs with police for accident insurance etc, I make this request to Anna Hazare.

Sir, Look around you. Every one around you is corrupt or have been tolerant of corrupton in their own way. Don't fast unto death for creating one more institution, one more policeman. We cannot keep monitoring ourselves. Our institutions need to be transparent and people need to be honest to some extent. That's the only way we can fight corruption. Let's all fight for it.

2) Anna Hazare – An Indian Hitler Or Don Quixote?

If Cervantes, the Spanish author who created Don Quixote four hundred years ago visits India today, he would be amused to see the ruckus being created by Anna Hazare. However, he will be aghast how his character could go out of control and create the current mass hysteria sweeping the Indian continent, unless he digs up why Adolph Hitler could whip up something similar in the pre war Germany.

3) Why Anna Hazare Is Not India’s Arab Spring

If the government gives way on the ambit of the anticorruption bill, chances are Hazare will, too, and his planned hunger strike that is the focal point for the marching thousands will not proceed. It is all significant, to be sure, but these are not demands or differences that are going to change how most people in India are governed, regardless of how it turns out. Whether Hazare or the government prevails, the result should still be a positive for the transparency of Indian democracy though perhaps with a slight difference of degree.

4) Why I’d rather be Anna than Arundhati

There was an article in The Hindu today by Arundhati against the movement for Janlokpal, she’s eloquent as usual, and she misses the point, pretty much as usual. In this article I am trying to talk about the points she raised and hopefully when we are done we might have a broader perspective of this movement than what Arundhati has projected.

Arundhati’s most important gripe seems to be that the people in the movement are raising slogans like – (a) Vande Mataram (b) Bharat Mata ki jai (c) India is Anna, Anna is India (d) Jai Hindi. Would she prefer if they said (a) India Hai Hai (b) Indian govt murdabad (c) Jeeve-jeeve Pakistan, when they come out on the streets to demand that the Indian government creates a better system for our people?

5) Why Some Are Not Anna

If there is anyone in today’s India that would receive more scorn than the pedophile and the baby-murderer, it is he who does not provide the fullest support to Anna Hazare and his Jan Lok Pal campaign. So much as express a smidgen of doubt about the “Second Independence Struggle” and be prepared to be digitally and socially mauled, unfriended, unfollowed, drawn, quartered and subject to death by a thousand cuts. “Congress agent” “Traitor” “Jealous of Anna Hazare’s success” “I cannot believe you are the same person I once respected” and “What have you done for the country? I am bunking work and sending SMS and have you done that?” are just some of the more polite responses you should expect to encounter should you not be a member of “100000 Indians in support of Anna Hazare”. This invective is ironic considering that Team Anna and its supporters, being so zealously possessive of their rights of dissent (and rightfully too), would be expected to give others the right to disagree without making them run the gauntlet.

PS: I will keep on updating this post as and when I get newer ideas or images on the topic.