What a Slander:

March 26/2012: As if it was not enough that the Indian public was made aware recently that Team Anna’s illustrious Ms. Kiran Bedi’s much touted NGO through which she supposedly does all her ‘social’ work regularly received generous donations from Coca Cola and erstwhile Lehman Brothers, both huge US corporates, and that the other great revolutionary Mr. Arvind Kejriwal’s voluntary organization is funded by the Ford Foundation, now Anna has gone ahead and declared himself a Fakir. Thus, he lays claim to be the self-appointed messiah of the masses.

This reminds us Indians of the Mahatma who was a true messiah but never had any claims about greatness. Refraining from uttering a single word about the atrocities perpetrated against farmers and people of the land in various parts of the country in the name of development or progress, Anna has the audacity to label himself as such. His silence about corporate crimes and constant banter against representatives of the people and thereby our democratic system is deadly to say the least. Demanding for a single law that aims at subverting the democratic process and shift power to a handful of people as if they will be the single window panacea to all evils, Anna shows his superficial approach to the deep rooted problem of corruption.

How can the sorrow of an individual willing to pay bribe for some benefit he wants to derive out of turn be greater than a poor tribal forced to give up his land, which is his only possession, for the benefit of a company? Anna stays mum on such vital issues.Anna has delved into finding solutions for the alcohol problem and has suggested whipping offenders. He should know that violence can only breed and feed violence. Brutally attempting to stop people from drinking or forcing people’s representatives to bow to his wishes and support the Lok Pal Bill in Parliament shows his contorted desire to unleash violence against those who differ.

This is possibly the most anti-democratic and despotic thought process that a public person can express openly.
One can easily dismiss Anna’s tantrums as the reflection of an old man’s frustrations. His last fast gave him a lot of publicity at Delhi. Fortunately for India his second attempt at assassinating democracy at Bombay fizzled out like a wet Diwali bomb. Now comes the clincher. Anna proudly claiming that he is a Fakir while promising people to show his real strength shows that the time has come for him to prove his virtues and defend his image. As rapper Shaggy sang ‘It wasn’t me’, thus denying all charges of misdeeds, Anna also seems cornered with his lies exposed.