NEARLY 80 km from Pune is Ralegan Siddhi village with about 3,000 people. It would have been one among the hundreds of nondescript villages in Parner taluk of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, had it not been for Kisan Baburao Hazare, 71, better known as Anna, or older brother, a title that was appended to his name after he made the village more than just a dot on the map.
Until he was 38, Hazare was just another person who had left Ralegan to make a fortune in the Army. That was when he returned home after his voluntary retirement from the 9 Marathas as a jeep driver. Fifteen years ago, when Frontline asked him what his thoughts were at this stage of his life, he said, I saw there was so much to be done. And so he started with himself. He donated his land and house to the village. His next step was to repair a temple dedicated to the village saint, Yadavbaba.
Hazare now moved in to a little room adjoining it, with only his bedding, a plate, a glass and a small bowl as his possessions. The temple became his home, his headquarters and the point from where he rallied the people of Ralegan.
Ralegan being in a drought-prone region, its farmers were a disenchanted lot. About 1,700 acres of the total 2,000 acres (one acre is 0.4 hectare) of land in the village was arable. But with only about 400 mm of rainfall a year, undulating topography, a deforested landscape, rapidly eroding topsoil and no irrigation, the harvests were poor. People ate just one meal a day. Most families either borrowed grain from neighbouring villages or cash from moneylenders at rates that ensured bondage. Land was mortgaged and people subsisted on the Employment Guarantee Scheme, going far to work on roads, dig wells and break stones.
Beaten down over the decades, they had slowly lapsed into a melancholic life. Tobacco and alcohol addiction and prostitution were rampant. They spent more time brewing illicit liquor than tending to their fields, Hazare told Frontline. In fact, wood stolen from the Yadavbaba temple was used to fire the liquor stills.
Hazare knew his starting point was water. A few village wells still had a good quantity of potable water and they irrigated only 75 to 100 acres.
That was more than 35 years ago.Ralegan has wiped away its old ills. Today water is harvested using simple but highly effective methods. Percolation tanks and check dams have recharged the groundwater and the wells. From 50 acres under cultivation in 1975, almost all arable land is now under cultivation.
The residents also took a vow to banish liquor and tobacco from their lives. One year, during the Holi festival, they bought all the cigarettes and bidis in the village and used them to light the traditional bonfire.The community spirit extended to doing voluntary labour. Every family worked on some project in the village every week. Trees were planted, public buildings repaired, canals dug and wells cleaned. Cooperative societies, self-help groups and youth mandals were formed.
Every family that had surplus grain gave some to the grain bank, which was started in the temple. Any family requiring grain was allowed to take it, but it had to return that with interest. The principle was simple if you pay for it, you value it.
In 1989, Hazare went on a nine-day fast to get regular power supply to farmers in Ahmednagar district. A surge of sympathy for him and the cause followed his hospitalisation, and about 12,000 people staged a roadblock. Though peaceful, the vast numbers of protesters unnerved the authorities, who ordered the police to fire. Four farmers died and many were injured. A rattled State government caved in and provided stable electricity supply and introduced some development schemes for farmers.
In 1991, Hazare exposed corrupt practices in the social forestry programme in the State. Despite documentation, the government was unwilling to take action because of the involvement of a Minister. Again, he fasted for six days until the government agreed to suspend the corrupt officers, eight of whom were from the Indian Forest Service. This marked the beginning of the Brashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan, a movement to eradicate corruption.
In November 1996, he accused Minister of State for Irrigation Mahadev Shivankar of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Minister of State for Agriculture and Water Conservation Shashikant Sutar of the Shiv Sena of unjust and frequent transfer of personnel in their departments and of accumulating vast properties all over the State and not declaring them as assets. Hazare sat on a 14-day fast refusing all solid food until both were divested of their portfolios. The then Chief Minister, Manohar Joshi of the Shiv Sena, accepted the letters of resignation of the two Ministers but did not pass them on to the Governor, stating that a commission of inquiry would decide the fate of the two Ministers. Ultimately, both were stripped of their posts.
Hazare also demanded that the State create a permanent statutory body to look into ministerial corruption, a function usually of the Lok Ayuktas, which did not have much power. The government responded by suggesting a committee comprising Hazare, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and Pramod Mahajan, who at that time was the BJP's general secretary. But Narayan Rane (who was in the Sena before he joined the Congress) questioned Hazare's right to be in the committee. Hazare retaliated by saying Rane had no moral ground to question him since he was an accused in a murder case. To top off the charade, Thackeray stepped in and called Hazare pisale, or mad.
Hazare's demand at that time was actually the beginning of the right to information campaign. At a press conference at that time, he said, My aim is to awaken the people and make them aware of what they can do to fight corruption. Without knowledge this entire crusade will fail. I want people to be aware that they have access to records and files. Every person has the right to information. This is the path to jan shakti [people power]. In 2003 he went on a hunger strike, which was broken on the 12th day after the President of India signed a draft for the Right To Information Act.
In December 1996, Hazare accused the then Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde of the BJP of corrupt practices, which involved the purchase of a flat in Pune for a tamasha artiste. Though the real issue Hazare was trying to highlight was that of benami transactions, the episode got sidetracked into the seamier aspects of Munde's personal relations with the artiste.
In May 1997, Hazare pointed fingers at the Sena's Babanrao Gholap, Cabinet Minister for Social Welfare, for undervaluing land bought in his wife's name, authorising the purchase of powerlooms worth Rs.5 to Rs.6 crore without inviting tenders, and sanctioning ashramshalas (schools in tribal areas) that were not being monitored by the government. An anonymous source had sent all the valid documents to Hazare in the knowledge that the crusading social worker would highlight the corruption. A counter-case of corruption and a defamation case were filed against Hazare. The court ruled against Hazare in the defamation case and asked him to give an undertaking that he would not make such allegations in the future. He refused, saying he preferred punishment and went to jail briefly. Gholap ultimately had to resign.
In 2003, he accused four Ministers of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party of corrupt practices and maladministration. With no action in sight, Hazare went on a fast that lasted nine days. The government ensured that the accused politicians Suresh Jain, Nawab Malik, Padmasinh Patil and Vijaykumar Gavit faced a commission of inquiry. The commission indicted Jain, Malik and Patil and exonerated Gavit. Later, Jain and Malik resigned from their ministerial positions.
In Maharashtra, Hazare is one of the most respected names in rural development. His appeal is his simplicity and personal austerity. His direct line of action touches a chord with people.
It would be incorrect to say that Hazare's actions have always resulted in the righting of wrongs, but there are many success stories. He has drawn to his side government officials such as Arun Bhatia, G.R. Khairnar and Avinash Dharmadhikari, all of whom have fought battles against the system single-handedly. This time, he has given a sense of direction and involvement to younger people.
Lyla BavadamCOMMents
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