Who is Anna Hazare?

The name the world now is starting to recognize.  The man who has brought the Indian Government to its knees in the last 3 days with his anti-corruption movement under the banner of ‘India Against Corruption’.

Kisan Baburao Hazare alias Anna Hazare was born on 15^th June 1937, at Bhingar, near the city of Hinganghat, Maharashtra.  The child of an unskilled labourer Baburao Hazare, he is the oldest of the seven siblings.  His aunt offered to look after him taking him to Mumbai where he studied till 7^th Std.  He left school and started selling flowers on the street of Dadar.  In 1962, he joined the Indian Army as a Driver and was posted at Khem Karan Sector in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War.  After having a brush with near death during the war, he was fascinated by the books and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Vivekanand and Vinoba Bhave,  He took voluntary retirement from the army in 1978 and started his next journey for he service of humanity. 

After retirement from the army, he settled in his native village Ralegan Siddhi, which was at that time facing lots of difficulties and was known to be a poverty stricken, drought-affected village.  Hazare took upon himself to improve the village.  He took various steps of equity, efficiency & sustainability.  Among this was the main step of unrooting alcoholism from the village.  He had to at times punish the drunkards physically by slogging them publicly as punishment.  The other programmes include Grain Bank, Watershed development programme, ways to increase milk production in the village, compulsory educational, removal of untouchability, collective marriages and increase the efficiency of the gram sabha.  This has led to Ralegan Siddhi becoming the role model of villages all over Maharastra and the Country and the name of Anna Hazare came to be known to all.

In 1991, Hazare launched the Bhrastachar Virodhi Jan Aandolan (BVJA) i.e. people’s movement against corruption resulting in the transfer of various corrupt forest officers.

In 1997, Hazare protested against the malpractices in powerlooms purchasing by a social organization and was wrongly sent to jail.  He fought against the offenders and continued to fight against the corrupt political environment which resulted in the resignation of Gholap, one of the Cabinet Minister from the ministry.

Hazare then started his fight against corruption on a larger scale in 2003.  He charged 4 ministers of the then NCP Government in Maharashtra with corruption and for this he sat on a  ‘fast unto death’ in August 2003.  This resulted in a commission being appointed by the Govt. of Maharashtra & then the removal of three of the ministers Nawab Malik, Vijaykumar Gavit & Suresh Jain in 2005.

Due to Anna Hazare’s hunger strike, the Maharashtra Government was forced to enact the Maharashtra Right To Information Act with stronger amendments.  This further led to the RTI Act of the Union Government.

Anna Hazare has also played a major role in the Regulation of Transfers & Prevention of Delay In Discharge of Official Duty Act passed by the Maharashtra Government.  Hazare also tried his best to stop the policy of liquor from food grains. 

AND THEN THE LOKPAL BILL………………………