Thursday, April 14, 2011

What we'll have to prove wrong if the Lokpal movement is not to be hijacked by fascists

Guys, we'll have to prove this prediction wrong if we want to show that the Anna Hazare-led struggle wasn't a Hitler-esque trick where fascists grabbed power in the name of stamping out corruption in Germany back in the 1930s. I'm copying this over from a source on a discussion group:

You may then well wonder whether we will soon see another Anna-type "movement" on the subject of refurbishing the governmental draft of a bill designed to eradicate communal mayhems, or an Anna putsch to seek the adoption of the Womens's Reservation Bill, pending in parliament now for aeons. Or to force the government to draft purposive legislations to eradicate female infanticide, atrocities on dalits and adivasis, or to enforce without nonsense the right to food and education. Or how about ensuring clean drinking water, affordable health-care and sanitation, and securing housing, and freedom from police atrocities to some eighty percent of Indians? Or easy and credible access to systems of justice and grievance redressal? Or justice for a Binayak Sen who rots in a Chattisgarh jail on a charge of sedition, and sentenced without a shred of proof for no less than life. Or indeed a "movement" in support of an Irom Sharmila in Manipur who has now entered the eleventh year of her fast (kept forcibly alive on drips by a terrified state) for the withdrawal of the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Not a chance.

It's true that there can be forces out there trying to hijack a movement. But it's also true that the state of technology present today is vastly different than what was present in Germany back then. We must support peer-to-peer and web 2.0 to ensure that no single entity can subvert democracy. Complete transparency wasn't possible back then; it is now and we should push for it as an effective counter to any fascist takeover.

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