HYDERABAD: On Friday morning, at a meeting on the Telangana agitation on Osmania University campus, the discussion took an Anna Hazare turn when one of the professors addressing the participants mentioned a 'satyagraha' he had undertaken 10 years ago at Nalgonda to draw the attention of the authorities against the fluoride contamination of ground water in the district. The discussion would have possibly ended on a helpless note on how the authorities still haven't woken up to this issue, had it not been for some students who said it was time for a fresh agitation. Professor Keshav Rao Jadhav, who was holding the meeting, attributed Friday's enthusiasm among the students to the Anna movement and not just the ongoing Telangana agitation. "This (the anti-corruption movement) will have a cascading effect," Jadhav says, hoping that this activism could well be the beginning of a non-violent revolution against the many issues that plague cities, people or the system in general.
There is a curious attitudinal change in Hyderabad. Over the last decade or so, the city has lost much in the name of development. It has been robbed of its green cover, its centuries-old rocks have been cut to make way for buildings, government land that belonged to the poor has been auctioned to private parties, water bodies encroached upon, heritage buildings pulled down, parks eaten into and skyscrapers sanctioned in areas where there should be none. On the face of it, each is a different issue, divided by their very nature but it's not hard to find how each of them is rooted in a commercial interest being given importance over the larger interest of the city's environment or beauty and can thus be clubbed under the umbrella curse of corruption. However, these causes have a handful of activists representing them, their numbers only as promising as the government's commitment to see the Jan Lokpal bill through. But in the last four days, the same citizens whose presence had evaded rallies and morchas in the city, have descended in large numbers, many of them young students or professionals, who have made it almost fashionable to raise anti-corruption slogans.City activists say that if the new entrants to activism with their creative energy retain their youthful vigour, a million mutinies can be won against an indifferent administration and the city saved. If they feel strongly about corruption, they would do well by associating themselves with the many issues that are being managed by a handful of activists. The question, however, is would they?
Nobody really wishes to rule out the possibility but note that it would be possible if they taste even a minor victory in the ongoing agitation for the Jan Lokpal bill. "Not many people come out as they have now. There are a lot of new people, many who would sit back and watch but have come out now," says Anil Bairwal, national coordinator of National Election Watch. He says that the ongoing movement has shown that people wish to participate in a democracy. Bairwal says a new set of people will emerge from this movement. But their numbers might possibly be better if they see some success.
That these faces will resurface in other movements as well is also possible because of the extent of networking the last few days have seen among colleges and offices with e-mail and SMS alerts beeping on phones, alerting them on the protest schedule. Y Panasarama Krishna of It's Time To Make A Difference (ITMD), who has been playing a key role in the Anna crusade in Hyderabad says that what the last few days have done is brought many organizations and people together under the India Against Corruption banner. Good networking is keeping the protest well-attended. He agrees that while many might not surface again after this protest is over (speaking from experience of people joining ITMD and then disappearing) he says some might stay. He says that many people do not have a platform and don't know about the groups that exist, which has changed with this agitation.
While those like Prof Keshav Rao Jadhav are optimistic of youthful participation, much like what he saw as member of Jayaprakash Narayan's Total Evolution Committee in 1974-75, others like Bairwal find this participation as one that augurs well for democracy. Others, however, are not so hopeful. Rakesh Batabyal, professor of contemporary history, Jawaharlal Nehru University, says that the democratic space is enlarging all over the world with more people wanting to participate. But he says that the ongoing movement in India mocks at the institution. "It does not unite people in any creative form of expression. There is no socio-economic-cultural programme behind the movement,'' he says, pointing out the difference between the present-day movement and that anchored by Mahatma Gandhi. Those sharing Batabyal's viewpoint wonder whether a movement shaping up on social networking sites have the much-needed foundation needed to take up more social/civic causes. "This kind of movement will end up making people more cynical," Batabyal says.