Hero Hazare

After a 13-day fast that riveted the media and got the government to yield to many of his demands,Anna Hazare has become a case study and inspiration for many movements across India.

Hazare’s support was solicited by Irom Sharmila,fasting for over a decade in Manipur to get the Armed Forces Special Powers Act repealed in the region. Akhil Gogoi,a prominent member of India Against Corruption has held out the promise that Hazare would visit Manipur and throw his support behind the cause. Meanwhile,Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has requested Hazare’s intervention to make sure the recently revealed facts about unmarked graves in Kashmir are fully investigated,and justice is done. In other words,it’s acknowledged that there is no complex,gnarled issue that Hazare cannot cut through. His faith,and his fasts,can move mountains,bring resolution and understanding to Kashmir and the Northeast,and any other worthy cause he sets his mind to. As he threatened when he ended his fast,Hazare might just have set himself up as a permanent conscience of the nation.

Hazare’s campaign was remarkably open-ended,and open to all persuasions. While agitating for a specific version of the Lokpal bill to be legislated,it made a giant rhetorical leap,suggesting that this was the solution,or at least a solid start,to all entrenched corruption. The Ramlila tent made room for all kinds of disaffections with the system,which both enlarged its appeal and made it near-impossible to rationally negotiate with. So it’s little surprise others across the country holding out for a hero should be drawn to him,as iron filings to a magnet. With his simple certainties,his impatience for the government’s guff as well as for nuance,and his readiness to use hunger-strikes as a weapon against the state,Anna Hazare could be a useful model for other aggrieved constituencies. The question is,will such brinkmanship work again,or will its edge be blunted by overuse?