Hazare is 'unelected tyrant'; so does the Congress want to go back to the elected tyranny of Indira Gandhi?

Congress has called Anna Hazare, who is leading a completely legitimate protest against corruption, an unelected tyrant! So what does the Congress want? An elected tyrant like Indira Gandhi?
People like Pranab Mukherjee have flourished under the tyrannical regime of Indira Gandhi and it is understandable they want back such regimes.
However, they forget that India of 2011 is not the India of the 1970s. The youth today have access to disruptive technologies that have the entire Middle East in upheaval, they want change, and they want accountability.
Political fossils like Pranab Mukherjee may not understand that but people like Rahul Gandhi may.
If the political class, which everyone knows is corrupt and is in cahoots with the corrupt in plundering India, does not want change, they have lost grip of reality.
The desire for change in India's middle class and youth just needs a spark and playing people like Baba Ramdev against these aspirations will only work for so long.
If India's political rulers, with the arrogance that they have been elected by the people -- a people we know care the least about the principles of democracy when the cast their votes -- think they can suppress the genuine aspirations of the Indian people, God save them!
Anna Hazare and his cause will win, whatever political detritus like Pranab Mukherjee or Digvijay Singh think.

Baba Ramdev breaks protest asana; focus now on Hazare

So the Ramdev drama has ended. Sri Sri Ravishankar and numerous others helped the yoga guru out of the convoluted political pose he got himself into!
Ramdev's jumping into the anti-corruption protest and the drama that followed almost took attention away from this important issue. And the way he conducted his protest showed up his amateurishness as a political leader.
Now that the yoga guru has ended his fast, he should try to stick to what he knows best --  teach yoga -- and let the fight against corruption be led by Anna Hazare.
Also the general public would be interested in all those allegations that flew around about Baba Ramdev's business empire and the content of his popular medications.
Meanwhile, whether the prime minister or certain others officials and ministers are involved in the ambit of the Lok Pal Bill may not be very important for the fight against corruption.
What is more important is that corruption that is eating into every day transactions like cancer be put an end to. That law-abiding citizens should be able to get their work done without worrying about greasing palms.
Every honest Indian is looking to Anna Hazare to see if he can pull this one off. The future of the country depends on this.

Anna Hazare saves India's fight against corruption from Baba Ramdev!

Anna Hazare has saved India! By disawoing Baba Ramdev's call to arms, he has in one stroke saved the struggle against corruption and the non-violent nature of the protest.
Baba Ramdev had some relevance in the fight against corruption as long as he kept within the limits of the law and his methods did not threaten the fabric of the country and society. However, after Ramdev talked about setting up a militia, Anna Hazare wisely  realized the perils of Ramdev's path stayed away from the yoga guru.
The country needs change and an end to corruption. And it is lucky to have someone like Anna Hazare who understands the importance of non-violence to achieve those aims.
Baba Ramdev has marginalized himself and Hazare has saved the anti-corruption struggle from being snuffed out by the guru's looniness.
From here on there is no looking back for the fight against corruption. Anna Hazare has made it into a juggernaut and in the process showed himself to be a statesman par excellence.

The government better act against corruption, or an Indian Spring is not far away!

It is ridiculous to see the levels to which the Congress-led UPA government is going to divert attention away from the core issues raised by Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare.
Not only has the government failed in its duty to govern, but it also showed some of the traits hidden in the Congress's DNA when it used the police to break up a totally democratic protest. A protest against the corruption which is eating into the common man's life and helping fatten the purses of the rich and powerful.
And then the government makes a ruckus about how Sushama Swaraj's jig during the protest in Rajghat will hurt Gandhiji's sentiments! They should be doing what they are supposed to do -- govern and bring accountability  not try to paint protesters' activities in black and white. The real world is a lot more grey!
This government has shown it cannot rule and worse, it is clearly trying to protect the corrupt -- or at least hoping the protests would blow over.
If young protesters aided by cell phones and the Internet can force change the world over, especially in parts of West Asia, India's rulers should well be warned that it can happen in this country too.
This country has a predominantly young population now -- a population which does not care about protecting fossilized social and power structures.
They want change and accountability; trying to protect elitist power structures with a veneer of democracy is not going to help.
India's politicians should see the writing on the wall or an Indian Spring is not too far away.

India's corruption is linked to our democratic sensibilities, or lack of them

Why is corruption thriving in India? Because we, as voters, have no qualms in voting to power the corrupt!
Every election we tend to bring back the same old culprits to power, blithely forgetting all their misdeeds, giving them a second, third, fourth,... chance.
In a democracy the responsibility to elect the right rulers rests with the people. And we as people have thought our responsibility is to elect people from our own castes, creeds, geography, language and such other considerations.
And we tend to think any regime is good as long as it helps us profit at others' expense. Think of it: isn't that corruption in a subtle form?
Isn't the corruption we see at the top levels of our government just a more grosser form of the same evil that lurks in our own minds?
Yes, we need to suffer.
A Baba Ramdev or an Anna Hazare cannot weed out corruption in India. That can be done only when we as a people decide to punish corruption.
But we have shown again and again that public memory is worse than a dog's. And the corrupt have taken heart at that and went about happily deceiving India, and profiting from it.
Or may be we are not ready for democracy! But Plato's Philosopher King is not just around the corner, at our beck and call. We need to make do with this system and for it to succeed we need to take long-term views and act on them.

Baba Ramdev's demands may sound anachronistic, but his cause is very relevant

Some of yoga guru Baba Ramdev's demands might have sounded out of sync with the modern world and bordering on the lunatic. But that does not take away from his cause: crackdown on corruption.
What the government is trying to do is divert attention away from the core issue that Ramdev has raised and drown it in a cacophony about BJP/Sangh Parivar support for the agitation.
Also, there is no doubt that whatever reason the Congress government advances in support of its actions, the crackdown on Baba Ramdev's peaceful protest was completely undemocratic.
So why is the government fearful of the agitation and trying to tarnish Ramdev's reputation? Because it is common knowledge that most of the Indian who have stashed away black money in foreign banks are connected to our political class.
If the details of those accounts are made public many heads will roll and the vast network of corruption will be exposed.
It is worthy to remember that it is these same people who direct state agencies at people to harass them over unpaid taxes and other supposed financial irregularities.
If the details of black money in foreign banks is obtained, it would show how laughable is the system we are in.
The simple fact is this: people like Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare are doing a service to the nation, something our elected political leaders have been trying to torpedo for decades.