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Who is Anna Hazare?
Kisan Baburao Hazare who was born 15 January 1940 and who is popularly known as Anna Hazare, is an Indian social activist who is especially recognised for his contribution to the development of Ralegan Siddhi, a village in Parner taluka of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India and his efforts for establishing it as a model village, for which he was awarded the Padma Bhushan—the third-highest civilian award—by the government of India in 1992.
After retiring from the army, Hazare returned to Ralegan Siddhi where he undertook many social projects such as the uprooting of alcoholism and the use and sale of tobacco products in the village, a watershed development programme, promotion of dairy products, spreading education, removal of untouchability, promoting collective marriages, amendment of the Gram Sabha Act besides launching anti – corruption protests and the Right to Information movement in Maharashtra. Cause
Hazare, along with the members of the India Against Corruption movement, former Justice of the Supreme Court of India and Lokayukta of Karnataka N. Santosh Hedge and Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court, drafted an alternate bill called the Jan Lokpal Bill (People’s Ombudsman Bill). This bill provides more stringent provisions and wider power to the Lokpal. Hazare began a fast unto death at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to press for the demand to form a joint committee of the representatives of the Government and the civil society to draft a new bill with stronger penal actions and more independence to the Lokpal and Lokayuktas (Ombudsmen in the states), after his demand was rejected by the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh. He stated, “I will fast until the Jan Lokpal Bill is passed.”
Effect
The movement attracted the attention of the media and thousands of supporters and almost 150 people reportedly joined Hazare in his fast. The movement gathered support form India’s youth through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. On the 8th of April 2011, the Government of India accepted all demands of the movement and on the very next day, it issued a notification in the Gazette of India on the formation of a joint committee. The issue of this notification prompted Anna Hazare to end his fast and then set a deadline of the 15th of August 2011 for the passing of the Lokpal Bill in the Indian Parliament.
