Forum flays Anna's campaign

Thrashing Anna Hazare’s campaign against corruption, former chairman of State Commission for Backward Classes Dr C S Dwarakanath said that a civic society movement devoid of representatives from all the sections of the society can not be called as a movement.

He said Anna Hazare’s campaign against corruption was not reliable as the people involved in the campaign including the civic society members themselves are corrupt in one or the other way.

He was speaking at a talk and interaction programme on “Corruption - causes and solution,” jointly organised by Social Justice Forum, Sahamatha Forum and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) in Mangalore on Saturday. Putting forth his views on the kind of fight against corruption taking place in the nation, he said there were three main loopholes in Anna’s campaign.

“According to Dr B R Ambedkar, any movement is a failure if there prevails socio-economic inequality, unconstitutional methods and hero worship. Unfortunately all the three aspects were predominant in the recent campaign against corruption,” he said.

Delineating the same, he said the civic society members including Shanti Bhushan and Prashanth Bhushan, Aravind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi were all from upper castes. There is not even a single minority or backward class representative in the civic society formed by Anna. “Advocate Prashanth Bhushan charges up to Rs 40 lakh for a case from his clients for which he does not offer any receipts. Another civic society member Kejriwal has accepted donation of $ 4,000 million from Ford Foundation. Is it not corruption? What moral right do they all have to be a part of the campaign?” he questioned.

Dwarakanath said that at a time when India is facing multiple number problems including poverty and harassment of Dalits, why not such issues are highlighted? “Fighting for the humanity is of significance than fighting for corruption,” he opined, adding that 11 years of fast by Irom Sharmila in North East should be of more significance compared to the fight against corruption.

Meanwhile, he stressed on bringing corporate bodies, NGOs and religious institutions under the ambit of Jan Lokpal Bill.

Putting forth his point of view, Writer K Phaniraj demanded to bring corporate houses into the clutches of Jan Lokpal Bill. He said that Indian companies are looting and cheating the nation in the form of declaring non-performing assets.

The companies take loan from the banks, but fail to repay them. Yet, the companies are unaffected as the banks declare their surety as non-performing assets, which is nothing but corruption by the corporate houses, he said.

Social activist Prof Rita Noronha, Dr Niketana too spoke on the occasion. The talk was followed by a discussion.