Anna Hazare -Story of Army Driver becoming The father of nation

Name : Kisan Bapat Baburao Hazare A.K.A Anna Hazare

EARLY LIFE

Kisan Hazare was born on 15 June 1937 in Bhaaingar, a small village near the city of Hinganghat, in Bombay Province .Kisan's father, Baburao Hazare, worked as an unskilled labourer in Ayurveda Ashram Pharmacy. Kisan's grandfather was working for the army in Bhingar, when he was born. The grandfather died in 1945, but Baburao continued to stay at Bhingar. In 1952, Baburao resigned from his job and returned to his own village, Ralegan Siddhi. Kisan had six younger siblings and the family faced significant hardships. Kisan's childless aunt offered to look after him and his education, and took him to Mumbai. Kisan studied up to the seventh standard in Mumbai and then sought employment, due to the economic situation in his household. He started selling flowers at Dadar to support his family. He soon started his own shop and brought two of his brothers to Bombay.

MILITARY LIFE

His tryst with the army came when many Indian soldiers became martyrs in the Indo-China War of 1962 and the Government of India had appealed to young Indians to join the Indian army. Being passionate about patriotism, he promptly responded to the appeal and joined the Indian Army in 1963. During his 15-year tenure as a soldier, he was posted to several states like Sikkim, Bhutan, Jammu-Kashmir, Assam, Mizoram, Leh and Ladakh and braved challenging weathers.

At times, Hazare used to be frustrated with life and wondered about the very existence of human life. His mind yearned to look out for a solution to this simple and basic question. His frustration reached the peak level and at one particular moment, he also contemplated suicide. For this, he had also penned a two page essay on why he wants to live no more. Fortunately for him, inspiration came from the most unexpected quarters – at the book stall of the railway station of New Delhi, where he was located then. He came across a book of Swami Vivekananda and immediately bought it.He was inspired by Vivekananda’s photograph on the cover. As he started reading the book, he found answers to all his questions, he says. The book revealed to him that the ultimate motive of human life should be service to humanity. Striving for the betterment of common people is equivalent to offering a prayer to the God, he realized.

In the year 1965, Pakistan attacked India and at that time, Hazare was posted at the Khemkaran border. On November 12, 1965, Pakistan launched air attacks on Indian base and all of Hazare’s comrades became martyrs, It was a close shave for Hazare as one bullet had passed by his head. Hazare believes this was the turning point of his life as it meant he had a purpose to life. Anna was greatly influenced by Swami Vivekananda’s teachings. It was at that particular moment that Hazare took an oath to dedicate his life in the service of humanity, at the age of 26. He decided not not to let go of a life time by being involved merely in earning the daily bread for the family. That’s the reason why he pledged to be a bachelor. By then he had completed only three years in the army and so would not be eligible for the pension scheme. In order to be self-sufficient, he continued to be in the army for 12 more years. After that, he opted for voluntary retirement and returned to his native place in Ralegan Siddhi, in the Parner tehsil of Ahmednagar district.

UPROOTING ALCOHOLISM

Anna Hazare recognised that without addressing the menace of alcoholism, no effective and sustainable reform was possible in the village. He organised the youth of the village into an organisation named the Tarun Mandal (Youth Association). Hazare and the youth group decided to take up the issue of alcoholism. At a meeting conducted in the temple, the villagers resolved to close down liquor dens and ban alcohol in the village. Since these resolutions were made in the temple, they became in a sense religious commitments. Over thirty liquor brewing units were closed by their owners voluntarily. Those who did not succumb to social pressure were forced to close down their businesses when the youth group smashed up their liquor dens. The owners could not complain as their businesses were illegal.

When some villagers were found to be drunk they were tied to poles/pillars of the temple and flogged, sometimes personally by Hazare. He justified this harsh punishment by stating in an interview to Reader's Digest in 1986 that “rural India was a harsh society”.

Hazare said, “Doesn’t a mother administer bitter medicines to a sick child when she knows that the medicine can cure her child? The child may not like the medicine, but the mother does it only because she cares for the child. The alcoholics were punished so that their families would not be destroyed.

Hazare appealed to the government of Maharashtra to bring in a law whereby prohibition would come into force in a village if 25% of the women in the village demanded it. In July 2009 the state government issued a government resolution amending the Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949. As per the amendments, if at least 25% of women voters demand liquor prohibition through a written application to the state excise department, voting should be conducted through a secret ballot. If 50% of the voters vote against the sale of liquor, prohibition should be imposed in the village and the sale of liquor should be stopped. Similar action can be taken at the ward level in municipal areas. Another circular was issued making it mandatory to get the sanction of the Grama Sabha for issuing new permits for the sale of liquor. In some instances, when women agitated against the sale of liquor, cases were filed against them. Hazare took up the issue again. In August 2009 the government issued another circular that sought withdrawal of cases against women who sought prohibition of liquor in their villages.

It was decided to ban the sale of tobacco, cigarettes, and beedies in the village. In order to implement this resolution, the youth group performed a unique Holi ceremony twenty two years ago. The festival of Holi is celebrated as a symbolic burning of evil. The youth group brought all the tobacco, cigarettes, and beedies from the shops in the village and burnt them in a ‘Holi’ fire. Tobacco, cigarettes, or beedies are no longer sold.

SOCIAL LIFE

Anna rightly thought that Development is marred by corruption and started a new venture in 1991 called Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Aandolan (BVJA) or public movement against corruption. It was found that some 42 forest officers had duped the state government for crores of rupees through corruption in confederacy. Hazare submitted the evidences to the government but the latter was reluctant to take action against all these officers as one of the ministers of the ruling party was involved in the scam. A distressed Hazare returned the Padmashree Award to the President of India and also returned the Vriksha Mitra Award given by then prime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi.

He further went on an indefinite hunger strike in Alandi on the same issue. Finally, the government woke up from deep slumber and took action against the culprits. Hazare’s sustained campaign on this issue had a great effect - six of the ministers were forced to resign and more than 400 officers from different government offices were sent back to home.

Hazare realized that it was not enough to merely take action against fraudulent ministers or officers but to change the entire system that was studded with loopholes. Hence, he campaigned for the Right to Information Act. The state government turned a blind eye towards the pleas in this regard and so he first agitated in the historical Azad Maidan in Mumbai in the year 1997. To create mass public awareness about RTI amongst the youth, Hazare traveled extensively throughout the state. The government kept promising that RTI Act would be made but never raised this issue in the house or the state assembly. Hazare did not relent – he agitated at least ten times.

.

Finally, again he went on an indefinite hunger strike at Azad Maidan in the last week of July 2003. At last, the President of India signed the draft of the Right to Information Act after his 12-day-long hunger strike and ordered the state government to implement it with effect from 2002. The same draft was considered as the base document for the making of the National Right to Information Act-2005.

After the implementation of the RTI Act-2005, Hazare travelled for more than 12,000 Kms across the state creating awareness about the Act. In the second phase, he interacted with more than one lakh college students and also conducted mass public meetings across 24 districts of the state. The third phase included daily 2-3 public meetings in more than 155 tehsil places. In this massive campaign, posters, banners were displayed and more than one lakh booklets of the provisions of the Act were distributed at a nominal price.

This created enough of awareness and people were educated on the issue of rights of citizens.

Hazare deservedly won the coveted Padmashree and then Padmabhushan. Care International of the USA, Transparency International, Seoul (South Korea) also felicitated him. Apart from this, he received awards worth Rs 25 lakh and donated the entire amount for the Swami Vivekananda Kritadnyata Nidhi (social gratitude fund). Out of the two lakh rupees received from the above amount, mass marriages are carried of at least 25-30 poor couples every year.

That Hazare has given his life for social betterment is reflected thus: ``I do have my home in the village but I have not entered it for the past 35 years. I have implemented schemes costing more than several crores of rupees but I do not have bank balance. Last 12 years I have been working in the field of eradication of corruption. This movement is run entirely by public support without and grants or sponsorships. I appeal for money wherever I go for a public meeting and urge them to contribute generously. The same money I use to carry out my campaigns. The money collected at such public meetings is counted in front of the villagers and my volunteers issue a receipt of the same on the spot.’’

He further states that, ``The movement that we started many years back without a penny in wallet, has spread its wings in all the 33 districts and 252 tehsils of the state. Hence we have been instrumental in offering rights to local bodies like Gramsabha, preventing red-tapism and initiating the law of transfers. This has prevented corruption on a large scale. This has also resulted in offering social justice to the economically backward class. The Union Government keeps on making various schemes for poor people in availing kerosene, LPG and pulses on ration card but the middlemen keep on gulping the subsidies of the same. Our efforts made these necessities available to the poor.’’

The state government promoted opening of cooperative societies, credit societies & urban banks. Believing in the principles of cooperative sector, the utmost lower class of the society invested their savings with such cooperative societies. However, the directors of such societies devoured the money and failed to pay back the basic amount to the members of the societies. This created havoc and people were duped for crores of rupees and did not have money for the marriages of their daughters or for medical treatment. Hazare agitated for over eight months. The result was that more than Rs 125 crore was recovered from defaulters and the members of such societies heaved a sigh of relief. Recovery of around Rs. 400 crores is in the pipeline.

AGAINST d"Rise of Atheism"

Hey Guyzz. i'm back

First of all i'm so sorry i need to make u wait 4 a long time to release my second blog but i m sure i wont make u disappointed .Recently i have read in a newspaper that the number of people who believes that there is 'no god' is increasing day by day(these people are called atheists).I was totally shocked to read the news.They has their first global meeting in melbourne last march and named it"The rise of Atheism".The religious leaders tried to condemn the conference but there was no luck!!!.And that too the conference was attended by famous icons like Richard Dawkins,A. C. Grayling, Catherine Deveny, Taslima Nasrin, Peter singer etc.In ToTal 2,500 atheists attended the conference.

I wander how the world changes so fast, how peoples mentally changes .People can say anything to get famous.See there is a lot of people out there who doesn't believe God or some would say for fashion"i don't believe in god". But inner in their heart,they know some powerful force is there.

These atheists are on public campaigns like lecture tours,book singing events and most of all,they did a bus ad campaign which read "there is probably no god.so stop worrying and enjoy your life".

I thought of doing some research on "how and when the idea of atheism started".It started when the Time magazine carried a cover saying "Is God Dead" in 1966.After that many books released in the west relating to this but Sam Harris 'The End of Faith"(2005) made a huge impact on the people.In the following year,Sam Harris released his second book "Letter to a Christian Nation", Daniel Dennet's"Breaking the Spell:Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" and the most famous one Richard Dawkins" The God Delusion" released.To say about Richard Dawkins, he is a British Biologist.In his book,Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that belief in a personal god qualifies as a delusion, which he defines as a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence. He is sympathetic to Robert Pirsig's observation in Lila that "when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion." In 2007,Christopher Hitchens "God is not Great:How Religion poisons Everything" was considered as the best seller

year.In his book ,Hitchens contends that organised religion is "violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children", and that accordingly it "ought to have a great deal on its conscience." Hitchens supports his position with a mixture of personal stories, documented historical anecdotes and critical analysis of religious texts. His commentary focuses mainly on the Abrahamic religions, although he also touches on other religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism.

They used new networking and social media technologies to spread "Atheism" and started a blog"Pharyngula" by P Z Myers and recently marked one million visitorsnd

In November 2006,the New Atheists organised a conference called "Beyond Belief" to discuss issues raised in the work and second meeting was held in 2007.

the coming together of several streams of events appears to have unleashed a great offensive against god.

When i checked Sam Harris History on the net,it appears his life was not all "good".He was "chucked out" of the stanford university experimening with drugs.I am sorry for using this word in my blog but who the fuck does he thinks he is and he isn't eligible to remark what he says .(sorry sam,i couldn't help myself :P).

Then i went to the history of Richard Dawkins. NOT BAD.Being a Biologist,He made a lot of researches and found out "life evolved on earth not through creation by God".He argues that the concept of god -and hence religion- is the root of evil,and narrates the various acts of violence and misery caused by religious beliefs over the centuries.

well according to me,Even a uneducated person man knows Adam and Eve are the first persons that have lived and even a small child knows how a person is born.so Richard Dawkins,u must first worry about how adam and even is born.Please dont tell me they are through natural selection(:P)

But recently i have read Karen Armstrong's interview.(for ppl who doesn't know her,she is the most profilic and celebrated writers on religion and written over 15 books.She spent 7 yrs a Roman Catholic nun and qrote a famous book"The Case for God".She neither support Atheist group nor the religious.But she has said

"Religion is not supposed to give us answers to matters that we can discover by rational logos,but to help us to live creatively,serenly and kindly with those problems for which there are no easy answers:mortality,cruelty,injustice,the ruthfulness of natural disasters that carry off the guilty with the innocent and the darkness of some aspects of human heart".

I totally agree to her point above.

So let me conclude it.As per my research,The Aethists group just believe on Science and doesn't believe on God(the Supreme Creator).They think because of Big Bang theory,the earth exist.But i know there are millions of people who still believe in god (for some people its powerful force).Atheists just want to enjoy their lives and get a name for themselves.i need people from all over the world who believes in God and not Science to stand with me and fight for the name of God (not religion).He is the supreme creator and he created us .He sacrificed his life for us .So if you need to do something for god,this is the chance.

"Save the world and the People and also our Future Generations"

My god i know its a very long blog.I am sorry .From next time i try to make it short :P. so its 3:30 am here...If i dont get to sleep, i will be sleeping the whole day tomorrow.

Please dont forget to leave comments(both good and bad)

INK

Hey I am back ......As i wrote before about my introduction .....i just though of sharing one thing with you guys.....Now the time is 5:54 am ...yest by this time ,i was watching a strange movie named INK.....I just bought the cd to watch avatar and marine 2(it was 4 in 1 cd)...so by 4 i finished watching all movies and the only thing was left was this movie and i was not feeling sleepy as well ....so i decided to watch this movie....At first , i thought what the fuck the movie was all about ...It was too boring and i couldnt understand anything .....but i kept on watching until the last....I was so pissed off that after the movie , i started to see that movie once again to understand what was it all about....later once i understood what was it all about ,it was damn interesting and i couldnt stop thinking of the movie...the movie was about the good spirits and the bad spirits that will walk with us and how the good spirit struggle so hard to help us from bad spirits......I kept on thinking whether they will be there in real.....but i always believe in good spirits are there always with us ...so if there are good spirits ,ofcourse there will be bad spirits as well .....have u guys ever think of how our death might be or how close it will be !!!!!we never might have thought that ,is it !!!!!!!!!!!But in this ,it shows how the bad spirits can make bad things for you and also shows how they will make people to commit suicide ......So guys ,some people who watch the movie might thing,its a cartoony type of movie,,,but understand the concept......its tym for me to sleep now....its night for me
kibu

A Introduction about me !!!!!!!!

Hi
My name is Kibu Thomas ...This is my first blog !!!!I really wanted to start before a long time but due to some reasons i couldnt ..........But there is one person who really inspired me to start writing blog. Its none other than Indu bhadran ....She is a very good writer and also i am a great fan of her blogs!!!!!!!!

Then about me,i am a simple guy.....i am a software engineer but at the moment i work in technical support in bangalore....I am basically from Trivandrum,kerala....

My hobbies are listening to music(my best friend),reading books,watching movies,playing cricket,basketball etc and iam a professional computer player