A for Anna, B for Baba, C for Camera

This is exactly how the media kills the messenger.The reason Team Anna is trying so hard for this bill is that the system itself is designed to nurture inaction.Knowing is only half the battle,the harder thing is to take action-which is easier said in a country where Satyendra Dubeys disappear and people make the choice of foregoing the day's pay to attend campaigns against reservation or corruption.I agree when you say the mother has to be the one who holds the matchsticks,its for us to realize that the government in India(any government till date) has never been the mother.Corruption was always present.The first step then has to be the establishment of a central government which is open to accepting corruption and holding people to the law-its a shame it takes an old driver with no material possesions to realize this.And yet nobody believes him.

The pressure to change has to come from all sides, just bottom to top alone will not do because the entire Indian community is corrupt. Let us see how many Indians will come forward to stop paying bribes to get their personal things done, starting today?

A very poor observation and analysis of situation by praising 5yrs
old girl for teaching manners to his father on one side and calling
75yrs old Anna who is spearheading war against corruption and teaching
manners of good governance a creation of media on the other
side.Believe me your current analysis of situation is similar to what
you thought of Rajesh Khanna's speech when you were 19yrs
old.Corruption is a hydraheaded monster,a national malaise,AIDS of
society growing under the patronage of vested interests and becoming
more resistant with each passing day.I do not know any institution in
this country which is teaching how to make corruption still we have
veterans like A.Raja.The only way to get rid of it is to have
stringint rather draconian laws to make our country what our
forefather's wished for us.

I am just plain surprised by the logic of coloumnist. Please tell me sir which school teaches you to be corrupt? i would also like to know that. In fact if I remember correctly schools are the palces from where you grow to be most idealistic then you move into college which slowly prepares you for the "actual life" and it is the first place you start encountering corruption. Mind you it is not the college which teaches you to be 'relaistic" or say corrupt but the system which is formed by ordinary people teachers, wardens, helpers who have been part of this system for long and have learned to "survive" in the system and impart same education to the teenagers who are studying there.
So in my opinion, we need to start reforming the system TOP-DOWN instead of bottoms-up
This article seems to be just an article written for the sake of writing and supproting authors own views

The grass-root level training is already in place for the new generation.There is a lot of hope, dont worrry about that. Does this mean we need to let the current offenders go scott-free? Strict laws need to be in place to ensure the guilty should be punished and instill fear in the minds of those who try. The people who fear the new law have now succeded in making Anna & party look like 'Fools' and 'Rebels without a cause' using the same media.Does any politician fast for any reason these days?Leave alone, fasting for slimming down,not that they are all in good shape. For heaven's sake,Anna is 75 years old, We see good intensions in the man. Let him form a party, let him take a shot too. Afterall, We are tired of the ones in power since independence. Im sure my comments wont ge published if i were to go on about these power-hungry politicians. Go ahead Anna, use the media, use the technology to reach out to the millions,spread the good word, spread some light, no harm..SatyamevaJayate

The destiny of a nation is decided in its class rooms.

Bishwanath Ghosh's article is timely and an eye opener. It is true that corruption is a disease and should be addressed from the bottom. The example he gives under the heading 'A journey' is relevant and a lesson to all of us.

Such a poor opinion for an article in Op-Ed!!! What were you thinking
while writing this article? When Anna Hazare started the campaign
against corruption, it was you, the media who made him god. And then
when, you the media lost interest, you took him away from prime time
slot. And that's when people lost interest. Media should be the one
which should work for Anna and against corruption. But in India, we
have media which works for politicians and against public. Media has
failed to do its duty.
And for your example of kids being solution to the problem. Do you
think a kid will understand what her father is doing when he accepts bribe from someone? Do u think her father will tell her that he is taking bribe, that he is working against government. Really a poor example. We, the people need to fight against corruption. But whenever we try to fight against it, we risk our lives. And hence nobody wants to go against officials, police who will change the law and beat the
hell out of you.

Change, if it has to be persistent and perceivable, it has to come from with in and not from outside. What they tried to do, and what they ended up doing, i dont want to say much as i am an Anti Anna campaigner. Governance and politics are always complex and the glitch is always felt only from outside and they have to realize this by now. To me this looks a very balanced article, though the act of small kid in train cannot be compared with change, the younger generation is always sensible, but always there is a threat, this may lead to sensible corruption too. Eradication of corruption is not possible,and the begining of new political party is nothing but, an end to transient spiritual motivation the nation sensed so far.

I do not know what is going on behind the curtains. It may be that Mr.
Hazare have a desire to get national fame ,but it does not mean that
the issue raised by him is worthless. Instead of judging Mr. Hazare
and his team, it will be better that we discuss the worth and
practicality of the prescribed bill and support it on the basis of its
usefulness rather than the moral values of its proposers. However, I
am fully agree with author that mere legislation can not eliminate the
deep routed corruption of our society. Need of the time is to strike
the very basis of corruption and that can be done by reforming the
education system.

This is a such a loosely written let-me-write-for-the-sake-of-submitting-an-article kind of article. Ok we got the point . But what is really the point of author ? You touched little bit of Rajesh Khanna , little bit of hot topic Anna and ofcourse Ramdev and threw in some grains of nation building schools' ideology ( ? ) and Mangalore incident etc etc. In a strange and distant way of irony even you are actually encouraging and writing about the same that you think should be discouraged. Only difference being yours is the printed media. On the whole may be the article will good in a personal blog but the newsworthiness and reason of presenting it in a daily like Hindu is something to ponder upon. Its a bit of haphazardly written mixture of everything.

As per the Author, India should wait for another 30 years so that the current kids who are getting their basics correct in schools will come up with the change thereby the country will be freed from corruption. Does it mean that the current generation of 30+ years was not given proper education? The fact is even if you are given the best education we have no option other than to give bribe when we face the real world. How many times the author would have paid money as bribe in India for making govt officers to deliver their indebted duties? Do you think if you say few words (like the kid in the train) they will change? Only solution is to have strict laws to uproot the corruption as Anna Hazera wants. Dear Author, just becuase you know English, please dont write articles.

Excellent article! very true. All this for the 5 mins of fame. Schools are just one of the places to build the nation. Most important one are the mohters.

Enjoyed reading the article. Very Rightly said,Media esp.Television make
people hero out of nothing. I only wish first media investigate the
actual facts first and then report. Television to get TRP just dont
think or want to know the actual facts,they want to be the first to air
their picture and bytes....guwahati girl molestation report is one of
them.

Great effort by the author and the media to DIVIDE the people of this country acting against
corruption after going through the responses!!!

The Bottom Up approach this guy is talking about is totally rubbish, If Top is saying that India has 5% of fiscal deficit, 10% of inflation (which is really 20-25% for common man considering the food inflation and oil hike), and money is being stolen heavily thanks to corrupt system and tax is being levied on person at the bottom..how come this bottom-up approach will work. By this method person at the bottom is suppose to work hard, pay all the money in taxes still see his family living in ill conditions. Still he has to be as honest and as truthful as Raja Harishchandra. That's the pragmatic solution offered in this article. People at top should be allowed to enjoy the benefit of Corruption until unless they don't get some huge inspiration from bottom while they will be working to kill that inspiration as soon as they find it a threat. This is what this article says.

Yeah Yeah We got it, in the Era of Nehru-Ghandhi Dynasty no one else should be hero and making news in "prime time". It is reserved for them. Nice way of saying it. Yes, a common man may not be knowing anna but the same common man doesn't know baba amte, medha patkar (in North). They might not be knowing even saina nehwal and might be knowing a lot about relatively less talented cricketer though but it doesn't make all these people small and not worth listening. Does it? What baba/anna are saying is that make a system to tackle it. A strong system. That's all. Of course the people who are above system will not like it. Politicians, IAS, Media come into those above system category. People Supported him and then lost hope with the government apathy. The treatment to people in Ramleela ground was shameful!!!

The author of this article tried to address many issues through anna
hazare's movement.First of all he questioned the intention and the
role played by the TV news channels which has been a issue of debate
for the last couple of years.So assessing the role of media through
anna's movement and trying to prove that team anna is nothing but the
creation of TV news channel is really very hard to accept. yes i
observed that team anna got full support of TV news channel and i
think it was the needed at that point of time when opposition party's
were nowhere and TV news channel's anchor[who is also a citizen of
india] were fed up by covering up the plight of common people caused
by the corruption. TV news channels promoted anna hazare movement
against corruption but not as this author claimed without testing
their intention and ability.TV news channel and their anchor seems it
fit to air the anna hazare's fight against corruption.This is what we
expect from free and independent media.

This made a delightful read, Bishwanath!
Loved the wit and level-headedness. I'm so glad to see that it has irked a lot of Team Anna fans.

Team Anna's decision for joining politics indicates the three-The Good,The Bad and the Ugly.
GOOD: In the begining,Team Anna strived hard against corruption.
BAD: Formally, Team Anna formed a citizen's movement in the name
of 'India Against Corruption'. Slowly it turned the Gun
against Congress-led UPA with the blessing of BJP in disguise
It is too BAD; and
UGLY: The IAC movement is going to be converted into political
Party without getting approval of the people who supported
it so far.This flip-flop seems to be UGLY.

Good,the author brought out the hollowness of the Media.
Yes, it was considered Blasphemy to question or evaluate Anna.
In one of the numerous talk shows Anil Dharker questioned the intellectual capabilities of Anna and you should have seen the surprise and anger in Arnab Goswami of Times Now-he offered repeatedly to Anil Dharker ,and very generously at that, the choice to withdraw the "accusation"!!!

The author is very right.Our middle class is pea brained and greedy.It wants corruption to end tomorrow, the lad to earn 6 figure salary after his first day at job on 4 figures.

Ramdev Baba and Annaji capitalised on this weakness.
If they are real babas and sants yhey should have insisted on the very ardous and lengthy process of Nation and Character building.

If you had gone to any of the Anna melas you would have found quite a few making it to the venue by buying tickets at the last moment paying a bribe.

What at this moment the Nation wants is to avoid bribe giving.

Hahahahaha........ Soon people will abandon the print media if torrent
of such articles continues.
I think author is making laughing stock of himself. First premise,
taking Rajesh khanna's statement as block of his argument building
even a fatuous will disagree with that. If someone is writing on such
topics at least he should cerebrate a little before trying to build
arguments.
Second, why he is writing for....to have some space for himself or to
paint himself as INTELLUCTUALS??? Media duty is to report the
happenings in best informed way, let that alone, they are here to
morph opinion. But in real sense they are trying to moderate opinion
as they do so to comments. Even for that great qualities are required
which they definitely lack.

The article is quite an interesting one.Television channels which once
engaged in the promotion of cultural values have now deteriorated to
the level of telecasting outrages against women for increase in their
TRP's.
A code of conduct for the medias is indeed the need of the hour.The
Anna
fever which spread among the Indian youth has now subsided with people
realizing the fact that this movement is not going to produce any
fruitful result.However blaming Anna for the failure of this movement
is not justifiable.In fact many who joined him for fame led to the
failure of this movement.One can never neglect the contributions of
Anna in reconstructing the Ralegan Siddhi village which was plagued by
poverty,discrimination and helplessness.

I am reminded of DMK in 60s and 70s. Beautiful orations with
alliterations ,drama and cinema projections of self-respect movement
,people from poor back-ground taking up leadership etc. made DMK a
party of masses. Educated as well as illiterates lined up to work for
the party ..DMK volunteers ,mostly poor ,spent their money from
drinking tea to arranging public meetings. People voted for DMK and
Congress was wiped out of TamilNadu though people now realizes how
Kamaraj was instrumental for introducing mid-day meals for children in
schools , opening of schools in remote villages to ,good roads and
also industries that flourished during Kamaraj regime. But now we
witness a DMK for the rich ,by the rich and of the rich . Also DMK
leader has changed the party from a party of cadres to party of his
family men. I only hope that Anna's vision should not end up like that
of DMK . Tamils now look out for alternative but without fruits.Pray
Anna [ who is not Gandhi] may not fall on the trap.

I totally agree that 'the media has to take much of the responsibility
for transforming ordinary people into the nations's new saviours'. But
what do you have to say about the role of the media in projecting an
ordinary MP as the future prime minister of India? But for the media's
servile attitude towards the ruling dynasty, such blatant deification
of a 40 year old young non-achiever in any field, would not have been
possible. Before you dismiss me as a BJP loyalist or a 'communal
minded' person out to discredit the 'secular Congress', let me make it
clear that I am no BJP supporter; I am just an ordinary citizen
reading the newspapers everyday and who fails to understand why our
journalists cannot call a spade a spade;why they can't take a stand on
issues in an impartial, non-partisan manner. I would have greatly
appreciated your piece had it mentioned even in passing, the role of
the media in projecting

Is there any new idea in this article? No solution offered.If the author suggests that "national
building through schools" is the panacea for the problem of corruption he is as naive and as
arrogant as those who profess that a strong lokpal can wipe out this menace.To tackle
corruption one need to take all the approaches, Top-down,Bottom-up,Side-to-side,Back to
back.why do we need judiciary and the police,if we can make our next generation school
going kids to be honest and incorruptible.If the media believes that this movement is the
making of it's own,as author would have believe,it is a mistake, Media can play catalyst in
veering the public thinking in the right direction but cannot build a movement of this scale on
its own.May be after it turned out the match making of a B grade film star into a national
swayamvar,which is certainly the creation of media,the author confuses about the power of
it.People flocked to them to A & B,being fully aware of their limitations and machinations

And now there would be yet another political party with the top brass being alleged of having involved in trying to escape the law of the land through their NGO's aka "money spinning machines"

I don't know who you (the author) are and what you know about ground
realities, but i completely disagree with your opinion. this piece of
op-ed reflects an ostrich like behavior, where you see just what you
chose to see. If it was so easy to grab TV limelight and be star as you
think Anna and Baba has done, there would not have been dearth of such
people!

Dear Sir,
You have said 'Anna is a house hold name'. Totally wrong.Even now
crores in Tamilnadu alone don't know who the Anna is. we know only
our former CM as anna. What to do? Can we make Biswanath ji the
neta? Before reading this enlightened article I'm not aware of this
great intellectual.Even within the family none accepts one or the
other as superior. Who will accept whom as great? You please tell us
a person who will be accepted by the entire 120 crore people.

Do you think the children are corrupt and so we have to teach them?
You want the operation on a child when the disease is with the
parent? Teachers do teach all values. But are these kids in a
position to block their parents from taking /giving bribes, smoking
and drinking? The media scrolls a warning against smoking or
drinking? Who can block a parent from smoking/drinking from his
house?
Congratulations for bringing down the morale of some strong
individuals who took up a vital issue.

Poor stuff. The author probably does not understand political process which is
intrinsically related to media. How would he then explain JP movement or for that
matter Gandhi's popularity. Very poor understanding of a complex process which
is called politics which consist of several variables including interest articulation,
interest aggregation and role of political party and civil society. If political class's
failure has brought in civil society and common man on streets. It does not matter
whether they are laid my Anna or Ramdev. It is also a wrong prescription to say
that corruption should be eliminated by a bottom-up approach. Actually most of
the serious studies say that we need to create institutions which make difficult for
people at the high office to involve in the corrupt practices. Common people are
corrupt as there is no disincentive against it. It is absurd to say that we need to
wait until everybody becomes honest and so we need a moral education rather
than institution

Dear Gosh,

You are wrong in your assumption. Corruption flows from the top, period.
Addressing the malady at school is fine. But, the children have almost
NONE to look up to, practically!

Once I traveled by Car from Chennai to Trichy and paid "toll" at 7 points
totaling some Rs.300. As a honest citizen I pay ALL my taxes, yet I'm
forced to spend "to use the road"! Irony here is I'm given only hobson's
choice! THERE IS NO OTHER TOLL-FREE ROAD AVAILABLE FOR ME to reach Trichy!
I'm throttled to cough-up the fee! Much like this, in any Govt.
transaction, you're left with no choice really, but to bribe and get
things done. Govt. servants have fine tuned the system to effectively
eliminate any choice for you.

Who should be corrected first, Class-4 employee? He only gets encouraged
by Class-3 taking share, Class-3 from Class-2 ... and finally Cabinet
Ministers get encouragement from our "honest" PM looking the other way
when massive corruption happens!

Corruption flows from top, period.

It will be foolish to undermine the importance of media. Media is the middle man
between the producers and the consumers of important issues. Consumers and
producers both always being ordinary, it is media who makes heros and villians out
of ordinaries. However, It will be foolish to consider 'biased media' doing any good to
the nation. The kind of coverage media especially 'The Hindu' gave to the recent fast
at Jantar Mantar clearly speaks volumes about biases in the Media Houses. 'The
Hindu' has also started to disappoint me now.

When a people rise in revolt they do not need any media. There are umpteen examples. Just one will suffice. During emergency the entire media was shackled and yet there was a sponteneous revolt and people brought down the author of that black chapter in the history of India. I agree that we must inculcate values in schools and homes. But how will it come about unless we change the system which has led to un-ending corruption ? Anna wants us to rise and change the system and ensure that the corrupt are ruthlessly punished. He is simply ringing a warning bell. Shall we hear it ?

While we are talking about bottom up or bottom down approach, what we
are forgetting is the most critical element, basically the root of the
problem and solution of the same : the survival instinct. What I am
suggesting is that while standing in a queue for a train ticket in
london is not that much of an issue as much it is to get a ticket at
the New Delhi Railway station. Anyone who has been there will know
how agonizing and frustrating this mundane issue can be. If given a
choice I will certainly give a man some extra money to get me the
ticket ahead of other in the queue.My education may try to fetter me
but my "survival instinct" will break all those chains and will prompt
me to go for it. But if I am told that a vigilante/police is keeping a
check on such practices then the same "survival instinct" will
dissuade me from such an act. In a country of a billion people ,scarce
resource and infrastructure are much more at the heart of corruption
than just education or law

The author wants a top-down approach where the only the top-read mother child pair--has all the power and all the media propaganda working for them. Otherwise why would these centers of power do not see fit to talk to media about the nation's ills and there solutions? Instead we have sleek photogrpahs of them flashed on the front page evey time there is lull in the media. Oh yes the paid news is there and the constant chant of "but all poilitical parties are the same when it comes to corruption".

Sir, i feel you yourself is confused..... just the way the teacher told the girl not to throw wastage here and there, same teaching is what we are getting from ANNA ji.... he made me realise the people power and i was never so aware that corruption is such a severe problem. Moreover, our typical he changed our typical indian mentality that let it happen what is happening, we alone cant do anything. And ya, there will always be critics like you to put an obstacle in any good that can happen to our country.

Tough I tried hard to accept, it just doesn't make sense. Yes, we need to make changes from
bottom. That alone is not enough. We need to bring the change within the political system.

In your story, where the girl stops the father from doing the wrong thing and the father embarrassed but smiling proudly, just image a case where the father is embarrassed and goes
ahead with doing the same wrong thing. The reality is the father didn't like the girl telling the
what is going wrong. That is the state of our country.

Utopia is a nice dream. Instead of begging for someone to change, it better to bring the change
through us. Like what Team Anna has decided. We need more such Team Anna's thought out
the country. Long gone are the times where people fall for fancy speeches. It is time we act
than magically expect a change from our indifferent leaders.

There is nothing wrong if Baba wants to protest as a citizen he has that right. Just because he is a yogi doesnt mean he should forget his duties as an Indian. Same for Anna, even if he whips people in Ralegaon, it doesnt mean he cant fight corruption. Those issues are independent. I wonder why the media cannot understand this simple issue.

we are not haunted by single problem,single person and single day.When there is a demon of that much size and that many forms we have to use all our efforts in every possible way to kill it. we have to use both top down and bottom up approach.one approach may have more merit but when we utilized all then only real Nation building process starts.
Some friends commented in a negative way(blocking the articles of author extent) ,if they really want to help country they should first learn tolerance to others views.

An article that totally makes sense. Anybody with a head on their
shoulders (and knowledge on how to use it) will tell you that
corruption can only be rooted out from the bottom. Empowering the
people to make use of existing legislation, the media and the internet
to name and shame corrupt officials is the way forward. No fasts or
protests or behemoth legislation can do that for you.

Reading the article and many of its comments, I am so pleased. We do
have so many great citizens brewing in this country!

In this article , the author actually seems to be making TV news media a hero, and trying to project as if nobody can be famous without being telecast in these news channels. Alas! He is absolutely wrong . This is not these cannels that are instrumental in making such movements and their leaders famous but rampant corruption which has trapped ordianary citizens and pushing them into a corner while powerful elite (politicians , babus and media) are making merry. TV Media must remember that people like Gandhi , J P Narayan conducted huge movements and achieved national fame even before TV News was born in India ( I don't count DoorDarshan as TV news channel).

I am surprised to see such vague articles in Hindu . No media can build or demolish popular support . As Biswanath has mentioned , Anna was no one once and no media bothered him too . But only when the country saw a popular support during his first fasting , then the media turned the light on him. The masses of this country are cleverer than the media men and the so called intellectuals. There were periods when we had only print media . Then too people came together to throw away the dictatorship of Indira and many other politicians then and there . Common man continuously keep watching the happenings in this country and keep making his opinions . When right things like the JP movement and Anna movement come up he comes out and support . The media comes only after a movement gains public support. For example Ramdev also gets media attention .But his popularity is nowhere compared to Anna. When Anna was arrested , lakhs came out in protest .But this was not so with Ramdev

I would disagree with the author partially..i agree that the new
generation has to be taken care of...but how far we can insulate them
when the system is malign...For that reason Anna's campaign is doing
that bit that it can do and we should appreciate it..I felt the author
has very high expectations from Team Anna which is why he feels
disappointed..I never believed that Anna would change the nature of
India with that campaign, but it is a baby step in that direction
which needs to be appreciated..I agree they have an extreme tone and
color to their campaign ...but you cannot blame them for that..because
the nature of the opposition that they face is also extreme and
arrogant.Team Annas extremism is just a reflection of what they have
been facing....And I do not understand why the author suspects Anna is
doing this for media publicity....may be BABA RAMDEV IS ...OR THE
OTHER MEMBERS OF TEAM aNNA COULD BE..BUT WHAT THIS 75 YR OLD MAN IS
GOING TO ACHIEVE FROM IT

Anna's method may be different bit out of way to get things done, but his intention
to get this corrupt system clean, should not be ridiculed. Nethaji and Mahatma may
have different approaches, but both had the same intention, independence to India.
Likewise who ever thinks good for this country and its people are heroes. If you have
a solution for these corrupt practices which you think is more effective do it right
now or dont preach what others should do....

The media has to take much of the responsibility for transforming two ordinary people into the nation’s new ‘saviours’

I have the same question to the above journalist bishwanth
what will happen if there are no readers for your article.
Always rememmber what goes round come around.

It sickens me to the core to see what the media is doing to the country. We have all seen that the govt. does not want to bring about the changes that can jeopardies their looting and their absolute power over the country, and none of us have the guts to do anything about it except to sit in our bedrooms and comment about it. Here is one person who has taken the mantle to do something for all of us and yet people do nothing except to jab at him. you say to bring about change at the grass root level. how many of you have even gone on to the protests of Anna Hazzare. what we actually need is an electoral reform as the govt has infinite patience to sit through any sort of protest because it is the people that are suffering, it is the people that are on the streets facing the heat and discomfort, it is the activists that are hungry; these politicians are just sitting comfortably in their homes laughing at the foolishness of all of us who have brought them to power.

A totally absurd and lacking in fact, that is this article seems to be. We actually have moral studies as a subject in our curriculum Mr. Ghosh. But you need the cement to bind them and that is legislation. I don't if I am write or wrong but every bengali I came across on blogs and posts are very critical of IAC's movement.May be because team Anna is blaming their poster boys Mukherjee and Chidambaram. But the need of the hour is we need a strong law because no matter what you say Indian mentality is to slack up and they can only obey law if some is standing on their head with a "Danda".

no media covered baba's address to almost 12 crore people...!!! he traveled the country twice....meeting millions...no big papers and no news media ever covered it...shame...but the bad has reached to it peak now...its time it come down...just wait and watch...n btw anna is totally 'made by media', so therefore it can also destroy it at its will...

Thanks for nice article. I also do believe that a bill is not going to make our country free from corruption because the people who as to act on bill are corrupt at present. If law could have made the country corruption free, we would have free from it by now because we have police, income tax department, sale tax department, etc. It the the people who will enforce the law should be corruption free. And for that we have to start from the beginning.

I am not amused. This article itself is grossly biased against 'team
anna', something coined by the media itself. Not sure why media is no
more interested in Anna's efforts now?

You mention that 'aam aadmi' forget Anna because they have bigger day-
today issues. Isn't it the media who lose interest in important things
after the initial hype?

Also, 'catch them young' is what you have to say to eradicate
corruption. Easier said than done. BTW, we all know that a large
population don't get even primary education

I have attended a weeklong Yog Sibir of Ram Devji,several years ago.
Since then,I am practising. I assure you that the Pranayama plus
Yogasana scheme he prescribes DOES WORK for many of the so called
incurable diseases.It is excellent for Health.

Second aspect is - His Sibirs are attended by ALL RELIGIOUS SECTIONS.
And,they are extremely satisfied with his methods, his secular mindset
- and his Nationalist fervour.Many YouTube videos are there now
confirming this elequently.

TV or no TV,Ram Devji would continue to do what he is doing. This is
my strong belief. He is definitely not doing it for personal Benefit.
People who have not attended his Yog Trainings and not practiced them
- can never realize the immense benefits of his teachings and his
mindset.

I like the example from RK's mouth. Sounds so original. About Anna -
He is Good and fights for a cause. But, other Team Anna Members may be
GOOD but personally ambitious. I doubt their ability to Get along with
others.

What is the author's point ?
Statements like "They should know that corruption is a malaise that
cannot be cured overnight — certainly not from the top. Corruption is
a disease that needs to be addressed from the bottom." don't mean
anything. This might be the author's view, but then somebody else will
diagree with it totally. The point is that you have to start
somewhere. Anna Hazare started what he thought was correct. I and you
might disagree with his method, but there are a thousand more who will
disgree with us. So, should we stop trying ? No. We start somewhere,
and then evolve our methods. That's what Anna did. And to say that
Anna did it for media glare is wrong. Did he transform his village for
media fame ? Did he bring prosperity to his village so that he could
one day be famous ? I don't think so. Ramdev, maybe, is being a
nuisance, but I find it hard to say about Anna given his past sterling
services to community.

I Disagree
If media and media itself is in the illusion that they can make and
break the movement then

1. perhaps no one from villages/rural area would have joined.

2. someone from Ekta Kapoor's series would have been successful in
politics... Smriti Irani was the one who tried from BJP(once played
famous character, Tulsi ). She failed in her very first election.

3. Even first movement would have brought the correct Bill.

what the Author believe is utopian and not practical at all. When the
kid, used in the example, will grow up and discover the helplessness
of right people, may be then intent of the movement will be
understood.

This is the one of the fantastic article i have read. It is true that no legislation can remove corruption. It can only punish the culprits. so corruption should be removed from grassroot level. like the small girl in the story, eyery indian should aware of their responsibility and raise voice against corruption.anna hazare is the real hero. He makes us aware about lokpalpal bill and tells us true neaning of it. so we all have to wake up.

This is not a great observation by the author. He sounds totally against Anna and his team members, this is actually biased view against them. Actually team Anna and the members were trying their heart out for the betterment of the country and their people but the bureaucrats,politicians and also the media persons have'nt supported them.

Thanks Mr.Ghosh for the interesting article. TV is all about the delusional TRP. Public cause, at times and by chance happens as a by-product.

Typical middle-class solution, offered by the likes of Tamil film
director (Watch his 'Anniyan'). Corruption is facilitated by the
economic system - the nexus of politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen.
How can you root out scams like Bofors, 2G if you start from the
grassroots. Ordinary people at the grassroots are helpless and your
article blames the victims.

Wall-to-wall television coverage elevated both of them in the initial stages, covering up the inherent flaws. While the aim is laudable, the methods are questionable. The emphasis should have been on questioning the government as to why existing laws were not being implemented in letter and spirit to check corruption. Seeing the groundswell of popular support, they became arrogant, unwilling to listen and setting impossible deadlines. Political parties across the spectrum realised the unworkable nature of the lokpal and rightly put it in cold storage. If you are unwilling to accept the power of Parliament that is chosen by the people, you are only an anarchist.

Why waste so much space on self-explanatory anecdotes that almost
everybody has these days in their information spurred thoughtful
moments. Starting at the grassroots levels is all right..its the kind
of thing that we all say at the end of frustrated discussions on
politics..What we really need is a legislation and a group of normal
people decided to take things in their own hands for making the
legislation come true. That is praise-worthy and can we please stop
disparaging their efforts..??

Heartening to see this mature and wise thought on corruption. "A piece
of legislation can only punish the guilty — if at all one is found
guilty — but if you are really striving for a corruption-free society,
you’ll have to begin at the grassroots level. A place where there are
no television cameras." If only the anti-corruption enthisiasts
understood the wisdom of this observation!

Very rightly said...
"They should know that corruption is a malaise that cannot be cured overnight — certainly not from the top. Corruption is a disease that needs to be addressed from the bottom."

Ghosh babu has written an awesome piece here...DONT LISTEN TO THESE
BLIND SUPPORTERS OF ABC..their new Anti corruption party will soon be
standing in a political dias supporting an NDA coalition or some other
coalition in 2014..I never trusted these Babas...they dont have faith
in gods...coz they themselves are self made gods..how can one trust
them...and abt that bill..lokpal bill will be made sooner or
later..but what will a ramdev do with their positions after 2014 once
bill is passed???Anyways great writing...whatever you wrote was also
said by DR.APJ KALAM..Kudos

This man Anna & swami have come out in open their real intention is exposed they want to fight elections & fool the people of India by coming into dirty politics. Anna you cannot fool the INDIAN JANTA.
JAI HIND

It is good that school is the right place to start but please tell this
child that he/she got the admission in the school after payment of
donation for which no written receipt was issued.

Hi Mr Ghosh ! Well said . But what if the Child learns about
corruption from the school days and wants to be corrupt once they
happen to enter politics or government service . What if they first
try to seek bribes in small measures on trial basis and once they
learn the trick , then become the wizards by finding various ways and
means of seeking and getting bribes .

The best way may be to teach children , say - from day one in school
how not to receive or give bribes . A suitable syllabus on corruption
in moral science subject may have to be devised . But moral science as
a subject has vanished from schools ages ago . It is a sort of vicious
circle .

I have read this article with great amusement. After all, once you are
done with despair, you have to be amused to bear the same absence of
logic that you run into day after day.

You have a complex problem that has many interrelated causes and needs
to be addressed at various levels. Corruption is such a complex
problem. Greed causes corruption. Lack of civic sense causes
corruption. Lack of checks and balances in governance causes
corruption. Lack of morals among population causes corruption. Lack
of deterrence in terms of strong anti-corruption laws causes
corruption. Eliminating these underlying causes takes varying degrees
of effort and varying lengths of time. Some of them take a long time
(a whole generation?) – e.g. improving the morals of an entire nation.
Correcting others yields significant results in a relatively short
amount of time.

DEAR BISHWANATH,
Really beautifully written, was very nice to read.
Just wondering how many times we ask question and remembered/hang on
to them when, common wealth game's race track contract was given to a
cloth dealers in delhi,when odissa tribles didn't get compensation for
28 years for there land, when a Big B school drop out tour ruler india
and talk about educating indian youth in politics ..............we
dont ask any thing, BUT JUST FOR THE SAKE OF SOUNDING DIFFERENT OR
"GRABBING ATTENTION"...WE GET INTO THE WAY OF good things TOO
............i felt sorry for this plight of intellectual india.??????

Bishwanath Ghosh: "nobody knew Anna , before he came on TV". Well he is well known in Maharashtra for going on fast against the then Govt. of Maharashtra for including a tainted person as cabinet minister and he got him evicted. He did this for society not for himself. The good work he has rendered in his remote ,dusty and hopeless village, has become a development model for the country.If only the Govt were serious about eradicating corruption and quickly bringing in a LokPal bill and also following it up with quick action on the ground against various individuals, there was no need for this drama. Simple country folk hero worship Anna because they face corruption at every step, not smart guys who pay their way thru and jump every damn queue.

All TV channels are always behind Mr. Rahul Gandhi but he miserably fell
in Bihar,Tamilnadu & Up elections so Mr. author you are totally wrong
that tv channels have created Baba Ramdev or Anna Hazare. Success comes
from the thoughts and acts not just because of 24/7 news channles

anna claims that he is gandian. i doubt his sincerity towards sticking
on the same dicision up to the final positive result.

What is the problem for you sir ? At least there are people who talk about the corruption otherwise in this busy world the corruption and corrupted fellows will finish this nation with out our knowledge . Anna has gone through all these tortures . He knows how much the corruption has taken root in our nation . In fact you should thank TV channels for their effort in bringing Anna and Baba to the common man . It is not anna or baba being benefited but we are the people who come to know how corruption has eroded this nation . Even now with so much talk about corruption , still our politicians are seriously engaged in money making through corrupted means .

It would not be appropriate to glue together the people in this anti-corruption movement with the people who beam women in the name of Indian culture.
The point is well taken that there is a God-ly solution available, as some maybe assuming, but nevertheless, the article plays down the fact that it is a solution. Its a pessimist's approach which mathematically speaking could indeed turn out to be true but that shouldn't stop us from trying one more time to walk with someone who has demonstrated honesty in his life till now.

Will Mr. Ghosh realize that the macth box has been snatched from mother's hand? No, not by a child, it is now in the hands of goons. They are burning not a house, not a colony, but a nation. If the author still insists for a olution in a long run, a good future will be available only out of India for an honest and peace-loving person.

I can't understand we are so cynic about anything that is
unconventional. If a yoga guru wants to join politics then what harm
he can do to us. He is not forcing or luring people with money to cast
grope their vote , something that "full time" politicians are
intrepidly do. You are doubting credentials of team anna members and
their political aspirations, while you are either oblivious or
ignoring the fact that most of them have already accomplished a lot in
their life . You said that good schooling and education can alienate
one from corruption and other social malaise. Then how can you ignore
the fact the people whom you are frowning at , are highly educated
people. Arvind kejriwal, an IIT KGP alumni, i am an engineer too and i
am sure that he won't have cracked world's toughest exam just to enter
into muddy politics. There are veteran supreme court judge, lawyers,
an ex IPS officer , esteemed media person . They are achievers and
someone who can be idolized.

A very very noble thought. In fact, during this movement, Anna ji's
all speeches majorly talked about inculcating moral values inside
ourselves.
He told five things to be of prime importance for strong character
building - Shudhh Achar, Shuddh Vichar, Nishkalank Jeevan, Tyag aur
Apmaan peee ki shakti.
And a very good question has been raised in this article - Will Team
Anna still be present if there were no Cameras ? I think the answer
has already been given during this movement when there was no media
coverage but it did not deter them from their focus - "Make India
Corruption Free"

Nicely written article .... Moulana Maududi tried the top down
approach but failed in pakistan. The approach to corruption is from
top as well as bottom, the leaders set example to follow as well as
kids in the normal household. The educated class is most corrupt and hypocritical ... self preservation and self interest is over powering
basic morality. Harvard is now teaching morality to business students
after financial system went bankrupt due to greed. Its the basic trait
"conscience" that needs to be nourished that's innate in human being
that will most probably guide you to right path at the fork.

The author has suggested a long term solution to eliminate or reduce the level of corruption in our country. He has also accused Anna and Ramdev as spot-light-oriented-people.The author by suggesting that the reform should start in school and not in streets, I believe, has not completed the article. The author might be aware of the corruption prevailing in the education system in the country. The teacher's job in most of the Government-run schools comes with a price tag. The person assuming the role of a teacher might have doled out a heft sum to land up the job which means that he was corrupt right from day one of being a teacher. I am sure people of those kind cannot impart right values to the younger generation. The reform, if it has to happen, has to happen from all ends and not only in politics. It needs a collective effort of all the citizens of the country with a common goal to initiate the reform. Who is going to unite the people of the country for the country's well-being?????

"Anna Hazare is 75; Baba Ramdev is an accomplished yogi. They should know that corruption is a malaise that cannot be cured overnight — certainly not from the top. Corruption is a disease that needs to be addressed from the bottom. "

Coudnt disagree more!
How do you expect a common man not cough up when the guy in power above him will not do a thing without it?The handful that dont end up in powerless positions anyway.

Wow, amid all the cacophony on TV chat shows with anyone and everyone speaking shrilly, a sane voice. The writer is correct in stating the Lokpal will not change our lives. We probably will still continue to pay chai-paani charges for getting a passport, a ration card, a driving license. We will not become disciplined enough to stop when the traffic light turns red and when a cop catches us we will bribe him a 100 bucks and get away with it. We have to become honest and law abiding and then probably the Lokpal will not be needed.

Fantastic read. It was unbelievable to hear Anna giving a deadline of 2 years to the Congress Govt. of India for implementing the Jan Lokpal Bill on 12th March 2012, i.e., till the next general elections to be held in 2014. The same guy had a policy of 'NOW or NEVER' all throughout last year, with all the fasting & patriotic freedom fighter songs, arousing a wave of an anti-corruption drive, just to destablilize the already crippled Govt. He took a complete U-Turn now, everything said & all the on-stage acts of his team were politically rigged with an ulterior motive. I REFUSE TO BE BLINDED BY THIS MAN ANY FURTHER. I don't feel the need to spoil the image of the movement, they are helping themselves. I will do my bit to decrease corruption. Lokpal is no magic wand.

This article apears to have been written for the sake of writing without any substance. if media is not there, what about other politicians - even the non entities like CPI-M, Lallu, or Mayawathi and even Karunanidhi who maes ues of it everyday, Media is only going behind Anna and Ramdev and not the other way around. Anna decision is good one as in India, without being in Politics nothing gets done, Good peeple have to enter politics to throw the corrupt politicians

It sickens me to the core to see what the media is doing to the country. We have all seen that the govt. does not want to bring about the changes that can jeopardies their looting and their absolute power over the country, and none of us have the guts to do anything about it except to sit in our bedrooms and comment about it. Here is one person who has taken the mantle to do something for all of us and yet people do nothing except to jab at him. you say to bring about change at the grass root level. how many of you have even gone on to the protests of Anna Hazzare. what we actually need is an electoral reform as the govt has infinite patience to sit through any sort of protest because it is the people that are suffering, it is the people that are on the streets facing the heat and discomfort, it is the activists that are hungry; these politicians are just sitting comfortably in their homes laughing at the foolishness of all of us who have brought them to power. it is high time to change and we all should embrace the change.a humble request to the Indian Media. please if you cannot do anything for the country then at least don't block the paths of people who are trying.

Very well drafted analysis, but had chosen only one dimension of the
whole agenda, We will never deny the fact that basic education at
school level will make you educated in all means.
The point Anna ji and Co wants to propagate about the situation,
suppose a man in same coupe tried to throw his used plates out of the
window, without bothering about the standard and rules, as well as
ignored a small girl. Few people don’t understand the facts of life
until unless they were under fire at least for once.
So, to treat people like , need of hour is a good and strong law.

The article makes for a very good read indeed!! However, there's no denying the fact that this movement spearheaded by Anna & team mobilised people from different sections of society and sent the reminder to all the politicians that they can't get away with it. You can see the noose getting tightened around them. Grass-root level consciousness coupled with the accountability of elected officials should help the country rid of the corruption.

It may be right what you are suggesting . It has become the nature of people to potray themselves as hero when they are in front of camera .Its very premature to imagine that this agitation of Anna Hazare has some magic wand and will free India from corruption in one day . I also dont support the stand that all politicians or bureaucrats are corrupt . It has become a fashion to blame politics for everything wrong . The potrayal of youth of this nation of its PM in facebook reflects its immaturity and ignorance . I have seen several henious comments on PM by youngster and people of so called civil society , and most of them work in MNC and are enjoying economic development of the Nation which is ironically brain child of same PM . So its good that so called middle class of this nation whoes political knowledge is just in abusing their goverment should come forward and take part in democracy . In a certain way this movement has awaken this section of nation .

The article seems to intimate that the author has some personal
prejudices against the two persons.Though some of his points are true
and valid but the way in which they are used is not acceptable. Mr.
Ghosh should understand that something is always better than nothing.And
yes, the article is completely cynical. If you can't do anything
yourself, you have no right to discredit anyone.

i dont know whether it is intentional or unintentional but your write up reminds me of a typical english speaking bengali who can do only one thing ..and that is supporting or criticising .... either making speeches in english at some coffee house or in a closed drawing room...and blaming others. you are criticising TV channels for making him a hero...dear Vishwanath, if TV channels can make people hero or zero then probably the founders of those channels would have been the only heroes left in the country....Heroes are never created or made..they evolve due to their inherent qualities which every wishes to imbibe.....some fail some pass ....some keep on trying....and others who are often the jealous lot like you ...who keeps on criticising...Otherwise all the heroes will vanish and people with a backing of media will survive contrary to the Darwins principle.
To summarise...the article written by you is utterly nonsense ..illogical..and if any thing else then garbage

So the effective method is not to punish those guys who encourage
corruption rather teach kids how to be righteous.. Fascinating.. I am
28 now.. so I wont see a change till my 50 yrs.. Life sucks ah..
I saw this movie "Yuva" by Maniratnam calling youth into politics
because youth can be righteous and change rules. Although Anna and
Baba are not young(wish they were), they are righteous..
I am surprised by anna and baba statement. but I don't see a flaw in
that. Isn't this what congress asked before.. join politics n prove
point?..
bishwanath ghosh you can do better than this article.. May be you just
donno how badly we are drowning in this corruption.. Just try govt
hospital for a start.. I bet you cant even enter.. You are 40+ now and
this era of corruption dosent effect ur career start.. but what about
those in the early start? young guys who got nothing after good
education because of the freaking politics..
Visit AP.. Vizag has no Mayor since 10 months..why no ellections? No
answers

Am surprised to see so many supporters of the writer's views. At the same time I am happy that there are equal number of people who did not get carried away by Ghosh's views.
@Raja: You wrote exactly what I wanted to write but just with a different example. Good one Raja.
In today's age, even a beggar or a street-kid comes on to newspapers. It does not mean that they embraced poverty just to get clicked.
Ofcourse, Anna's methods and approach are questionable. But altogether brushing their efforts saying that they are doing it for fame is highly immature.
I request the writer (and others who are supporting him) to just be a bit unbiased before coming to such conclusions.

According to the writer, then we should not have any laws, constitution, police, judiciary system and other things. Instead we should start telling each individual (1.2 billion is our population) to behave and act sensibly. Please grow up Mr.Ghosh.

Wonderful article. Hats off Mr.Ghosh

The story of the child telling her father not to throw the garbage out through the window but put it in a bin, sums up what is needed. Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi used to advise his devotees not to try to change the world, first change yourself. It is what is required. Corruption has two sides- the giver and the taker. Both are equally to blame. If each individual resolves not to give bribe and opts to suffer and by his example makes others bold to do so, gradually the ripple will build up into a wave and swallow up the evil. This will be more effective than any law since we have seen that all aspects of law enforcement, including judges, falling for bribes.

The Anna Team, if it plunges into politics, will have to handle not only corruption but also food, shelter, clothing, health, employment, national security and a host of other issues. Is the Team capable of handling all these. And, can the Team give a list at least a hundred people who are "stainless" to lead the country ?

Nicely written. But wanna raise one point here, most of the common
people do not want to indulge in corruption willingly, what if one's
father is dying and doctor is not admitting him, a police officer came
to your son's marriage taking a search warrant. There are some person
who has taken bribing as their business (just like politics has been
taken as a business which was previously a social service). According
to me Arvind kejriwal has full knowledge that here in India people
still vote guided by selfishness (in the name of cast, reservation
etc). We have lots of law, programs just before the election, don't
we? So, there will always corrupt people but if have a person or
something (like Jan Lokpal) who can punish them in no time, then we
need not to change so much in the current system (a constitution
totally inspired by the pre-british system). But looks like people
only listen to those who has in power. We Indian are like "Sab Chlata
Hai". We have largest Jugad Junta in our country

The crusade against corruption, at least for Arvind kejriwal, Anna
and Kiran Bedi is going on from the time when there were no cameras.
Numerous RTI applications, running behind officials, filing cases,
organising dharnas, it cost some of them their jobs. do you think
they did it for 15 minutes of fame? You say the school is the place
where revolution will start, but did you question yourself- why
schooling is not working? because funds are not reaching villages,
teachers don't take classes, employment schemes are not being
implemented properly forcing parents and kids to work all day long,
just to earn their meal. I agree that news is not news any more, its
mere propaganda. But to change we have to take action, words don't
move mountains. The question is - "will next time you stop the guy
who was throwing plastic boxes out, or will you wait for the
education system to get better and let his son/daughter remind him of
his duties.

The article is very idealistic but goes nowhere. Grass root level
education does not change things and it has been proved cos just like
that child we were also thought no lies, no loitering, no provocation
etc but we all somewhere stopped following it. India has turned out to
be a place for idealists forced to change their views due to pressure
from corrupt. although school training are necessary, it is not the
only solution for a country like India. Tough legislation are also
necessary. In kerala police tried media campaign to stop drinking and
driving, but did not go anywhere. But when they used law (no matter
how rich or powerful, they charged case) drinking and driving came
down drastically. Now where would your logic fit in this scenario?
Our media had been methodological in giving air time to politicians
till date. They cover them when they eat, talk, "sleep". So what's is
the harm in media trying to give some coverage for Team Anna. Also
facebook has turned out to be alternativ

The author seems to have a lopsided view. Surely, Team Anna and others have rided high due to media presence. The momentum could not have been acheieved had there been less or no media. However, to establish the fact that these people would not have taken up the task in the absence of camera/ media is a bit too imaginative and belittles the larger purpose of the movement.
Yes, the issue has to be taken from the grassroot level and it starts from the school. However, legislative measures are taken to punish the guilty (as he rightly pointed out) but in the present scenario the guilty are not being punished. Definitely the law may punish but not prevent but we need both the measures to go hand in hand to do a total cleaning. If the top is corrupt it will trickle down to the bottom.

Yes, the article is thought provoking ....

And the fully believes that Nation building can be done through schooling which gives ethical values..

But, How many of our politicians are educated ?
And How many of educated people joining politics ?
How much % of educated people are participating in Voting (or) Atleast how many of them have Voter card ?

This is a well-presented column, with confusing theme though. It is not clear whether media's role was justified or not in transforming the two 'ordinary' men from society into nation's 'saviours'. I feel that media's role was laudable, except for the occasional excessive coverage. Given the fact that we need some extra-ordinary protagonists for transforming India, media must facilitate the leaders with its positive contribution. So, no harm in projecting an 'ordinary' Anna or Baba as 'extra-ordinary' if that helps the nation. After all, 'extra-ordinary' is just an extended 'ordinary'. And these two great souls are certainly the best of the 'ordinary' lots, as they have felt the pain of mother using the 'matchbox' to set the house (nation) on fire, more than us, the useless ‘ordinary’s.

Awesome article. Corruption cannot be cured by a single piece of
legislation as history has witnessed many similar laws that have been
enacted and forgotten.

Normally, what a democratic political process does, is that it tends to project the existing quality of the common man on the street to the decision making legislative chambers of the parliament. More political parties on the indian streets means more confusion in the parliament, and less transparency to any decision making process in the end. It has been observed that persons with personal integrity have a great and a powerful symbolic value, but they often do tend to be ineffective and become disfunctional when placed with responsibilty of any political governance and social administration. Indians have not yet learned to govern and lead themselves with intellectual integrity and any social ethics and required morality. Interestingly our political effectiveness as a nation in the international arena shall depend upon the challenges we face and deal successfuly with integrity and remain focused to the real tasks ahead! We seem to be in search of a real Mahatama Gandhi for salvation !

Ofcourse, its at the very young age we need to instill a sense of responsibility, tolerance and morality in people. Certainly that should happen in schools and at homes. But that does not mean that there is no need for a system that ensures accountability on the part of public servants. I dont know whether Team Anna and Ramdev believe one legislation can get rid of corruption in the country. What i dont understand is what makes the author think all the 120 crore people in the country think that this can be solved overnight and he is clever enough to figure out that this is a deep malaise and hence it cant be done that way. Legislations do come with loopholes but we are the ones who can perfect it. It is the duty of people like this author to help make them perfect, not to judge people and fuel cynicism into society.

Thought provoking article...
I was dumbfound at the Team Anna's decision to take its plunge into electoral politics..
Change needs to be brought from the grass root level..

Your logic sounds like: "as even
after laws against rape, the rape is still happening. So there is no replacement of making people with character right from school. HENCE, we should not make laws against rape, we should remove all the laws against
rape."

It is a poor commentary on Anna Hazare and Ramdev. Is the author trying to say that these men just wish to be the cynosure? In that case as you had already pointed Baba Ramdev had that amount of eyeballs grabbed. And what does Rajesh Khanna's talent or the lack of it away from the reel to do with TV and Anna and school children? The article tries to go everywhere yet reaches nowhere.

When rapists..murderers..mafias can join politics and shout for change in india by voting them....India is proud to have clean ppl like Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev campaigning for that.......Anna and baba may be worng somewhere by their attempt can't be ignored..!!!

.......and D for Downfall.

once again i appreciate Mr.Gosh for his wonderful article.

Such a wonderful truth. I agree with all you points Mr.Gosh. Its true corruption lies in individuals mind which contribute cumulatively to the national. As individuals we contribute to corruptions in day to day life. How many of us get the bill for the things that we buy from the shop. Because the shopkeeper gives some discount we forget about the bill and thereby ignoring paying tax to the government. There are so many who dont take tickets in the train for their travel. Just think. We cannot say only they do corruption but the fact is we also.

nice thoughts...read them several time in past also...but nothing changed for past so many years...!!!!!

A good piece by the author. As the saying goes, 'Those who live by the
media, also die by the media.' On the one hand we have Baba Amte,
Mother Teressa, Medha Patkar and several thousands like them who have
tried and are still trying to bring change to the society in their
ways. Then on the other hand we have, modern day reformers who believe
in rhetoric and feed on daily news coverage and camera glare. Both
sets of reformers have their own style and their own set of
achievements but it is not very difficult to observe that real and
effective change on the ground have been made by people who have
avoided media glare and been dedicated to their cause.

Dear Mr.Bishwanath.Its definite that you ve tried to criticize anna
and Ramdev baba albeit by not using harsh words against them.Anna has
been into all this for many years now and for Ramdev baba to get into
this is not at all wrong, is it?Indirectly arguing that they did this
for "fame" is definitely wrong.THey aint definitley fools to not to
know that working at the grass root levels would help this
country.Thats just one of the ways to get it done.Directly or
indirectly criticizing team anna who are known for following gandhian
principles is very easy but it takes guts and real determination to
have a stand off with the entire PARLIAMENT.And do you really think
all Indians are fools who all participated in this "movement"? As far
as your argument of "support dwindling",just b cos you dont see crowds
there doesnt mean people dont support Anna.And about this part ->"Move
pays off",it is definite that you are trying to use the same technique
(tat u accuse media of using) against anna

Although a good piece of article, it has only been able to address only one symptom of the disease of corruption. The author has made it sound like a law to end corruption is simply worthless and that everybody should only work at the grassroots levels to end the malaise. No doubt the author seems to be living in a fairyland. His argument holds merit only when the efforts at the grassroots levels are backed by a strong legislation.Morality education at the grassroots cannot alone make people choose to do the right things always.There must be a strong deterrent to make people think twice before they indulge in corruption.The same girl whom he gave as example in the train preventing her father to throw the plastic bag outside, might one day go on to become a Minister and amass crores illegally.The author must understand that Power corrupts people and absolute power corrupts absolutely.Childhood and adulthood are two different times and that people change with power.

Hello Mr. Ghosh,
Let me tell U one thing , Media & Camera is not for any propaganda but to convey the message & motivate the people like us(including u) to do sth for our motherland. We people are dumb & fearful,we dont have courage to fight against the system but Anna & team have. And thats why they are keep motivating us to do sth to save our country from the corruption . Its easy to write a column in the news paper (like u did) but its difficult to act like Team Anna & fight against the corruption.
Rather pointing out their(Team Anna)negative aspects ,please think about the positives aspects these people are doing for us & for our Great Motherland.

Very nice article. All TV channels are only for money and block ones thinking power

Apt, precise and logical.

Sir..it was a great read. But I am sure that Anna Hazare would have done
the same even if no camera would have been there.

What a lame OP-ED! I wonder Why some people are so much judgmental and
cynical about who ever sticks out their head to do something better for
this country! How can this peace of writing make it to The Hindu.

No one is born great. All have to rise to the popularity and greatness
in this life time only. I agree with the authors analysis about how
the nation building should happen from the grassroots, but I do not
agree the way he makes their entire effort meaningless. There are
combined factors leading to their raise to this level. One has to
understand that there is a great vacuum in our society where the
insensitive rulers and elites failed to address the tragedy of masses.
They successfully attempted to mobilise masses in those lines. Also
one may blame their political ambition, but their contributions till
date cannot be ignored. Anna Hazare's contribution to RTI which
empower the citizens at the grass-root level and Ramdev's health camp
that empower citizens to improve their physical and emotional state is
a great contribution to the common man. Both these are intended to
build the nation from the grassroots. Simultaneously they tried to
question the system on the top.

when i started reading this article i was expecting something wise.
but after reading it i realised this is mislead poor people by inculcating that corruption will be overcome by only taking action at lower level.
this writer is advocating to catch a street thief and do not act and speak against the BIG FISH who are looting our nation indiscrimately and making our life miserable and event not letting us to earn enough to fullfil our basic needs.

Good one Sir!! But most of the corrupt people around here are the educated lot who spent time at school listening to moral values for hours :(

Does Hindu online has an option of blocking this writer so that I will not read this
writer articles again, why are you printing such articles , there is no meaning in this article.

Mr Bishwanath Ghosh did not understand Rajesh Khanna at 19.The
same can be said about his analysis of Anna now and this
article:) Times change and evolve and its important to change
with that.There is No harm in using technology available to bring
change.If someone says we should walk 30kms to get to the next
town instead of taking the bus because that is what our
grandparents did is lame.(walking might be more healthier:) This
is akin to saying all should cast away their Blackberrys or Shun
TV and go back to Snail Mail.

Anna and his teams intentions will always be doubted by the
politicians and Media.Let Anna and his team at least try to change the system.

Its also known that this man has fought Corruption his entire
life when Cameras did not follow him.So BISHWANATH GHOSH can
start chanting A for Anna,B for believing, C for Change :))
Your Rajesh Khanna moment is back!

wonderful article, I loved reading it. Yes, Team Anna must understand that routing Congress doesnt mean routing Corruption

The author makes some interesting observations including anecdotes but he is being rather harsh on Ramdev and Hazare as publicity seekers or opportunists. Most politicians have other careers before they discover politics and if successful make it full time. Such is the case with Ramdev.

The second part of your article is fully acceptable.Even if there was a TV crew they would
have ignored the little girl just like how you are writing that incident only after a few
years.Regarding the popularity part , TV channels also grew side by side. Otherwise why
should they be focussing on people like Baba or Anna ?

Interesting Read !

Dear Sir,
Beautifully told.
corruption-free society, you’ll have to begin at the grassroots level-
not only from grassroots level but also from top.

Politics is not only about corruption.They do not inspire that kind of
confidence in me.

unfortunately, all approaches to stop corruption have failed, hence this new Avatar. Anna is made because of our social conditions not because of Camera. Are you suggesting when Camera was not around, this world was short of good leaders? Grow up Mr. Author, go to school to do some nation building if you like that way better, no one is stopping you. But this nation need a system which can be used effectively against the corrupt.

pray tell me .. if ramdev's success was doing of the astha, why dont
we see more babas coming from there taking limelight. a person trying
to do anything of substance as a consequence would come under camera,
naturally. the no. of agendas that ramdev alone has taken up are not
even mentioned by politicians in their manifestos. 1)yoga 2)organic
farming 3)irrigation techniques 4) free ayurveda information 5)
ayurvedic college. You yourself have mentioned that corruption is to
be eliminated by small acts starting from school, why then do u ignore
the importance of a healthy india, which ramdev realised much earlier
and exhorted people to quit liquor and exercise better. There is a
reason why he repeated the same postures and you ignored that again.
Its the same reason why a class 6 teacher always teaches same
chapters, but to new students each time.

The best article I have read in years. Excellent analysis.

I fully agree with the statement "The media has to take much of the responsibility for transforming two ordinary people into the nation’s new ‘saviours’".

Hearty congratulations Bishwanath Ghosh Ji for giving readers such an excellent article.

I agree with the views of this article. Unless the individuals
change, no matter how many laws you bring in, it will not eradicate
corruption. <

I completely agree with this article. in a democracy, to blame the govt for everything
is not right. any nation / culture building starts at the grassroot level. corruption is a
major issue but there are more serious issues like cleanliness, public behavior ,
encroachment etc., to worry about too. if team Anna included a demand that any
citizen who bribes a govt employee will get 6 months prison, then I would have liked
to see how many turned up at the grounds? as W Churchill famously said, in pure
democracy, people get the govt that they deserve

Whats wrong in using the media and publicity to raise awareness about
corruption. Someone has to step up and whats wrong if he becomes
popular. These people have a respectable image and good character than
most people who are law makers. Does this publicity not shape
children's thinking against corruption.

This sounds like the Indian Crab story pulling back the one that
stands up. Morals have to start at home thats absolutely right, there
are many honest people in the country today but there has to be a leak
proof legal infrastructure in which the law makers are not interested.

I fail to understand your concern, what would happen if Anna was not
popular, the frustration still remains right?

Lights. Action. Camera. Thats what it was last year when people had
hopes on this team. Now No Lights. No Action. NO Camera. And then
politics. Some commentators were sure this would happen - many of us
did not believe them. Now they should disband the NGOS so that they
do not collect money (especially in cash since it is not
accountable). Wish them luck. (lost faith in many institutions this
is another one).

Kudos, Ghoshda. This is precisely what the people must realize. That
corruption is not a bollywood movie villain who is the source of all
trouble, and once he is eliminated, everything will be hunky-dory.
The populace have been fed such nonsensical stories for long that
they forgot how to own up their own moral insufficiency, and avoided
looking at the mirror and examining themselves critically. This is
like kids in the school who end up pointing just one single guy for a
misdemeanor that everybody had a hand in making. And in this case of
corruption, that single kid is a phantom that will be searched for
forever, because everybody thinks that he/she is Mr. Right. The
painful fact is the mischief is being done by everybody, and the
people are too hypocritical to even realize that.

Good English but poor logic. No doubt that the TV helps tremendously to boost support. It is
available to every political party. Baba Ramdev and Anna have captured the imagination of
people because the people are fed up with corruption and the present day politicians who
keep on telling lies making false promises etc. These leaders have therefore emerged as
they give hope to the people. The problem of corruption and black money stashed abroad is
like cancer . It cannot be solved from bottom upwards. It has to be tackled from the top.
Educating young kids about values is also a step in the right directions but by itself it will not
achieve much result. Every one in his younger days have been told the values of truth and
using fair means. All religions also say the same thing but corruption is only increasing. This
is because people on top are corrupt and the law is ineffective to book them. As people see
these people prospering they too adopt those means and this keep spreading cancer.

TheHindu, thanks for keeping journalism alive in India!

Brilliant article! Someone finally articulated the thoughts that I have
struggled to say... The example of the train journey and a 5 yr-old girl
teaching her father nails it right. We need a change from within - at
the grass roots level.

This is a very poor opinion piece. There are many points that can be
made, both for and against the Anna movement (and the role media plays).
The author makes none of them well.

I have a serious doubt that Ramdev is an accomplished Yoga Guru. I have
been learning and practicing Yoga for many years now. I have visited
many schools of thoughts. This combined with my experience suggests that
he doesn't do and teach Yoga the right way. However, I do acknowledge
that his classes on TV have indeed brought awareness of the ancient
Bharatiya practice.

The author provides no pragmatic solutions to today’s serious
problems. If we do nothing until the new generation of children have
imbibed moral values at the end of their education things will
continue deteriorating for another 10-15 years; also the children may
not turn out to be pious if the parents continue being crooks!
Effective anti-corruption laws must be universally enforced, because
laws deter people from committing illegal acts!
The author ignores the fact that India's economic prosperity is put
seriously at risk by the current problems in democracy, governance and
corruption [according to views expressed by Econ. Nobel Laureates –
WHY NATIONS FAIL, Prof Acemoglu (MIT) & Prof Robinson (Harvard),
2012].
The author thinks in binary terms - this or that - whereas to tackle
the deep rooted problems that India faces today across a range of
areas(political, economic, social, moral etc) a range of remedial
measures (legal, systemic, preventative, educational, etc) are needed.

We need to have an alternative which can’t be filled in by today’s other political parties which share the same blame and collude with whichever party comes to power. This vacuum needs to be filled in either by Anna’s team and Ramdev’s team or by someone else who take up the same challenge. Remember “hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies” and how can author forget that when India struggled for more than 200 years with the same hope that they will one day see free independent India there were many who sacrificed their lives for the same cause and now India is going through one of its kind of a problem which needs people like them. It’s not Anna or Ramdev, it’s about the cause they are living up to and to that I agree next generation has got huge potential and kids in school’s can change a lot but Mr. Bishwanath Ghosh this nation can’t wait for the kid in the train to come to rescue her to tackle present situation

Thanks for the nice article. While I concur with the bottom-up approach suggested by the author, I strongly think that laws and 'implementation of laws' that are meant to provide exemplary punishment to the corrupt will be needed before the bottom up approach finds its feet. I wonder what the 5-yr old girl in the anecdote thinks when she grows up to be a 20-yr old, probably finding herself as the minority 'idealist' often ridiculed by her peers for her 'impracticality'. There has to be an element of fear imposed by the collective might of effective laws and enforcement, something that has worked in other countries that probably started in a similar historical position as us. We really need to shed the 'chalta hai' attitude, and tolerance to corruption at high places is a type of 'chalta hai'.

This is the first time since Baba's revolution began a year ago,
that I have found a good article regarding the ABC's. I have tried to
explain to people that a Lokpal Bill is not going to solve our
corruption.

I strongly disagree with the author. The treatment should be started at some point,from top or root.If you start it is from root it will go for ever.I agree that it is not easy to control corruption in India but at least there should be an attempt.

Anna team looks different..I support them.

Media can do good as well as bad as evident from this article. Author thinks Anna Hazare and team could have continued the fasting if cameras were there which is totally absurd.

Anna Hazare and team is doing this protest not for the fame but for the country. When there is no support from the law makers, what was the choice they were left with?

Seriously, can't you see there is no correlation between corruption and
education..

The authors argument can be extended to get rid of all the punitive laws
and just focus on our schools... He seems to have a lot of experience in
'nation building'.

It was the second best article i just read and it took a month to get
my 2nd best, how pathetic.....by the way that what it is A Increadible
India....the best one is Nicholas Kristof on Guwahati Molestation Case
where he sighted "dont tell your daughters to wear decent and dont go
outside late better teach your sons to be decent and manner
properly",,,,N now this one is awesome "A for Anna B for Baba C
for Camera"...Hats off to B.Gosh...Sir right now at 04:35 AM I am goin
to google you. A very good morning to THE HINDU and B.Gosh

Are these views of The Hindu or the congress or just the author? Many of
the facts presented are just made-up facts, superficial and what this
author thinks about the event. It sounds like a conspiracy theorist
talking trying hard to counter things without giving facts or at times
hiding facts. Media taking credit for work of Anna Hazare sounds
ridiculous. Yes media has played a role and if media made someone who
he/she does not deserve to be its fault of media and they should do an introspection rather than trying to downplay others work.

This is a very nice article written, especially the story of the train
journey. But I would like to present a slightly contradicting view
here. As the writer said "The nation-building begins at the school. You
cannot set right the character of a nation through legislation". My
views are different - solicitation and gluttony which are the mother
of all corruption are spontaneous processes. By only teaching moral
values you cannot keep the person out of doing anything bad, he just
need a slight push to fall in quagmire. The situation will be as
fragile as putting a ball on the top of a hill with lot of effort and
expecting it to be there forever, but it can't, it will just need a
little push to come down and with time it will only gain momentum, you
won't be able to stop it with bare hands, you must need strong barriers
to stop it and strong legislation is this barrier. So along with moral
policing we do need very strong legislation to tackle these problems.

Your statement 'That’s where nation-building begins: the school.'

This statement is correct. In fact our schools are doing great. When I came out of the school in 1994, I was so patriotic. But it is the system which makes one corrupt. In government as well as private organizations, honest people are not requited because they prevent corruption. The system does not give support to honest person. Hence, the system continues to become corrupt and has reached to a point where in it is not tolerable any more.

I would like to conclude here that If all the institution do their bit, the systems can be improved in India. Be it CVC, CEC, Judiciary, Police etc. One single police reform process can change lot of corruption in India (can learn from Europe and US). Second, if CEC has tougher guidelines and power to stop criminals to enter in parliament, it will be piece of cake to bring in top down reforms in India which will make India prosperous in no time.

This is the corruption chain. People from higher post ask money from
lower posts. What can lower post people do ?
They can say "No" since there character is clean but what about the
top ? Will they listen ? Will they not become vindictive ?
So what option does one having good character have to clean the
system?
Yes .. complain . To Whom ?

A very simple question asked by Anna and gave the answer to.

Along with character we need power too ...
"Jiski Laathi Uski Bhains"
.. Just Saying ...

In your journey example father had to form a "example" for her girl.
If at that time he would have thrown that garbage .. it would have
meant that he is teaching his child dirty habits. -- again a top to
bottom view of things .. nice no ?

Really!!! So Anna Hazare pitched for village reforms because of TV
cameras. How many TV cameras went on boradcasting his reforms of
Ralegaon, Gramin Bank, Watershed development Programme, Removal of
untouchability, Milk Production, Gram Sabha powers??? Anna Hazare's
struggle for the grass roots is much more than the age of your thinking
Mr Writer!!!!

A rather poorly written op-ed. It just doesn't make sense. By the time
one reads the introduction he forgets what the topic is and once you
come to the concluding paragraph, you feel like, "That's it??". Proposed
solution is pointless though it makes sense because our education is in the
hands of our politicians who crib and fight about the cartoons in text
books rather than trying to improve the content.

When i post a comment here. it says 'your comment will be modified'.
you'll only let that comment go by which you'll think is correct or
suits you. Now this is Media. if camera starts violence, the cameraman
is also responsible. so don't you try to blame Anna and baba. Blame yourselves. A year ago you made Anna a Hero now you are trying to make
him a Villain. which time you were not manipulating the public?? that is
the question and you should answer it

Well i agree with you that Media can make a hero out of ordinary but
at the same time Media also can make a villain out of a good man too.
The same logic applies here that why shouldn't I think that this
article is biased and written only to downplay Anna. first time media
made him a hero and this time you ppl are trying to work against him.
how should we know on which time you were correct?? So now please stop
trying to blame others blame yourself. If camera is making people
indulge in Moral policing. its high time Media takes a stand. stop
blaming others for your double standards

then according to u , we should wait for fourty years to reach our
toddlers to higher positions in society. humans are still animals and
they need to be tamed and u need strict rules to put a fear in minds of
culprits.

you are so wrong in your conclusion...corruption can be eradicated when war against it raised from top and bottom both. Just explain me one thing a five year daughter will ever tell her father not to take bribe in office and even if she manage to understand what her father is doing, will her father wont take knowing what he is doing is doing for her better present even if it leading towards worse future..corruption and garbage is not comparable respected sir..

very very nice balanced analysis of the situation, intention and
core of the two baabas..Anna n Ramdev.
although i m not saying that their intention is to earn money...but
i m sure now it is all going for the name on the path of ego!!

i strongly believe the problem can be solved from bottom..as it
happened in software development.......our society is also a
software...which may hang or crash but everytime u have to look to
solve problem from bottom-up approach!!

Nonsensical! Instead of doing what media should be doing, they are busy
putting on self-laudatory applause!
There were no 'TV cameras' before independence! And still there was
something that worked in making 'ordinary' men and women into the
saviors and the champions of the nation's cause.
The 'medium' today might have changed (or evolved), but it is the
content and the intent that travels!

six months back, commenting on Anna was considered to be a act of treason and it questioned one's patriotism. Except very few like Cho, there was little public sentiments about the movement. I appreciate this author for calling "Spade as a Spade", nice article.My trust in constructive and open journalism is strengthened