Anna Hazare’s return to his village after taking on the Capital with his 12 day fast for the Jan Lokpal Bill was celebrated by the villagers, sans loud festivities. When the villagers got to know that Mr. Hazare was returning home on Wednesday night, they wanted to give him a grand welcome. However, orders from Mr. Hazare himself restricted them from doing so.
The anti-corruption activist returned to his village on Wednesday, a day before Maharahstra’s biggest festival, Ganesh Chaturthi.
“Anna did not want his return to be an unnecessary show off. And when he said so, the villagers agreed. Such is the power of Anna on us,” Ralegan Siddhi Sarpanch Jaisinh Mapari told The Hindu on Thursday afternoon.
Temple halt
Mr. Hazare reached Pune from New Delhi at 11p.m. on Wednesday night, where a rousing crowd of more than 1000 people greeted him at the Pune airport. However, Mr. Hazare immediately left for his village in a private car. Reaching Ralegan Siddhi, he went directly to the Yadavbaba Temple where he prayed to the village deity. Outside the temple, he had only one thing to say to all the villagers and the media that had followed him from Pune: “My villagers were waiting for me, so I have come.”
Thursday morning, was a happy day at the village. According to the villagers, a sense of normalcy was restored, the one that came with knowing that Anna was back. “This means that a battle is won, even though we know that Anna has many more wars to fight,” Sanjay Pathade, a close aide of Anna Hazare stated. According to Mr. Pathade, Mr. Hazare was not too pleased by the grand welcome he received when he returned after his five day fast in Jantar Mantar in April.
His younger brother Maruti Hazare said, “We are happy he is back, and is in good health. We just saw him yesterday. When he gets better, we will meet him in the temple.”
Anna needed rest
Owing to Mr. Hazare’s fatigue, a Gram Sabha that was originally scheduled for Thursday afternoon was postponed to Friday. The septuagenarian stayed at the Padmavati Temple all day, avoiding the media gaze.
Outside, scores of mediapersons waited to catch a glimpse of the Gandhian, but with little success. For the austere Mr. Hazare, food was simple too with rice flakes and khichadi being served to him in the temple.
Ganesh Chaturthi at Ralegan
Keeping up with the tradition of ‘one village, one Ganapati’, Ralegan Siddhi celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi later on Thursday afternoon. Mr. Hazare, for the first time in three decades, remained absent to this annual celebration. “Anna sent his blessings, and had requested that a Harijan couple should do the ceremonial ‘aarthi’ for Lord Ganesha this year. It was agreed by the villagers,” Mr. Mapari said.
All over the small village, schoolchildren talked in animated tones about how they had stayed up late into the night to see ‘our Anna’ coming back. “This is a story that will be told in Ralegan for many years to come,” Mr. Pathade stated.
