August 25th, 2011 
Param 
Anna Hazare is one of those leaders who wears white Khadi clothes and wears Gandhi Topi(cap). He was born on June 15, 1938 in a small village Maharashtra known as Bhingari. His mother Laxmi Bai Hazare and father Babu Rao Hazare was a farmer by profession. Anna has six brothers. His family was very poor and he had to face the harsh living conditions because of poverty. Because of poverty he migrated to Mumbai in search of better living conditions. There he studied up to 7th standard and after that decided to abandon his studies to share the burden of his family. He worked at a fruit selling shop for the monthly salary of 40 rupees.
In 1962 when he was a young man of 22 years old he joined the military on the appeal of Indian government in wake of the India-China war. He was appointed as a driver in the Maratha Regiment. During the 1965 India-Pakistan war he was stationed at Khemkaran border sector. During this war many of his fellow soldiers had died in the Pakistani air strikes on the bordering posts which totally changed his life. After 13 years of military service he retired from his service. During his military career he won five-six medals for his bravery and untainted service. He decided to live in Ralegaon Sidhi instead of going to Bhingari, his birth place after his retirement form the military. By 1990 Anna Hazare had become a well known social activist in Ralegaon Sidhi and the adjoining villages. He, with the help of the youth and the women folk led a social campaign again the menace of liquor and was very successful. This group used various tactics to ban the consumption of liquor. His village was one the most backward village of the state as it did not have a high school, had no helth centre. Less than 100 acres of land could be irrigated because of lack of water in the village.
His village did not have electricity or water supply facilities. So he motivated his social activists to build canals and check dams to store the rail water. Because of relentless hard work the water scarcity has become the matter of past and most the land in the area is irrigation possible. On his motivation thousands of plants were planted in the hills and the adjoining areas. Solar system and bio-gas plants were set-up for the supply of electricity in the village. Because of his enthusiasm he had become a well known person not only in his state but in the country. In 1990 he was awarded with Padam Shri and in 1992 with Padam Bhushan by the president of India. In 2002 World Bank awarded him with Jit Gill Memorial Award. By 1992 he was known as a social activist who worked for the progress of Ralegaon Sidhi and for the improvement of irrigation facilities in the village and the adjoining areas.
It was in the year of 1991 when he became a well known face in all of the country for his anticorruption campaign against the then government of Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in Maharashtra. In that year he started his ‘Jan Andolan’ against corruption. He started the hunger strike and demanded the resignation of some corrupt ministers in the Maharashtra government. These ministers were Shashikant, Sooter Mahadev, Shivankar and Babban Gholaap. He accused them of having the property more than their declared assets. The Maharashtra government tried to persuade him but he did not compromise with his stand. As a result of his Jan Andolan two ministers-Sooter and Shivankar had to resign. But Gholaap went to the court and filed a defamation case against Anna. Anna failed to present any concrete evidence against Gholaap and was sentenced to three months of imprisonment. But the Maharashtra Chief Minister Murali Manohar Joshi preferred to release him only after one day’s imprisonment. A commission set up by the state government gave its verdict in favor of Shashikant, Sooter and Shivankar but Anna accused many Shiv Sena and BJP leaders of being involved in corruption.
In 2003, Anna once again sat on a hunger strike as a protest against the inclusion of four corrupt ministers in the NCP-Congress government. These ministers were Suresh Dada, Nawab Malik, Vijay Kumar Govit and Padam Singh Patil. As a result the Maharashtra government had to bow against his stand and a commission was set up for the investigation. As a result of Anna’s campaign some of those ministers had to resign. In 1997 he launched a campaign in support of ‘Right to Information Act’. It was in 2003 that his campaign bear the fruit as the Maharashtra government passed a very strong and strict draft as ‘Right to Information Act’. Later on this campaign became a national campaign and the Lok Sabha passed the ‘Right to Information Act’. In April 2011, he became a well known face not only in India but almost the entire world for his nation-wide anti-corruption campaign. He and his Civil Society members launched this nation wide anti corruption campaign as a method to put pressure on the centre government to pass a strong law against corruption. With in four days the government had to accept their demands in wake of increasing public support to Anna Hazare. A joint committee was formed to create a draft of anti-corruption law. But this was only a tactic used by the centre government to buy some more time to deal with the public anger. But within a few meetings of the joint drafting committee the differences between the government and the Civil Society Team went on increasing and Civil Society decided to boycott the meetings and launce the anti-corruption campaign from 16th August. But many hours prior to his hunger strike, Delhi Police arrested Anna Hazare and took his to Tihar Jail. But it put more oil on the fire and Lakhs of people came to streets in support of Hazare. In wake of the nation wide protests against his arrest the government decided to release him from the jail. But he along with his supporters left the jail when some of their demands were met by the government.
Presently Anna is sitting on an indefinite hunger strike along with thousands of his supporters all over India and abroad. But the ‘Andhi, Behri Sarkar(blind and deaf government)’ of ‘Italian puppets’ and ‘second hand British’ leaders are reluctant to accept the demands of the common people of India.
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