An open letter to Anna Hazare

To,

Shri Anna Hazareji
Village and Post Ralegan Siddhi
Taluka Parner
Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra 414302
INDIA 
Phone: (02488) 240227

Date: 25/05/2011

An open letter to Anna Hazare

Respected Anna Hazareji

NCCL, an NGO, is in the forefront of India’s collective efforts to ensure civil liberty, public safety, right to quality livelihood and communal harmony. The NCCL’s prime objective is to fight evils that deter the peace and progress of the society, in all forms by all means.

I am writing this open letter to you both with a sense of happiness for your visit to my state of Gujarat on 26^th May and with a foreboding over ‘certain type’ of people who may be actually guiding your destiny.

As one of India's well-acclaimed social activist your reputation for probity has been speckles. Your campaign of fast-unto-death in the nation’s capital early this year demanding greater public participation in the formulation of an anti-corruption bill known as the Jan Lok Pal Bill had brought cheers in every Indian’s grief-ridden heart. It had also focused upon your courage and conviction in taking the might of the state. Your role in upgrading the ecology and economy of the village of Ralegan Siddhi of Maharashtra needs no reiteration. Yet all these brilliant achievements could be at stake if you are not cautious enough in the way things have been moving around you.

As a great fan of yours I seek your indulgence in pointing out certain facts about certain people which needs reiteration even at the cost of sounding repetitive. For one there are people like Medha Patkar, Shanti & Prashant Bhushans, PUCL & Mallika Sarabhai. 

Medha Patkar, often seen frequenting you in public glare. She is known for her anti-development activities in Gujarat and though she had been successful in covering her tracks well was finally unmasked when the Supreme Court reprimanded her for filing false affidavits and misleading the courts. The apex court even went to the extent of cautioning all courts across the country not to be swayed and be careful when entertaining her petitions. Medha’s association with you will paint you anti-development. 

There is another issue that is troubling every citizen of this land and it is the case of Naxal sympathizer Binayak Sen who also happens to be the vice-president of PUCL. Sen has been convicted for sedition that is quite a serious charge to face as it involves impinging on unity and integrity of our nation. PUCL’s association will paint you as a sympathizer of Naxal’s.

 As to the father-son duo Shanti and Prashant Bhushan it is regrettable that both face charges of corruption. Prashant is said to have procured a huge farmland of 10,000 square metres in Noida apparently as a gift from Chief Minister Mayawati. Prashant could not have achieved this largesse without his father Shanti Bhushan support. The latter has been entrusted by the civil society led by you to redraft the Lokpal Bill and in this connection appointed co-chairman while his son too is a member of a reconstituted panel. Both also face charges of evading stamp duty in Allahabad. Their association with you will paint you for double standard. 

Finally danseuse Mallika Sarabhai who seems to have motivated you to make a journey this far to Gujarat is now playing hostess to you. She too was facing criminal charges of illegal human trafficking in a case filed by her own student Manushi Shah. Thanks to the incompetency of Gujarat police, a C-summary was filed in the case that helping her wriggle out of her embarrassing predicament. Her association will not add any strength to your struggle. 

The nation has witnessed in the recent past that it has become an unfailing practice with celebrities caught in the act of illegal actions to dismiss the issue as one of harassment by the government & or authorities. Hence, it will be proper to disassociate yourself from such people & organization who indulged themselves in unpatriotic chauvinism. 

I appeal to you to kindly see my letter in proper perspective, I appeal to you to associate yourself with “Aam Aadmi” instead of celebrities who stain our democratic course of law. 

With Warm Regards

Yours Sincerely.

 V K Saxena

President 

National Council for Civil Liberties 

401 Vraj Avenue, C - 2 Swastik Society,
Navrangpura, Ahmedabad - 380 009
Phone +91-79-26560979, Fax +91-79-26401892
web: www.ncclindia.org e-mail: nccl27@hotmail.com