INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN...211

INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN…211

Dr K Prabhakar Rao

(Anna Hazare is walking on the street of parliament along with some of his followers when he is suddenly confronted by a strange looking person. The person is dark, very tall and has bat like disposition. He looks more like a batman of US comics.)

Hazare. Bhai. Who are you? Why you have blocked the way?

Stranger. Do you want to know who I am?

Hazare. Surely. You can not block my way. We are living in a democracy.

Stranger. Hee..Hee. Yeah.. Yeah.. We are living in democracy.. sure..sure.. hoo..hoo..

Hazare. What is there to laugh? I told truth.

Stranger. Your words made me laugh. From where you are coming? Which part of the country you belong?

Hazare. Iam Anna Hazare. I am a social worker from Maharashtra state.

Stranger. Oh! So , you are Mr. Hazare, the one who went on fast at Jantar Mantar and made news recently.

Hazare. True. Any objection you have?

Stranger. No. no.. Why I should have any objection? After all, this is democracy and free for all. Any one can do anything. Whatever one wants he can do. (Sings and dances)

We are in this land called India
Where simple nuts rules everywhere
Scams are the order of the day
While the crooks make money in a big fanfare

There are many laws of the land
And none of the law is of any use
The thieves continue to rule all the times
And from the law they removed the entire fuse

Laws in the land are to be broken
And the cheats roam in very costly cars
They store the ill gotten money abroad
While many innocents struggle behind jail bars

Hazare. You are not correct. It is not like that. Any one can not do any thing which he wants. It has to be with in law.

Stranger. Sorry. I need to be corrected. But there is no law here. It is only on paper.

Hazare. Thanks dear. I do not want to argue and get confused further. Please clear our way.

Stranger. I have still some thing with you.

Hazare. What is that you want from me?

Stranger. It is better I tell who I am. I am devil of corruption and brother of Satan. All the thieves and crooked political leaders worship me everyday. They sing “OM Jay Jagdeesh Hare” in front of me.. I heard you are out to erase me out of India. I have my men in each house in India. Can you go against me? I shall see you. Till now no one could erase corruption from any country. Be careful about me. I am very dangerous. No one has escaped my wrath till day. You appear to be physically weak. Can you withstand my onslaught? It will be deadly too.

Hazare. Sure. I am at it.

Devil. How can you do it? Are you confident about it?

Hazare. Sure. I am very confident. I just started my work.

Devil . Even MK Gandhi could not do it.

Hazare. MK Gandhi never tried it. He was busy getting us freedom from the Englishmen. He was also busy making experiments with truth. He had no time.

Devil.I read his book ( My experiments wit truth. No one wants to talk about it.They look other way as if they have not read it. Hee.heee. He tried to introduce Prohibition. But he failed. Now every one drinks like fish in India. In his own state where prohibition is on paper guys drink like hell.

Hazare. I am not sure about it. We are not at prohibition now. At a later date, we may think about it.

Devil. Prohibition and corruption go hand in hand. I can write an equation linking them.

( Suddenly MK Gandhi, Nehru and Patel appear at the scene)

Hazare. Namaste Bapu.. Namste Bapu. Mere Bapu. What a surprise to day! I am honored

Devil. Who is this old man and other flunkies with him. Why are you bowing to him

Hazare. He is father of nation, MK Gandhi, Mahatmaji.

Devil. How I am bothered? I do not make friendship with such guys. My friends are of different type. I have friends like spectrum Raja, Charles Shobh Raj, Anderson from USA of carbide fame, Afzal Guru, Kasab, Taliban leaders from Pakistan, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Qatrochi of Bofors fame, Ramalingaraju of Satyam Computers, Al Zawahari of Al Qaida, and many more, some names I can not say openly.

Hazare. Why? Why are you scared to reveal.

Devil. It is like Indian govt revealing names of cheats who have stored money in Swiss banks. They have not revealed. They say they can not reveal, They are obliged not to reveal.

Hazare. One of my next step is to ensure that they reveal such names, They can not escape from me.

Devil. Keep imagining and day dreaming too.

Hazare. ( sings)

Look Oh devil and know what I am
World has seen me already and my deeds
The cheats in India can not escape me
I shall pick them as rats in field pick up the weeds.

Gandhi. ( Claps) Hear . Hear. Hazareji. Great poem it is . I appreciate.

Hazare ( Bows) Thanks bapu. Iam honored by your remarks.

Gandhi. How do you think that your LOK Pal bill will erase corruption?

Hazare. I am sure the corruption has to be tackled at highest level first. The political leaders in fact are getting elected to parliament and assemblies by spending plenty of money. Without money no one will get elected. Therefore, once they get elected they keep running to make money. They not only aim at making up the immediate expenditure, but also they start piling up for next election and then for their kith and kin and for many generations. Greed will not stop. They find ways and means to save and take away money from country. The Swiss bank accounts are opened. Such things are possible for only top guys in politics and industries. Ordinary guys can not venture in to such dealings.

Patel. Hazareji. You are wise .

Gandhi. Don’t you think what we need electoral reforms first than Lok Pal bill. I feel the elected representatives should be recalled if they do not perform and are found shady.

Patel. Bapu. Do you think Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will allow such bill to be passed? They will fight tooth and nail to prevent it. If such bill is passed no MP nor MLA will feel safe.

Gandhi. But such fear is most required. Now they are absolutely fearless. They think once elected they can do any thing and take people for a camel ride till next elections.

Patel. Our Constitution is made like that. It is more pro politician type than pro people. On paper, it says it is for the people by the people and of the people.

Gandhi. Hee..Hee.. I died before Constitution was finalized. Guys must have got great relief when I was packed off. Or else constitution might have been influenced by me.

Patel. Very surely.

Hazare. Why dig old graves?

Patel. Some times graves are also dug. Don’t you know that grave of Emperor Akbar/s grave at Fatehpur Sikri was dug up by the Jats once Mughals became weak and they took away the silver gates.

Hazare. How it is related to our problem?.

Gandhi. I feel you are paying more emphasis on LOK Pal bill that will be greatly resisted even by the MsP as it will be digging their own grave. Who will do that. Even opposition parties may not favor it as at some point of time they might come to power. No one wants to risk. If PM is to be brought into its fold, it will be highly dangerous, they feel.

Hazare. Does it mean that a PM can get away being corrupt?

Gandhi. I did not say that. Our PMs were above board by and large. Bofors was the beginning. But Rajiv was absolved after his death. The courts know better about it. Now the Italian guy Qatrochi too escaped. Govt has already spent more money on investigation than what was eaten away in scam. A good joke. If we speak about Bofors, it will become bigger than Mahbharatha epic. There is no end.

Hazare. I am unhappy because the Bhooshan affair is becoming more complex. The central ministers are also commenting unnecessarily irrelevant things, Look at Mr. Sibal, How is commenting? He comments and then says press has misquoted him. This is the standard trick by VIPs. This is not first time. They throw stone first and then say they did not throw and some one did from behind them. Hee..heee

Gandhi. This is life in India. You are new to this drama in politics. All these years you did social work selflessly and your reputation got built up. Politics is not simple and for righteous people. It is only for crooks who can twist words, play games, hood wink others and do all sort of things.

Hazare. I know that but it was late. This is a jungle indeed in which we have to tread aimlessly. Paths are undefined. I am of opinion that first corruption at highest level should be tackled. Now there is no fear in them. The present law enforcing agencies feel powerless against them. But at state and district level there are agencies that can tackle corruption. In some places they are doing too. But actions are very limited. These things we are reading in news papers from time to time.They did mountains and catch rats.

Gandhi. You may be correct partly. But corruption has gone into genes now in India. It is considered now as a right by most of the govt employees right from attenders level to the district administration. Some central services are given many safeguards with respect to prosecution.

Hazare. These are the usual perils in administration. All things can not be set right overnight. We have started the crusade. It has to be fought through.

Patel. But most of the crusades did not get expected results. They slowly died.

Hazare. We have to make efforts. If all the guys feel that it is not their job, then who will do it?

Gandhi. A good question. Look Mr Hazare, I think now you are commanding great respect in society and it is first time that people responded like this after Jaya Prakash Narain before emergency.

Hazare. You know it better sir. I am a simple man and no match to you or JP.

Gandhi. Best of luck to you Hazare. I am happy that you gave a thought to it. I am only feel upset why the rulers have not thought about it. Will they react only when some one puts a knife over their neck?.

Hazare. They know it better Bapu.

Patel. If a guy lesser popular than Hazare had started this agitation I am sure he would have been arrested long ago. Now they are shit scared about public response.

Gandhi. You also know that Baba Ramdev has been much vocal on similar issues. I do not know why he has not started a fast as you have done?

Hazare. He knows better. Already he has started a Bharat Swabhiman party and has gone to people. There is wide following. In next election it makes great difference.

Patel. But I am sure some vested interests will try to implicate him in something.

Gandhi. Let us wait and see. Hazare has different image. He has more of Gandhian image apart from his honest look with Gandhi cap. I think it worked much. Any how Mr Hazareji, the path is not smooth and you have started on a thorny path and enroute you will find ample wolves, panthers, bears, lions, Hyenas, tigers, snakes, pythons, werewolves and all these will be from political fields and some could be from industry who support some shady leaders. You have to be bold and brave.

Hazare. That I am. There is nothing I will loose. I do not have any property and neither I have interest in it. You know me and people know me. I am a self less man.

Patel. But already some guys are after digging out some thing against you.

Hazare. Let them. Iam not scared. Time will answer. My fight against corruption will go on. Even if I am no more, it will go on. Some other person will take on. People are awakened. Youth are my strength

Gandhi. May god bless you in your fight. But still I feel, only Lok Pal bill will not free society from corruption. It is basically human down fall morally. The various taxes imposed by govt on people have made this phenomenon.The license Raj has corrupted society. The present Constitution needs a complete change. Political reforms are must. Accountability of politicians and central civil servants to people is a must . At present they are enjoying all powers and perks without having peoples support. This is a great murky shit pot and needs cleaning from scratch. May god bless you

Patel. Bapu. Shall we go. Jawaharlal is feeling sleepy, Rather he has already slept.Look, He is snoring..hee..heee

Gandhi. Let us go.

( The trio walks away singing Ramdhun )

CURTAIN FALLS