Team Anna - The Real Heroes!

Anna Hazare is such a name that needs no introduction in India. He has emerged as an insecticide who has vowed to destroy the corruption named insect in India. The corruption situation is so grim in India that we have almost accepted the fact that no work can be completed by using unfair means. So many movies, documentaries, articles highlighting this fact have been made and published at various platforms but no one had taken up any fight against such a big disease till yesterday. If anybody did, he/she was crushed and case closed forever. But Anna Hazare is loggerheads with the govt and all determined to get a stronger law and a stronger constitutional body to root out corruption from India.
I am well aware of the fact that we cannot get rid of corruption(which is deep rooted in Indian Society) overnight, but we need to start from somewhere and Anna is doing exactly the same, giving this nation a perfect start against corruption in this battle. What gives me so much faith in this movement is its Torch Bearers, Team Anna. In this post I try to put some light on the lives of Core Committee Members.

Arvind Kejriwal

Education - B.Tech In Mech Engineering, IIT Kharagpur

Career - Worked For Tata Steel, Joined Indian Revenue Services(IRS) In 1995, Additional Commissioner Of Income Tax(ex), Delhi, Actively Campaigned For Right To Information(RTI)

Awards And Accolades -

• 2004: Ashoka Fellow, Civic Engagement.
• 2005: 'Satyendra Dubey Memorial Award',IIT Kanpur for his campaign for bringing transparency in Government.
• 2006: Ramon Magsaysay Award for Eminent Leadership.
• 2006: CNN-IBN, 'Indian of the Year' in Public Service
• 2009: Distinguished Alumnus Award, IIT Kharagpur for Eminent Leadership.
• 2010: Policy Change Agent of the Year, Economic Times Corporate Excellence Award along with Aruna Roy
• Ramon Magsaysay Award

Kiran Bedi

Education - BA in English from Govt College Amritsar, Masters in Political Science From Panjab University Chandigarh, Bachelors in Law University Of Delhi, PhD in Social Science From IIT Delhi.

Career And Achievements

She began her career as a Lecturer in Political Science (1970–72) at Khalsa College for Women, Amritsar. In July 1972, she joined the Indian Police Service, becoming the first woman to do so. Bedi joined the police service "because of [her] urge to be outstanding".

She served in a number of tough assignments ranging from New Delhi traffic postings, Deputy Inspector General of Police in insurgency prone Mizoram, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor of Chandigarh, Director General of Narcotics Control Bureau, to a United Nations delegation, where she became the Civilian Police Advisor in United Nations peacekeeping operations. For her work in the UN, she was awarded a UN medal. She is popularly referred to as Crane Bedi for towing the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's car for a parking violation, during the PM's tour of United States at the time.

Kiran Bedi influenced several decisions of the Indian Police Service, particularly in the areas of narcotics control, traffic management, and VIP security. During her stint as the Inspector General of Prisons, in Tihar Jail (Delhi) (1993–1995), she instituted a number of reforms in the management of the prison, and initiated a number of measures such as detoxification programs, Art of Living Foundation Prison Courses, yoga, vipassana meditation, Murat redressing of complaints by prisoners and literacy programs. For this she won the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award, and the 'Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship', to write about her work at Tihar Jail.

She was last appointed as Director General of India's Bureau of Police Research and Development.

In May 2005, she was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Law in recognition of her “humanitarian approach to prison reforms and policing”.

Shanti Bhushan

Political career

Bhushan was an active member of Congress (O) party and later the Janata Party. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 14 July 1977 to 2 April 1980 and the Union Law minister in the Morarji Desai ministry from 1977 to 1979. He joined the Bhartiya Janata Party in 1980. In 1986, he resigned from BJP after the party acted against his advice over an election petition.

As the then Law Minister, he introduced the Lokpal bill in . However, it did not pass because of the collapse of the government. He is presently co-chairman of the joint committee constituted in April 2011 for the Jan Lokpal Bill.

Prominent cases and clients

• Bhushan represented Raj Narain in a case against Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India. Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha judged Indira Gandhi guilty and declared her election to the Lok Sabha void. decision resulted in wide spread political protests and ultimately resulted in the declaration of a state of emergency in India.
• In 1994, he appeared for two of the defendants accused of participating in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts
• In 2002, he appeared as a counsel for Arundhati Roy in a contempt case against her in the Supreme Court of India
• Bhushan represented Shaukat Hussain Guru in 2008 for an appeal against his 10 year conviction for his role in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack.
• Bhushan appeared as senior counsel for Transparency International in the Provident Fund scandal case of Ghaziabad, which allegedly involved several judges of the Indian judiciary. The bench abandoned the hearing after deeming his remarks as contemptuous and termed his behavior as that of a street urchin.
• Shanti Bhushan was the counsel for the former Prime Minister of India H. D. Deve Gowda in a petition related to allocation of land for Bangalore - Mysore Infrastructure Corridor.
• He has represented Rajendra Singh Lodha regarding the assets of Birla
• He represented V.S.Achuthanandan in the Supreme Court in the Idamalayar Dam corruption case against UDF leader R.Balakrishna Pillai and others. The bench awarded rigorous imprisonment for one year with fine of Rs. 10,000/- each to the accused persons.

Prashant Bhushan

Indian lawyer and social activist. He is the son of eminent lawyer Shanti Bhushan. He Lives in Noida.

He is an activist who helps people through the judiciary system. In his career of 15 years he has worked on around 500 PILs (Public interest Litigation). He is a strong supporter of a Clean Judiciary.

Education

He studied in IIT Madras, which he quited after a semester in Mechanical Engineering. He studied economics and then philosophy (of science) at Princeton.

Important Cases Litigation

• 2G Scam
• Appointment of Thomas as CVC cheif
• Doon Valley case
• Bhopal gas tragedy litigation
• Narmada case

For the first time in indian polity history post- independence, all wise people are together on the same platform and channeling the youth in a non- violent way. First time since my birth I am witnessing a mass movement without vandalism and howling.

Facts Source - Wikipedia.org

UPA-II Report Card: A Common Man's View

This May, UPA-II completes two years of governance. Our Worthy Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and The Indian National Congress might boast of for what they have achieved on the Economic Front and at the International Forums during the course of these two years of UPA-II regime. Let it be the Recession Shielded Economy or the remarkable defence deals, PM might also boast about the healthy and sound relations with the International community but the question to the Government and the readers is “Do these figures and facts really matter to the Common Man?" The common man who is pathetically crushed under the burden of High Inflation rates and for whom managing the kitchen’s budget has become a hard nut to crack. In this fast paced life where people find it difficult to cope up even with the basic necessities of life, the ever Rising Inflation is an Inevitable Liability. At the pace with which rates have been increasing, it's actually difficult to maintain the hand to mouth situation as well. How does the definition of DEMOCRACY seem correct here? It's an IRONY when we say "It's the Government for the People".

After the sweeping results of 15^th Lok Sabha Elections in favour of The INC, Political Pundits forecasted a much powerful and stable UPA-II which was free from back-dragging and dominating Left Front. But UPA-II seems to have badly failed on many fronts. Despite of having many Bigwig Economists and Able Administrators, Government has failed to tame the Inflation named Ghost. Any Government can bring the Economic Reforms but transforming the economy without hurting and affecting the common man should be the target of the so-called statesmen studded UPA-II. The Common Man is still held back by the clutches of various social and economic issues which are surely a part of the country's progress. A country can any day not be called Developed if the barrier between the richies and the poor people can't be set back on a decent scale. Lack of transparency and control over the government and Cabinet is another issue which should be haunting our PM Manmohan Singh. He might be a respected PM but certainly not a loved one anymore.He seems to be doing and portraying his work under an influence which is not acceptable at the sake of the country's progress. Multi-crore scams, corruption, black-money are the various issues to which our prime minister owes a reply to the nation. Multi-billion dollar 2G scam, ISRO-Devas Deal which happened under the nose of PM accuses him for the lack of control over his cabinet and puts light on the increasing hunger and depleting conscience of our politicians.

How non-serious our government is on the Corruption issue can be judged from the fact when A Common Man Anna Hazare started the Mass Movement for The Jan Lokpal Bill. Our so called government took no time to raise fingers on Anna’s clean image and dignity and tried to malign the non-violent and clean movement in the modern world. All possible efforts were put into action to suppress the Able man's Worthy attempt. It seems government isn’t interested at all to tackle such serious issues and wants the whole nation to go corrupt so that people lose the morality to question the government on its wrong doings. This paves the way for every single individual to take upon corruption as a Birthright. How can this lead to our dreams of seeing our country as a developed nation? When everyone knows Jan Lokpal Bill can tighten the noose around corruption and the corrupts then why the government seems to be so reluctant about it? Why a common man had to shake the government and tell it to do something to tame the corruption when we already have so called wise men in the cabinet? Here the concept of the Cabinet seems like a useless deal. When these so called worthy people have been elected to bring a change, why do we need a man amongst the common masses to come up and explain them what their work is? Who puts in their jammed heads that issues like these are their responsibilities and cannot be removed from the core until and unless the system does something awakening.

Government also boasts of providing Employment to the Poor through "NREGA". But have their wages increased as much as the Food Inflation has soared since July 2009?? In the last two years petrol prices have been hiked by 55%. At this pace it gets difficult to imagine, rather out of feasible mental attributes to what will petro-based fuels cost at the end of UPA-II regime. This time Congress Ka Haath certainly Not Garib Ke Saath. Conclusively, the government has undoubtedly failed in a big regard to make any revolutionary changes for the betterment of the poor which is the need of the hour. On the contrary, the picture seems to have been going down the ladder at a badly poor and declining rate. If the scenario continues at such a steep rate, the poor masses are certainly expected to undergo even more miserable living conditions.