Was Manjunath stupid to sacrifice his life?

I recently watched the movie "Manjunath" which is based on events in the life of Shanmughan Manjunath, who was a marketing manager of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). He was murdered in November 2005 for sealing one petrol station in UP which was selling adulterated fuel. The movie specifically deals with this particular incident in Manjunath's life. Two years before (in November 2003) this incident there was another shocking murder of Satyendra Dubey which shocked the nation. Both these young professionals were murdered for opposing the corrupt practices which are very rampant all over India (especially in the public sector). They paid with their life for their desire to do their job with honesty and sincerity. The movie is very well made, it is not like other regular entertaining movies as it is not supposed to entertain you. The movie is supposed to disturb, shock, and force its audience to think and I think movie makers are reasonably successful in this. I especially liked the conversations between the dead Manjunath and his killer Monu Mittal. The dialogue between both of them when Monu is locked in jail is the highlight of the movie according to me. During these conversations, Monu tries to make fun of Manjunath's values and his courage to stand for them by teasing him for his stupidity to risking his life for his principles. He also tells him that everyone wants to have someone to change this rotten system, but they do not want this person from their own home, they want in their neighbor's house. People want the change but not at the cost of their own comfort. Many of us don't want to sacrifice our own lives or risk our own jobs to eradicate corruption from the system. We want the system to be fixed but don't want to make our own hands dirty. Because of this attitude, the corrupt system has become so strong and robust that it ruthlessly crushes anyone who even by mistake tries to challenge it. People who dare to challenge this are so few in number compared to people who meekly surrender to it that it is easy to crush these challengers without even getting into much trouble. It is not easy to be a parent of a rebel or a martyr, it takes a lot of emotional toll on the family. Manjunath's family must have faced a lot of pain and trauma after his death. They must have felt the disgusting feeling that the killers of their son might get away with their crime because of the corrupt system in India. They must be wondering why their son risked his life to stand for the principles he believed in? Fortunately, some better sense prevailed in this case, maybe because of tremendous pressure created by people, justice was delivered and perpetrators got punished. But not every case is resolved in this manure, at the end of the movie watch the names of people who were murdered or tortured just for trying to do their job honestly.

Actually, many of us see wrong things happening around us, but most of us choose to ignore them or tolerate these things. Forget about risking our lives to stop them we don't even register a protest. Social evils like discrimination, sexual harassment, and bullying keep on happening right in front of people's eyes and many choose to ignore them rather than at least register a protest. Slowly these things become systematic and very few dare to oppose them. Manjunath exactly faced the same dilemma, whatever he learned in class and whatever values he believed in were different than the ground reality he saw after starting his job. He was shocked to see such a blatant and shameless act of corruption, he was shocked that even after several warnings there was no effect. Many people surrender after witnessing systematic corruption, they accept current norms and think that one person cannot change things but Manjunath didn't and that's why we are talking about him. During one of their conversations, Monu calls him 'stupid' for risking his life for such a small thing. Was Manjunath stupid? Or was he the only sane person in the insane environment around him? Are we as a society taking any steps towards creating an environment where Manjunaths don't feel suffocated and murdered? What do murders of people like Dr. Dabholkar tell us? The movie raises many questions like this. Recent support to movements like India Against Corruption (IAC) or Aam Adami Party (AAP) showed us how serious is the problem of corruption in India. But the progress in the direction of eradicating this social menace or even controlling it is very slow, there is a lack of political will from all political parties and it seems for voters corruption is not an election issue. So it seems our society is only interested in candle marches or protests after each incident like this but they are not yet ready to force political parties to reform the entire system. I really don't know how many Manjunaths or Satyendras have to sacrifice their lives to open our eyes to see the monster of corruption. Political parties are not going to do anything on their own until people force them to do it. I hope this movie and the story of people like Manjunath inspire many young people who can at least dare to ask some tough questions to the current establishment. Initiating some change toward controlling widespread corruption will be the biggest tribute to these people who sacrificed their lives to clean this system.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Anna or Kejriwal, who is right?

Recently Anna Hazare announced that he is not going to be a part of the new political party or movement that Arvind Kejriwal is planning to start soon. It was surprising, if not shocking to know this. Forming a political party and taking this anti-corruption movement to the next level was the next logical step in the direction of bringing reforms to our corrupt political and bureaucratic system. The question that comes to my mind is why Anna chose to stay away from a political option? Is it because he feels that involvement in politics will corrupt his movement? Does he think that politics is a dirty game and wants to play safe? What is it, that made him take this decision, and what effect this decision can have on the current political and social scenario? Who is right, Anna or Arvind?

Anti-corruption movement started with a bang when Anna Hazare sat on his fist fast for the Lokpal issue and it charged the whole nation. The problem was there, everyone knew it, and people responded spontaneously which even took the government by surprise. For people of my generation, this movement is a chance to be a part of Indian history, our generation never witnessed any part of the freedom struggle, we were just kids or infants during the emergency, but we can be a very important part of this important movement and that's why it means a lot for our generation.

At the beginning of the movement people's response to it created a lot of hope and many things happened after that. A committee was set up for the Janlokpal bill draft formation and discussion, this didn't work out very well as there were huge differences between the government's version of the Lokpal bill and Team Anna's version. The government prepared its own Lokpal bill and introduced it in parliament, there was a heated debate on the contents of that bill and the effectiveness of this newly proposed system. In general, this issue was there in the media for 3-4 months, and then slowly attention shifted to some recent scams and fuel price hike-related issues. When Anna sat for his second fast for the same issue, it created much less turmoil and public participation was also less compared to the last time. The government also realized that these things were not going to make any dent in its vote bank or affect its stability so they conveniently ignored the movement. This forced the movement and its leaders to think about alternative ways to fight the anti-corruption battle. I think at this point they realized that just fasting or protests are not going to bring change. It might trouble the ruling party or government for some time and force them to discuss these issues but policies or laws can not be formed or changed by using these ways. Maybe this led them to think of the idea of forming a political party that can give voters an alternative to select honest and sincere candidates who are willing to work for people's welfare rather than working to fulfill some personal ambitions. This sounds more logical but very difficult path to follow. Creating a political party and managing it is not a simple thing in the Indian political system, but without doing this it's foolish to expect that current political parties and politicians will suddenly change their ways and become sincere and honest just because of some protests and fasts. Corruption is not a recent problem in Indian politics or bureaucracy, it's so old that it has become a norm now. I don't think ruling parties will care even if few people die while fasting, it might create some temporary uproar among the public but current establishments know very well how to handle these types of things. These things (protests and fasts) work very well for local issues where urgent attention is required but for national issues like corruption different type of movement is required which can run for a longer time to be effective, 10 day protests or fasts are not going to force the change.

As I mentioned giving people a better political alternative sounds very logical but very difficult option to execute for the anti-corruption movement to move forward. I think initially everyone thought this as a very viable alternative and I remember that Anna Hazare himself announced this option at the end of his second fast in Delhi, but something went wrong in the coming days. Arvind Kejriwal and his followers moved forward to form a political group and I think others decided to wait and watch. This resulted in a clear divide in team Anna. One group became totally inactive and waited for Anna's announcement and another group started their work toward the formation of a political outfit. Finally, Anna announced that he wouldn't be a part of any political party, which is totally fine, it's his choice and it should be respected but he also forbade India against corruption or Arvind's group to use his name and image for their movement which is totally surprising. This created a lot of confusion. If it remains like this I am sure this will nullify any effect this movement might have on the next general elections, I don't know which candidates or party Anna and his group are planning to support? Even JP (Jay Prakash Narayan) stood with the Janata Party to bring the change in 1977, he didn't fight the election or accept any post but he clearly associated his name and image with a particular party to bring that change.

Without giving viable political alternatives what Anna expects voters to do? Right now it is very confusing and not a very good scenario for the anti-corruption movement. Either they should associate themselves with some political party that can endorse their ideas and views or form their own party and fight the elections. If they are not willing to do any of these things and just want to play a safe game then there is no point in doing all this because, for any policy change, they have to depend on other political parties which will act only as per their own requirements and benefits. It is difficult to say who is right here, Anna or Kejriwal, but it is also true that both of them should come together to make this battle successful. I hope that this issue between these two groups will be resolved soon and they come up with some common plan that can reignite this movement and initiate the change in the system which is badly required. I know that this is not going to be an easy battle, it will be very long and one can not expect positive results in one or two elections but it should start at least then only we can expect some positive outcome.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic. 

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)