Anna and Baba have sent shock waves among India’s leadership brigade…..

It has been almost a month-and-a-half since we first saw a septuagenarian Gandhian rise like a phoenix from the ashes, and take the government head-on, to curb corruption and elicit accountability and integrity amongst people who have responsibility and power. As he conducted his first fast, the media enlightened us a lot more about him and his past. The government started to take notice as well, and a Lokpal Bill with relevant provisions was mooted.

The only reason why an irrelevant Lokpal Bill, with a whole bag of loopholes, has not been passed in Parliament is because Anna has not let that happen. He has rightly demanded that each and every of the 1 billion heads in this enormous and diverse country have to come under the purview of this bill, including the PM and judiciary. Quite expectedly, this has not gone down well with the policy makers, but the agitation continues on our part through Anna.

However, just as the policy makers were slowly starting to immune themselves from the Anna struggle, Baba Ramdev gave them a huge jolt. He started agitations and fasts to bring back black money which are stashed away in foreign banks for the last 50 years. This was even deadlier to the government, because unlike a low-profile Anna, Baba, through his Yoga exploits, has become a huge mass leader. He can gather millions with just one call for justice. That is what exactly happened at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi last week. On top of that, there were thousands of NRIs who were with Baba from foreign shores. This rattled the governement to such an extent that they were forced to evict Baba with all his supporters out of New Delhi in midnight hours, through brutal police force. Some columnists have also compared this incident to the infamous Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.

It is now imperative that Anna and Baba compliment each other to the fullest, and bring the perpetrators of corruption down on their haunches. They have singular styles of revolt – one is austere, non-violent, demure and believes in deeds more than words, while the other is flamboyant, well-versed, expressive and motivating. Right now there is talk that Anna and Baba should combine their movements and become an even more potent force against money-laudering and corruption. I really do wish that this happens, because their independent movements have sent shock waves amongst India’s leadership brigade. Their combined movement would uproot them.