I am a hard-nosed ‘start-up’ entrepreneur, trained to create value out of thin air. My business involves motivating people, making them believe in a ‘do or die’ cause and then ‘Pied Pipering’ them towards an end goal.
I relate to Anna Hazare and his valiant efforts. However, Anna fails to impress me.
This is why:
Intent:
The Intent of Anna Hazare’s mission confuses me. Is it to end corruption or to insert his own bill in the Indian Governments system, or is it both?
I question if this ‘intent’ really worth the brouhaha? I mean ending corruption is like ending prostitution. Noble in ‘intent’ but impossible in execution.
Don’t misjudge me. I’m not ‘for’ corruption. I’m questioning if a struggling, underdeveloped country like ours needs to more focus on eradicating poverty and illiteracy, rather than struggling to cure a disease called corruption; which sometimes hurts but does not kill?
Method
I don’t appreciate the mass agitation; lets hold the govt. and country to ransom method.
Tomorrow, what stops a leading Bollywood Actor (who has a larger mass following than Anna) from sitting in the middle of Delhi streets and urging that the Babri Masjid be rebuilt?
Isn’t this movement wrongly educating Indian ‘influencers’ that they can paralyze everyday life in the interest of their cause? Also, shouldn’t the approach be to solve one tangible issue at one time ?
Say if its corruption at the Octroi Naka in Mumbai, then let everyone get together and just eradicate than one problem. If that is successfully resolved than we leap to the next problem!
Promise
What will Indian citizens like me really get at the end of this Anna Hazare charade?
Another bagful of promises from the government? Or a real tangible end result? A ‘movement’ means nothing to me anymore. I want real results.
For example, Unicef promises to erase polio from India and they are systematically doing so year after year (less than 10 cases reported in India this year).
Promise me something realistic and make that happen.Then I will buy from you next time also.
Repeat worthiness
Who will follow Anna Hazare’s act?
A gentleman called Baba Ramdev tried to, and self immolated his image. Is this process of hunger striking and create chaos actually ‘repeatable’?
How can anything become really successful if it cannot be smoothly repeated, with each cycle becoming bigger, more effective and generating more impact than the last time?
Think hard – will any sensible government allow this kind of meet, fast, go to jail, come back and parade all over the country mayhem to repeat itself?!
End Goal
Every movement, every business, every mission has an End Goal.
When I build a business, it is to make money. When Bill Gates attacks Malaria it is to eradicate Malaria from the face of the earth.
In Anna Hazare’s case, what I see is a loosely hanging, ‘in the air’ movement. It seems to drift, gather steam and then dissipate again. What exactly is the End Goal?
Is it to just to get some Bill into the Indian Government’s judicial system? That’s it? What after that? How does a bill and its enactment still end corruption – which is the real problem?
I mean there are enough laws in India that castigate and punish murder. But murders happen everyday!
Scalable
Anything that creates massive value (monetary or social) has an infinitely scalable DNA. It’s like a movement developing a life of its own, that propels itself towards, fulfilling its cause.
I do not see ‘disruptive’, pressure- tactic movements and missions being scalable. On the contrary, they deflate quickly and self-destruct.
Sociality
Honestly, the more I look at the current Anna Hazare movement, the more it looks like a ‘social’ rock concert.
Indians celebrating rebellion more than they cause for which they assembled. I bet that less than 10% of the youngsters rallying don’t even know what the Lokpal bill is – leave alone what’s inside it.
Also, given that this event takes law and order in its own hands, is this mission what we want young Indians to emulate? What stops an altercation with the police from becoming a riot?
Is this the place where our young sons and daughters should gain their first ‘social’ experience?
Anna Hazare has to realize that what he did fifty years ago is passé. He should be motivating Indians to attack real social matters with their brains and not with their slogans and stomachs.
This is the full article of the slightly shortened version carried by the The Economic Times Sunday Newspaper.
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You can read the compilation of my articles on
AAP, Arvind Kejriwal & Anna Hazare in AAP the BIG Fail
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