Taking an in-depth look at India’s anti-corruption movement and diving into the idea of fasting as a form of political protest.

By Harsh Vathsangam

To many he is a messiah –

a face that represents millions of nameless people who have endured the brunt of India’s corruption. To skeptics he is a showman with a dubious track record – a pawn in a circus of politicians and media members each dedicated to furthering their own interests.

Either way, one thing is for sure, one simply cannot ignore Anna Hazare.

Over the last two years, India has been rocked by a series of debilitating corruption scandals, each one more spectacular than the last.

The most aggravating aspect of these controversies has been the government’s scant disregard and disrespect of taxpayers’ hard-earned money. These scams are simply larger-scaled versions of the endemic, everyday corruption that permeates India’s current cultural landscape.

The South Asian country is a place where one cannot get an electricity connection without greasing the palms of an Indian babu or a sleazy bureaucrat.

Sanjay Yadav, an auto rickshaw driver, described best how bribery has become commonplace.

“You go for a driver’s license you pay a bribe, if you go to the vehicle registration office you pay a bribe, you drive on the road you pay a bribe, you commit a crime you pay a bribe, you don’t commit any crime you pay a bribe,” Yadav said in an television interview with Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

But even with recent legislation, it is disturbing to note that there exists very little protection for people who want to fight this system. As India strives to become a contender on the world stage, the anguish and resentment felt by many citizens have arguably highlighted corruption as venom that threatens to destroy the dreams of a new India.

Enter Hazare, who some have bestowed the honor of being called the modern-day Gandhi.

Related Video Story:

Indian activist Anna Hazare and his anti-corruption movement wage a public hunger strike in New Delhi. Thousands of Indians are flocking to New Delhi to join Team Anna. Video: YouTube user linktv.

For the past few months, Hazare has been at the center of what history might judge as one of the most important revolutions in modern India. Hazare started an indefinite hunger strike on April 5 to pressure the Indian government to enact a stringent anti-corruption law or the Jan Lokpal Bill.

The fast ended when government officials agreed to the demands and an Aug. 15 deadline to pass the bill. When that didn’t happen? Hazare went on to detained and released before not eating for 288 hours straight, according to the India Times.

If approved, the bill also referred to as the citizens’ ombudsman bill would call for an ombudsman with the power to deal with corruption issues. Prominent lawyers and social activists drafted the bill. Some of the authors are N. Santosh Hegde, former justice of the Supreme Court of India; Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court; and Arvind Kejriwal, a leading social activist.

After initially dismissing the movement as a frivolous sideshow, the government’s response evolved from ignorance to arrests to acquiescence. The change in response was due in large part by endorsements from almost every section of society including leading opposition party members pushing their own political agenda, media channels hoping to boost their television ratings, religious saints staging parallel fasts, Bollywood icons vying for the spotlight, members of the normally apathetic middle class sporting “I am Anna Hazare” T-shirts and landless laborers just hoping to catch a glimpse of the man who finally gave a voice to their suffering.

Police estimate that as many as 100,000 supporters gather to stage dramatizations in New Delhi yearly, reports the Times of India. Graphic: Flickr user ssoosay via Creative Commons.

 

Another interesting facet of the movement was the extensive use of Twitter and Facebook. Such social media sites helped organize gatherings and plan protests. “Facebook has over a hundred pages dedicated to fight against corruption,” reported an NDTV journalist during a newscast earlier this year. “Anna Hazare has become a trending topic on Twitter with tweet every five seconds.”

With many subsequent multi-day fasts by Hazare and enough TV drama to make a Bollywood producer proud, at last the effects were seen. Important ministers in the Union Cabinet with tainted records resigned and some were even put behind bars. The government decided to table its own version of the bill in Parliament and incorporate prominent Hazare supporters in the drafting committee. A debate on the Jan Lokpal bill was held in the Indian Parliament on Aug. 27.

Hazare demanded three principles: citizen charter, lower bureaucracy to be under Lokpal through an appropriate mechanism and establishment of Lok Ayuktas, anti-corruption ombudsman organizations, in the states with both houses agreeing to the principles.

Critics against the movement claim that the addition of an ombudsman against corruption only adds a layer in an already multifaceted corrupt system.

The establishment of anti-corruption laws would only be the first step in bringing about a cultural change in Indian society starting from the individual and working its way through the government. However, one fact cannot be ignored. Not since the struggle for independence from the British or the 1975 Emergency when the president could rule by decree has such a mass movement galvanized the Indian public and become as powerful as to shake the legitimacy of the incumbent government.

Another striking aspect is how the entire movement has been completely non-violent, the only weapons of choice being civil disobedience and fasts, a technique that has echoes of Gandhi in it and has been adopted by freedom fighters around the world.

Harsh Vathsangam is currently a PhD student at the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering.

According to The New York Times, Hazare ended his 12-day fast Aug. 28 only after India’s Parliament agreed to his “central demands for shaping legislation to create an independent anti-corruption agency empowered to scrutinize public officials and bureaucrats in India.”

In the end, one can’t help but admire how this movement represents a great example of why India is considered a future star on the global stage. There are people nonviolently making their voices heard, a government willing to listen and respond to its people, a noisy opposition and mass media intent on exposing wrongdoings. Such characteristics are what make a democracy successful.

And at the center of it all, has been Anna Hazare.

 

Editor’s Notes: There was additional reporting by Jeffrey Ledesma. Do you have questions or comments? Feel free to join the conversation by leaving a comment below or E-mailing the columnist directly by clicking here.

by Harshvardhan Vathsangam

On February 4, 2011, close to 11 million Indian citizens living outside of India gained ground on a long-standing demand  when the Indian government announced rules allowing non-resident Indians to vote in India’s elections.

India follows a parliamentary system in which the country is divided into constituencies and voters from each constituency elect their representative to the government. To be eligible to vote (and contest for elections) citizens must register themselves to a voters’ list.

As per earlier laws, no voter could be on the voters’ list if he or she remained outside the country for longer than six months at a time. This meant that citizens who left the country for long periods of time due to professional or educational commitments lost the right to exercise their franchise.

The Registration of Electors (Amendment) Rules, 2011allows non-resident Indians who hold Indian passports and have not acquired the citizenship to another country to vote, and by extension, even contest elections in India. Voters will still have to be physically present in their registered polling station on the date of elections to exercise their right to vote. However, future amendments might allow votes either by electronic means or postal ballot.

The aforementioned amendment is the latest in a series of reforms instituted by the Indian government in an effort to provide its overseas Indian citizens with a sense of belonging. In the last decade, the attitude of the government has changed immeasurably from one of disdain to apathy to active empathy. For a country striving to use every asset at its disposal to bring about a better standard of living for its citizens, overseas Indians represent an important talent pool from which to draw expertise and means.

And for good reason: non-resident Indians pump huge sums of money into the Indian economy through foreign remittances. To understand the magnitude of this contribution, in the year 2008, money from foreign remittances peaked at $30 billion (roughly three percent of GDP), when the government’s defense budget for the same year was $26.4 billion.

Given the size of this contribution it was a natural step that such citizens be given their “legitimate right” to choose who is elected to power. While much more remains to be done, the amendment certainly represents a step in the right direction in integrating India’s diaspora into the nation-building process.

By Harsh Vathsangam

Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys Technologies and current chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, is spearheading the movement to provide all Indians with an identification number. Photo: Times of India

On the September 29, 2010, Rajna Sadashiv Sonwane from the tribal village of Tembhli in Nandurbar, India, received a letter from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. She had been allotted the number 7824-7431-7884.

This set off what could be described as arguably the most ambitious national identification program the world has ever seen.

The program is called the Unique Identification (UID) project, or Aadhaar (meaning “foundation”), and aims to give every one of 1.2 billion Indians a unique identification number. The number is linked to the person’s demographic and biometric information. It can be used to identify them anywhere in India and allow them to access a host of benefits and services.

The benefits of such a scheme in a country where millions of people do not even have addresses or surnames let alone documentation of their existence cannot be highlighted enough.

The organization entrusted with this responsibility is the Unique Identification Authority of India. At the helm of affairs is Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys Technologies and a poster boy of India’s recent IT-driven economic success and a much-admired technocrat with a well-established track record. The appointment of Nilekani to the post of chairman lent much credibility to the organization’s motives and continues to be a driving factor in its success.

Over the next 4 years, UIDAI plans to issue 600 million UIDs – twice the population of the United States – specifically targeting India’s rural and marginalized regions. At its peak, at least 1 million names will be added to the database per day.

To further comprehend the sheer scale of this exercise: when fully implemented, each person’s identity will have to be verified against 1.2 billion others to check for authenticity.

The Aadhaar project aims to give a voice to the unheard.

“The ‘Aadhaar’ unique identification number will enable inclusive growth and development for the deprived and will act as an instrument of social inclusion,” said Nilekani at a lecture organized by The Editors Guild of India.

If successful, India has much to gain. Government-run public services are notorious for widespread bribery, corruption and lack of transparency. For example, a shocking two-thirds of government distributed grains never reach the poor due to theft and adulteration at the middle levels. Providing infallible proof of identity with UIDs and biometric markers when collecting rations would improve accountability and make it difficult to fool the system.

Similar controls could be used during elections to curb voter fraud. The UID is also expected to be an important enabler for another of India’s ambitious projects: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which guarantees 100 days of work to any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled labor. Often the 41 million beneficiaries of this scheme cannot think of opening a bank account let alone setting up deposits, since they possess no form of identification. Using the UID would greatly smooth the payment process.

The UID will also be linked to existing identity databases such as passports, voter IDs, drivers licenses, border IDs, and more. Financial, health, communication, and educational organizations will have the option of building services on the basic UID platform to universalize customer identities across the nation and allow for the transfer of records. It is easy to see that the sky is the limit when it comes to the potential benefits of the program – if successful.

Critics of the project argue that it will lead to an invasive state and cause clashes between individual privacy and national security. The use of a centralized database heightens the risk of misuse of personal information. These are valuable points that need to be addressed eventually and the onus is on the government to back up this exercise with clear, well-established laws to preserve the rights and privacy of its citizens. Drafts of such laws are already available online.

Others point to the sheer size and scale of the project, implying that inaccurate, repeated or corrupted data are inevitable. Often, these critics make comparisons to similar attempts in other regions such as the United Kingdom. Even in places like the UK, which is more developed and has a smaller population, such projects have failed.

The government for its part is sparing no measure to ensure that this project is a success. A sum of U.S. $ 21.7 million was approved in the 2009-2010 union budget to fund the agency in its first year. This was further increased to U.S. $400 million for the following year – numbers that are likely to increase.

However, numbers only convey half the story. The most remarkable aspect of this venture is that the majority of the team members involved are volunteers, accepting either minimal or no pay and often taking sabbaticals from their regular jobs. Leading from the front is Nilekani himself, having relinquished the chairmanship of one of the most successful companies in Indian corporate history to join the project in 2009.

Closer examination reveals a myriad of profiles, each a story in itself. Take for example Raj Mashruwala, who first moved to the U.S. in 1976 to pursue a master’s in engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and founded successful companies in the software manufacturing industry. Or Michael Foley, a celebrated Bangalore-based designer who created the baton for the Indian Commonwealth Games 2010.

Lawyers, corporate consultants, journalists, students barely out of college (and not all Indian) have mailed in their applications, hoping to make meaningful contributions. In a sense, this exemplifies what the government has been trying to do for decades: getting talented, world-class citizens to work for the benefit of India with no apparent gains other than the satisfaction of having made a difference.

Time will tell whether the project will succeed or fizzle out as a failed exercise in good governance. But one thing is for sure: the Aadhaar project reflects the aspirations, needs and sheer gall of a country that marches into growing world power by going where no country has gone before.

What’s at stake is the welfare and livelihood of the 1.2 billion people that call India their home.

For more information on the Aadhaar project, visit http://uidai.gov.in.

Watch Nandan Nilekani’s talk about India’s future at the 2009 TED Conference here.

By Alekya Reddy

India's Vaseline Men campaign advertisements feature Bollywood actors like Shahid Kapoor.

The “fair and lovely” idea that lighter skin qualifies a person as more beautiful and successful, though it can negatively impact a person’s self-image, appears unbroken between generations of Asian, and in particular Indian, young adults.

Traditional-minded families, the media and popular culture have fed young people the belief that it is desirable to have a “fair” complexion. In India, sales for skin-whitening products increased 17 percent in the nine months prior to September 2009.

Although skin lightening cosmetics are often marketed as containing magical whitening serums, the concoctions can have dangerous side effects. They often contain heavy metals and harsh chemicals that can damage skin and leave discolored patches. In countries where consumer safety standards not rigid, it can be difficult monitor these products’ harmful side effects on consumers.

But the health risks haven’t stopped consumers from buying and the industry from growing.

Companies that market products for skin lightening have found effective ways to advertise to today’s technologically savvy youth. Vaseline Men recently introduced a Facebook application that lightens the hue of a person’s complexion in their Facebook profile picture. The virtual application is designed to promote Vaseline’s new line of skin-lightening products for men, which are aggressively marketed to appeal to many Indians’ preferences for lighter skin.

The virtual effects of the products are supposed to inspire consumers to purchase the real products for similar results.

Brilliantly advertised using the biggest stars of Bollywood cinema, the new line has been a hit in Asia.

“We started campaign advertising (for the application) from the second week of June and the response has been pretty phenomenal,” said Pankaj Parihar, spokesperson for Omnicom, the firm that designed the campaign, to Agence France-Press in July.

In recent years, the whitening products industry has more aggressively targeted men. Emani, a major Indian cosmetic line, debuted “Fair and Handsome,” a product designed specifically for men, in June 2009. Shahid Kapoor, an iconic Indian actor, was the brand ambassador.

Since then, many new companies such as Garnier, L’Oreal and Nivea have produced products that headline the biggest names in Bollywood, including John Abraham and Vivek Oberoi.

Click here to watch a Fair and Lovely skin lightening cream ad targeted toward women in India.