Right to left, on Hazare’s Ahmedabad visit
Ahmedabad, 26 May, 2011

Anna Hazare’s rally in Ahmedabad was near flop show as only 1000-1500 people attended it. The rally was organized on narrow foot path of Sardar garden. Most of the people present in the rally were people displaced from Sabarmati river front.

About 50 minute long boring speech of Agnivesh had only one good halt when his mike didn’t work for a while and one person taking benefit of this stood up just near the stage and asked Agnivesh, “what are you talking against corruption, this Mallik Sarabhai sitting on the stage is herself corrupt. My father is poor mill worker and Sarabhai doesn’t give us our Rupees for last two and half decades.” Agnivesh heard this but as soon as his mike was working again, he started speaking on ‘wider web of corruption.’

When the rally(was it a rally?) was in its departing phase, one poor Muslim lady said, “we are displaced people of Sarbamati river front, we have no house to live at present, but Mallika Sarabhai and others collected fifty rupees from us and promised that our problem would be solved. But here in this rally, there’s nothing for us. We think we are called in this rally only to show some presence of public.”

The lady was right as most of the people in this poor rally were slum dwellers of nearby river front.

Anna Hazare’s today’s visit to Ahmedabad was completely arranged and organized by people who are known as leftists and socialists in Ahmedabad. It’s very small group with masks ranging from ‘Gandhians’ to ‘Activists’.

This small vocal group known for their forever anti-Modi stand, first drove Anna directly from airport to Sabarmati river front site where illegal slums are removed by civic authority. This group then arranged a public hearing programme at Gujarat Vidyapith in presence of Anna Hazare. Leftist and socialist ‘NGO’ workers from different parts of Gujarat came and talked about various issues, mostly targeting the state government. Now in any state you can find 100 people who are affected due to state’s policy or action. This show was arranged to make an impression on Anna against the state govt that Anna had praised some time back.

It was this event only in which Anna said, “I find ghotala and ghotala here.”

If Anna was referring to ghotalas of those who invited him with an anti-Modi agenda rather than anti-corruption agenda, he could be right, but it was not so.

We don’t know whether Anna’s RSS friends called Anna over phone and alerted him or not. But in later part of his visit, Anna was mum about Gujarat govt.

From Vidyapith, Anna was taken to the house of Mallika Sarabhai in Usmanpura. Here his press meet was scheduled. However Hazare avoided press for a long time. He was sitting in a live telecast of Gujarati channel for a brief time. Mallika told media persons that Hazare was resting.

In live telecast, when asked about ‘gotalas’ he was referring to in his statement earlier in day, Anna said he would look into the documents given to him about ‘gotalas’ during morning session at Vidyapith. Anna however categorically criticized the poor implementation of liquor prohibition in the state, but that too after a group of ladies was put before him (with defame Modi govt agenda) complaining about liquor availability in the state even after prohibition. Anna shockingly stated that he saw a country liquor shop with long queue a day before in Gujarat. Now the fact is that while liquor is available in Gujarat and it is known fact, there’s no such shop or queue. We wonder where Anna saw such shop and queue? We Gujaratis living here from birth are curious about his this statement!

Anna Hazare was mum on Gujarat or Modi during his rally in the evening. However in his this public meeting Agnivesh spitted venom against Modi and Gujarat. So the rally was not apolitical. Agnivesh is known for his bias on several things including Modi. ( we were thinking and talking about that corruption is better than one-hour-long boring speeches of Agnivesh and others).

Hazare in his speech, spoke most of the time the repeated things, that we heard earlier. One thing to note was that Hazare spoke like a self obsessed person. He was narrating how he took wicket of six ministers, how he lives simply in mandir, how the government of Maharashtra was forced by the public to free him from jail etc.

Hazare’s event could be arranged in Air conditioned hall, or a good ground with presence of elite people and youths for larger impact, but this could happen if his visit could be organized through a group of publicly accepted local people.

In Surat, Hazare’s meet was planned by one Mathurbhai Sawani and others who work apolitically in the area of community development and water recharging. However as soon as some people complained Anna that his meeting was supported by supporters of right ideology, Anna reportedly canceled his Surat visit. ( It seems Anna is fearful from anti-RSS dominated media, it seems Anna is nowadays much image conscious and keeps distance from right. It seems that Medhas and Agnivesh and others have taken control over Anna).

It should be mentioned that Anna’s movement has been led in Gujarat by dancer Mallika Sarabhai.

Sarabhai had in past faced writ in Gujarat High Court for allegedly unfairly receiving planning commission’s TV series on Doordarshan. A case of ‘Kabutarbaji’ was also filed against Sarabhai in past. Mallika stood against Advani in last Loksabha election with support of left party, however she lost deposit. When Anna was sitting on fast in Delhi, Mallika was busy presenting herself before this channel’s camera and that Chennai/Delhi based correspondent, however not dozen people gathered to support Hazare in Ahmedabad with Sarabhai.

Hazare is kind person. In haste of building nationwide network and influence, he is taking support without filtration. Another thing worth noticing is that Hazare fears from anti-RSS dominated media, and therefore publicly doesn’t mix with right people. But as media has no problem with activists kinds of left people, Hazare is comfortable accepting support of them.

Ambitions pollute a man. Hazare’s ambition to spread network and influence nationwide needs people. But then Medha Patkars, Sarabhais and Agnivesh of this world would rather harm Anna’s ambition than adding force to it. At least we in Gujarat better understand the things.