The Anna Hazare Movement In India : A Critical View I find the statements made by Anna Hazare and some

of his supporters like Kejriwal disturbing both in content and tone. Although Hazare claims that his movement does not have a political affiliation, it is evident from Hazare's silences and statements, including particularly his statements on August 21, 2011, that there is some co-ordination between him and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Hazare asserted that unless his version of the Lok Pal legislation is accepted, the present Central Government must "go". The same day L K Advani of the BJP demanded that the Prime Minister must resign. The objective of the Hazare movement now seems not so much to have an Ombudsman law as to bring the Government down. Tellingly, Hazare and company have focused their ire on the Central Government alone. If Hazare's intentions were as impartial as he would like us to assume, he would have asked at least such of his supporters as are from Gujarat, for example, to go back to that state to agitate for the establishment of a Lok Ayukta there. It is significant that such Members of Parliament as L K Advani, who is elected from Gujarat, are in practice exempt from the dharnas being organised by Hazare supporters. Hazare is regularly and readily described in the media as a Gandhian; yet it is on record that when Hazare was once asked about his support for the death penalty, he had responded by indicating that his ideological inspiration came from elsewhere and that he would like to keep those sources of inspiration "at the forefront". As for Kejriwal's speeches, the less said the better. But both Hazare and Kejriwal need to be made to understand that if they insult India's Parliament, they will deserve to lose whatever public support the movement has received so far. In any event, I do believe that public support to the Hazare movement needs to be more qualified and more critical. Anil Nauriya