Why Anna will achieve little with new Bills and laws

Abstract

India is a relationship-based society and not a rule-based one. This means even with the best of laws, Lokpal or Jan Lokpal, corruption will not go away. We need a different approach. A few young men and women who went to Jantar Mantar to observe a fasting Anna Hazare told me that he was very simple and awesome! For this generation, with its torn jeans and T-shirts, even the fact that an old man can tie a dhoti in the traditional fashion and wear a Gandhi cap and sit cross-legged for so many hours is “awesome”.

Anna’s fast was categorised as the start of the second war of Independence as well as a “tilting point in Indian history” by an adolescent electronic media – a media that is less than 20 years old.

I told the youngsters that in 1961, the Dowry Prohibition Act was passed by Parliament with lots of fanfare. It was declared “historic” by the then law minister, Ashok Sen, and also Jawaharlal Nehru. Celebrations were held in many cities. Unfortunately, dowry is far from gone. In some ways, the menace has only grown. Read more at: https://www.firstpost.com/politics/why-anna-will-achieve-little-with-new-bills-and-laws-73563.html