Freedom Park - Lokpal

At the height of the August agitation against corruption led by Anna Hazare, the people started coming on the streets, the numbers increasing day by day from August 16th. I started supporting the movement wholeheartedly after reviewing the points of the government, Anna's team and the sequence of events.

For sequence of events, please read the minutes of meeting (which not many people seem to be aware of):

http://www.lokpalbillconsultation.org/page.php?page=3

For the synopsis of Lokpal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CHcKlIsvAQ

On day 6 of the movement, I finally managed to go to Freedom Park, the epicenter of movement in Bangalore. I arrived at 2:30pm and headed to the stage area where all the events were happening.

The stage area had around 20 - 30 people fasting, including a woman who was fasting from Aug 16 without water. Actor Vishnuvardhan's wife was also present among these people. But otherwise, the stage hosted various speakers and singers throughout the day.

When I arrived, the mobile phone numbers of all Members of Parliament were being announced so that people could sms and call these to ask each one of them for support. Creative stuff... good engagement with the crowd and increased the energy level.

Next, a swamiji came on stage who spoke in kannada but had the crowd on such a high with his speech on corruption ranging in both politics and religion. Wherever I could follow, it was really good stuff. Crowd was whistling and cheering wildly.

Among some other highlights for the 4 hours I spent were some children singing patriotic songs and other good speeches. But the ultimate of them all was the one from the head of the Gurudwara in bangalore who had some 300 people with him from the Sikh community. He apologized on behalf of his community for the actions of Manmohan Singh... making a really bold speech on how even though the PM maintained a very clean image of himself his claim to ignorance on corruption happening around him was just nonsense, and how it took 3 years for his government to arrest Raja but took only 3 days to take a wrong decision to arrest Anna. The crowd couldn't really expect to hear a more bold speech from a person taking pride in his community.

Some images of the crowd:

The crowd shouting slogans and waving tricolor all around, let me say this on a level headed basis that it was a very genuine coming together of people for a heartfelt cause. There is nothing superficial about this and especially I, an otherwise skeptic about everything, am convinced that now the government has no other go but to listen to the demands of the people. People on both sides now understand that the MPs and MLAs are public servants. We dont need to fight elections to make our voice heard, its rather the government who should understand our essential needs and listen to us.

Little drops make a mighty ocean indeed... and now I believe.

During this whole time of course, there were songs from Vandemataram (ARR), Rang de Basanti, Lagaan etc being played in between all the speeches and stage programs which gave the crowd a reason to sing, rejoice and get entertained. As "V" says in "V for Vendetta": Whats a revolution without a celebration?