Anna Hazare started an indefinite hunger strike on 5 April 2011 to exert pressure on the Indian government to enact a stringent anti-corruption law as envisaged in the Jan Lokpal Bill, for the institution of an ombudsman with the power to deal with corruption in public places. The fast led to nation-wide protests in support of Hazare. The fast ended on 9 April 2011, a day after the government accepted Hazare's demands. The government issued a gazette notification on the formation of a joint committee, consisting of government and civil society representatives, to draft the legislation.
For the year 2011 Foreign Policy magazine has named him among top 100 global thinkers. Anna has been ranked as the most influential person in Mumbai by a national daily newspaper. He has faced criticism for his authoritarian views on justice, including death as punishment for corrupt public officials and his alleged support for forced vasectomies as a method of family planning.
Kisan Hazare was born on 15 June 1937 (some sources say 1940) in Bhingar, near to Ahmednagar. The eldest son, with two sisters and four brothers, the later adoption of the name Anna reflects the Marathi word for "elder brother". His father worked in a pharmacy and struggled to support the family financially. In time, the family moved to their ancestral village of Ralegan Siddhi, where they owned a small amount of agricultural land. A relative took on the burden of providing Kisan with an education, taking him to Mumbai because the village had no primary school. The relative became unable financially to continue the support and Kisan's schooling ended in the Standard Seventh grade; his siblings were not schooled at all. He started selling flowers at the Dadar railway station in Mumbai and was able eventually to own two flower shops in the city.[13] He also became involved in vigilantism, joining groups who acted to prevent the poor from being bullied out of their shelters by thugs in the employ of landlords.
Anna Hazare is unmarried. He has lived in a small room attached to the Sant Yadavbaba temple in Ralegan Siddhi since 1975. On 16 April 2011, he declared his bank balance of 67,183 (US$1,280) and 1,500 (US$30) as money in hand.[155] He owns 0.07 hectares of family land in Ralegan Siddhi, which is being used by his brothers. Two other pieces of land donated to him by the Indian Army and by a villager have been donated by him for village use. His only income is a pension he receives from the Indian Army.
He has said of the truck attack that "It sent me thinking. I felt that God wanted me to stay alive for some reason. I was re-born in the battlefield of Khem Karan. And I decided to dedicate my new life to serving people." He spent his spare time reading the works of Swami Vivekananda, Gandhi, and Vinoba Bhave. In a blog post, Hazare expressed his views on Kashmir by saying that it was his "active conviction that Kashmir is an integral part of India" and that if required once again for service, he would remain "ready to take part in war against Pakistan.
During the mid-1970s, Hazare survived a road accident while driving for the army. He interpreted his survival as a further sign that his life was intended to be dedicated to the service of the community. Despite subsequent allegations that he had deserted from the army, official records show that he was honourably discharged in 1975 after completing his 12 years of service.
In 1991 Hazare launched the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Aandolan (BVJA) (People's Movement against Corruption), a popular movement to fight against corruption[33] in Ralegaon Siddhi. In the same year he protested against the collusion between 40 forest officials and timber merchants. This protest resulted in the transfer and suspension of these officials.
In May 1997 Hazare protested against alleged malpractices in the purchase of powerlooms by the Vasantrao Naik Bhathya Vimukt Jhtra Governor P. C. Alexander. On 4 November 1997 Gholap filed a defamation suit against Hazare for accusing him of corruption. He was arrested in April 1998 and was released on a personal bond of 5,000 (US$100). On 9 September 1998 Hazare was imprisoned in the Yerawada Jail to serve a three-month sentence mandated by the Mumbai Metropolitan Court. The sentencing caused leaders of all political parties except the BJP and the Shiv Sena came in support of him. Later, due to public protests, the Government of Maharashtra ordered his release from the jail. After release, Hazare wrote a letter to then chief minister Manohar Joshi demanding Gholap's removal for his role in alleged malpractices in the Awami Merchant Bank. Gholap resigned from the cabinet on 27 April 1999.
In 2003 corruption charges were raised by Hazare against four NCP ministers of the Congress-NCP government. He started his fast unto death on 9 August 2003. He ended his fast on 17 August 2003 after then chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde formed a one-man commission headed by the retired justice P. B. Sawant to probe his charges. The P. B. Sawant commission report, submitted on 23 February 2005, indicted Sureshdada Jain, Nawab Malik, and Padmasinh Patil. The report exonerated Vijaykumar Gavit. Suresh Jain and Nawab Malik resigned from the cabinet in March 2005.
In the early 2000s Hazare led a movement in Maharashtra state which forced the state government to enact a revised Maharashtra Right to Information Act. This Act was later considered as the base document for the Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI), enacted by the Union Government. It also ensured that the President of India assented to this new Act.
On 20 July 2006 the Union Cabinet amended the Right to Information Act 2005 to exclude the file noting by the government officials from its purview. Hazare began his fast unto death on 9 August 2006 in Alandi against the proposed amendment. He ended his fast on 19 August 2006, after the government agreed to change its earlier decision.
Before 2006 in the state of Maharashtra, even honest government officers were transferred to other places according to ministers wish. Sometimes within months of being posted to a place, whereas some corrupt and favoured officials were cozy in their postings for many years in some cases even for 10 to 20 years and since there was not any guideline or law many government officials were reluctant to process files that contained important public proposals and decisions. Anna fought hard for a law whereby a government servant must clear a file within a specified time and that transfers must take place only after three years. After many years of relentless efforts of Anna, finally on 25 May 2006 state government of Maharashtra issued a notification announcing that the execution of the special act, The Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act 2006, aimed at curbing the delay by its officers and employees in discharging their duties. This act provides for disciplinary action against officials who move files slowly and enables monitoring officials who stay too long in a post, or in a department, and for involvement in a corrupt nexus. Within this act, it is mandatory for the government to effect transfers of all government officers and employees, except Class IV workers, after the stipulated three years. Act also prevents the government from effecting frequent transfers of officers before the stipulated three-year tenure, except in case of emergency and under exceptional circumstances. Maharashtra is the first state in the country to have introduced such act. However, like others, this law has also not been followed in its true spirit.
In 2011, Hazare initiated a Satyagraha movement for passing a stronger anti-corruption Lokpal (ombudsman) bill in the Indian Parliament as conceived in the Jan Lokpal Bill (People's Ombudsman Bill). The Jan Lokpal Bill was drafted earlier by N. Santosh Hegde, former justice of the Supreme Court of India and Lokayukta of Karnataka, Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court and Arvind Kejriwal, a social activist along with members of the India Against Corruption movement. This draft bill incorporated more stringent provisions and wider power to the Lokpal (Ombudsman) than the draft Lokpal bill prepared by the government in 2010. These include placing "the Prime Minister within the ambit of the proposed lokpal’s powers".
Hazare began his Indefinite Fast on 5 April 2011 at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to press for the demand to form a joint committee of the representatives of the Government and the civil society to draft a stronger anti-corruption bill with stronger penal actions and more independence to the Lokpal and Lokayuktas (Ombudsmen in the states), after his demand was rejected by the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh. He stated, "I will fast until Jan Lokpal Bill is passed".
The movement attracted attention in the media, and thousands of supporters. Almost 150 people reportedly joined Hazare in his fast. Social activists, including Medha Patkar, Arvind Kejriwal, former IPS officer Kiran Bedi, and Jayaprakash Narayan lent their support to Hazare's hunger strike and anti-corruption campaign. People have shown support in internet social media such as Twitter and Facebook. In addition to spiritual leaders Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Swami Ramdev, Swami Agnivesh and former Indian cricketer Kapil Dev, many celebrities showed their public support through Twitter. Hazare decided that he would not allow any politician to sit with him in this movement. Politicians like Uma Bharti and Om Prakash Chautala were shooed away by the protesters when they came to visit the site where the protest was taking place. On 6 April 2011 Sharad Pawar resigned from the group of ministers formed for reviewing the draft Lokpal bill 2010.
On 16 August 2011, Hazare was arrested four hours before the planned indefinite hunger strike. Rajan Bhagat, spokesman for Delhi Police, said police arrested Hazare under a legal provision that bans public gatherings and protests at the park in Delhi where he was planning to begin his hunger strike. Police took that action after Hazare refused to meet the conditions put forward by police for allowing the protest. The conditions included restricting the length of the fast to three days and the number of protesters at the site to 5,000. Later in the afternoon, Anna was produced before a magistrate who offered him bail but Anna Hazare refused to provide the bail bond. The magistrate sent him judicial custody for seven days and he was taken to Tihar jail. After announcements by Prashant Bhushan, local television, and social media sites (including Facebook), a march of thousands in support of Hazare began from the India Gate to Jantar Mantar.
Along with Hazare, other key members of the India Against Corruption movement including Arvind Kejriwal, Shanti Bhushan, Kiran Bedi and Manish Sisodia were also detained from different locations. It was reported that about 1,300 supporters were detained in Delhi. Media also reported that the arrest sparked off protests with people courting arrests in different parts of the country. The opposition parties in the country came out against the arrest, likening the government action to the emergency imposed in the country in 1975. Both the houses of Parliament were adjourned over the issue.
The government of the state of Maharashtra instituted a Commission of Inquiry under Justice PB Sawant in September 2003 to enquire into allegations of corruption against several people, including four ministers in the state as well as the "Hind Swaraj Trust" headed by Hazare. The Commission submitted its report on 22 February 2005 in which it indicted the Hind Swaraj Trust for corrupt practice of spending Rs. 2.20 lakhs of its funds on the birthday celebrations of Hazare. Two days ahead of Hazare's proposed indefinite fast on 16 August 2011, the ruling party of India, the Indian National Congress, launched an attack on him alleging that "the moral core of Hazare has been ripped apart" by the Justice P B Sawant Commission.
In response to this allegaton, Hazare's lawyer Milind Pawar, claimed that the commission had remarked about "irregularities" in the accounts, but had not held him guilty of any "corrupt" practices. Pawar said that on 16 June 1998, a celebration was organised to facilitate Hazare on winning an award from a US based NGO and it coincided with his 61st birthday. The trust spent Rs 2.18 lakh for the function. Abhay Phirodia, a Pune-based industrialist, who took the initiative to organise this function donated an amount of Rs 2,48,950 to the trust by cheque soon after the function.
On 22 August 2011 writer-actor Arundhati Roy accused Hazare in a newspaper article of being nonsecular. She questioned his secular credentials pointing out Hazare's "support for Raj Thackeray's Marathi Manoos xenophobia and (has praised) the 'development model' of Gujarat's CM who oversaw the 2002 pogrom against Muslims". The website of the newspaper published many responses to her article and these were mostly critical of her views. Activist Medha Patkar also strongly criticised Roy, saying that her views were misplaced.
Hazare has in the past stood in firm opposition to the Shiv Sena and BJP governments in Maharashtra. Activist and writer Asghar Ali Engineer in an EPW article on Communalism and Communal Violence reported,
The Shiv Sena is also facing serious problems from the social activist Anna Hazare who has accused its ministers of corruption and demanded their resignation. The SS-BJP government is facing serious corruption charges and is greatly worried. The Anna Hazare movement began in late November when he went on fast against the corrupt practices of the Shiv Sena ministers. The BJP initially supported the Hazare movement and now its deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde is also under a cloud. Initially the Hazare movement had created a rift between the Shiv Sena and the BJP but with Gopinath Munde himself under a cloud, both may close ranks. The Anna Hazare movement has certainly posed a great challenge for the saffron government at the end of 1996.
Hazare was accused of working for RSS and BJP's behest, and against Muslims by cleric Bukhari of the Jama Masjid. Bhukhari was subsequently criticised for being a Royal Imam and the communal comments being his personal views which did not represent the view of ordinary Muslims.
Anna Hazare has exposed large corruption in co-operative sugar factories of Maharashtra. One of the sugar factories which Anna exposed corruption of is controlled by Dr.Padamsinh Bajirao Patil, a member of Parliament of 15th Lok Sabha and higher-ranking Leader of Nationalist Congress Party from Osmanabad, and also a prime accused and conspirator in the 2006 murder case of Indian National Congress leader Pawanraje Nimabalkar.
The conspiracy to kill Hazare was exposed when Parasmal Jain, an accused in the Nimbalkar murder case, in his written confession before a magistrate said that Padamsinh Bajirao Patil had paid a sum of 3,000,000 (US$57,000) to murder Nimbalkar, and also offered him supari (contract killing sum) to kill Anna Hazare. After this written confession, Anna appealed to the state government of Maharashtra to lodge a separate First Information Report ( FIR ) against Padamsinh Bajirao Patil for conspiring to murder him but the government did not take any action in this regard. Anna Hazare decided to lodge a complaint himself and on 26 September 2009, he lodged complaint at Parner police station of Ahmednagar District in Maharashtra against the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Padamsinha Patil for conspiring to eliminate him. Padamsinh Patil approached the High Court seeking anticipatory bail but on 14 October 2009, the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court rejected the anticipatory bail application of Padamsinh Patil in connection with a complaint filed by Anna after observing that there is a prima facie evidence against him.
Padmasinh Patil appealed for an anticipatory bail in Supreme Court of India which the court rejected on 6 November 2009. On 11 November 2009 Padmasinh Patil surrendered before the sessions court in Latur as per a directive of the Supreme Court and was sent to judicial remand for 14 days. On 16 December 2009 Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court granted bail to him. As of 16 August 2011, the verdict is pending.
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