Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption struggle and village reforms have fuelled the imagination of many in Uttar Pradesh. Two social activists from Kanpur have been camping in Hazare’s village, Ralegan Siddhi, to learn the nitty-gritty of his village-level reforms to replicate them in their home state.
Vivek Dixit, a young politician, and AK Chaturvedi, a retired professional, were enthused with Hazare’s call for a strong Lokpal bill and like thousand others organised protest rallies in Kanpur in August. Subsequently, the duo visited Ralegan Siddhi to study the success of the Gandhian’s success with village reforms and his fight against corruption through the Bhrastyachar Virodhi Jan Andolan (BVJA).
“To fight corruption in a systematic manner, we decided to form a non political outfit named Yuva Shakti Desh Bajao Andolan and emulate Anna’s experiment in Uttar Pradesh,” Dixit said.
Dixit claimed that in the last four month, their organisation has taken the cudgels against many government offices where corruption is rampant.
“When people come to us with specific complaints, our volunteers go to the offices concerned. At times, we send our volunteers and photographers with the complainant and take photos of the official asking for or receiving bribes and later give those pictures to the media. This is our way of trying to create a fear psychosis amongst the corrupt,” he said.
Although their movement has been received well by the common people, both felt the need for a proper administrative framework to continue their crusade.
“So we decided to seek guidance in terms of administrative framework from Anna’s BVJA trust and we have been in Ralegan Siddhi for the past 10 days,” he said.
