Pune polls 2012: Anna Hazare’s ban on use of photo hurts followers

“Anna has let us down just prior to the battle of the ballot,” was how Anoop Awasthi, member of the fledgling Pune Nagarik Sangathana (PNS), reacted to the stern warning issued by veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare, asking political aspirants not to use his name or photographs for the election campaign. 

Through his lawyer, Milind Pawar, Hazare warned of legal action against those who use either his name or photograph while canvassing for votes. 

Hazare’s decision has ruffled the feathers of many of his followers, some of whom had floated the PNS to fight the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections. They reason that by refusing to endorse their candidature and putting an embargo on using his name or photograph, the anti-graft crusader had in one stroke taken away the unique advantage citizen bodies had for the civic polls. 

After the massive response to Hazare’s movement for a strong Lokpal bill, activists Vivek Velankar and others got together to float the PNS as a platform to fight the civic elections. PNS was to contest the elections with clean candidates. 

During the initial days of the movement, Hazare publicly announced that he would be campaigning for clean candidates. 

“If Anna would not have put an embargo on the use of his photograph, it would have made our work easier to project ourselves as the alternate option for the electorate,” said Velankar, while discussing the ramifications. 

“This decision of Anna was because of misuse of his name by certain miscreants. However, he should have thought about the flip side of the story also,” said Awasthi. 

According to Awasthi, Hazare instead of issuing draconian orders, should have come out in the open in support of clean candidates. 

“The 16 candidates of PNS, who would be contesting the civic polls, are known amongst the people for their clean image. If Anna would have supported them publicly, it would have certainly bettered their chances,” he said. 

Awasthi hastened to add that in spite of the absence of open support the PNS candidates would fare well in the elections. 

Hazare’s brush with electoral politics, many of his supporters point out, goes out way before the Jan Lokpal movement. In the last general and assembly elections, he had publicly campaigned for leaders cutting across party lines, like home minister RR Patil, MP Gajanan Babar and MP Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil to name but a few. 

Independent corporator from Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, Maruti Bhapkar, was critical about this decision of the anti-graft crusader. “Anna should have differentiated between other political parties and citizen groups who had worked tireless to make his movement a success,” he said. Bhapkar would be writing a letter to Hazare, protesting against this decision and urging him to reconsider his decision.