Dear Ganesan,

Thank you for your reply.

I was almost expecting an answer similar, and I've been quite close.

A difference seems to have existed in our opinions and perspectives from day one (if you still remember your concern over one of my earliest posts being potential spam. Nothing wrong with it though; in fact that is one of my dearer memories today, for that is how we came to converse ).

If I'm not too wrong, then the difference between us has largely been on -

Whether, in the Analysis of the Present Situation (Corruption) and the Devising of its Corrective Measures and Strategies, we should include parameters of the -

(a) the Past

(b) other streams of thought like Patriotism, Leadership etc. and People related thereto

I'm going to address this difference today.

But before I begin, I need to spell out something off the top of my heart. And that is - although our differences have often been sharp (at least seemingly), I have always felt, and sensed, that we have both silently appreciated each other.

And the greatest thing I've always felt about you is - my country, my nation, is indeed fortunate and blessed to have a citizen like you. That people like you reside in this land, gives me hope, that one day, we will certainly win this war against corruption. Why that is so, I'll explain in the course of this post. That is also going to be crucial in explaining why our differences exist, and why they're actually NOT differences.

Let me now begin addressing the issue today. It's going to be tough, so let me take this on point-by-point.

WHY AM I TALKING ABOUT THE PAST ? ESPECIALLY THE TIME AND THE LEADERS OF OUR NATIONAL FREEDOM MOVEMENT ?

Ganesan, I do not know whether you see it, but I do - HISTORY IS REPEATING.

Why is Anna talking about the Past ? The Same Past ? He talks about Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru - why does he ?

He calls the War Against Corruption the "Second Freedom Struggle" ? Why does he ? If he calls it the "Second" Freedom Struggle, then there MUST SURELY HAVE BEEN A FIRST ? WHICH is that FIRST ? Clearly, it has to be our National Freedom Movement. I don't see any other, and I hope you agree with me on that.

Is Anna wrong in talking about the Past ? About the people connected with that Past ?

But that's just the tip of the berg. The ones that I'm going to talk about now are going to delve even deeper. Buckle your seat-belts !

WHY AM I PUSHING THE BOSE LINE INSTEAD OF THE GANDHI LINE ? IN FACT, WHY AM I ALTOGETHER DECRYING THE LATTER ?

A very important Part Two.

I told you - HISTORY IS REPEATING. And it's repeating in ways - oh my God !

Lets flashback for a moment to our Independence Struggle - specifically the Non-Cooperation Movement. The movement began in 1920 on the call of Gandhi, but petered out by 1922. The usual picture drawn up to explain this is the Chauri-Chaura, citing that Gandhi withdrew the movement after the killing of 22 policemen.

Right ? WRONG.

That is the abridged, adapted, doctored, engineered and all-skills-tried history that is today presented in our Curricular and other text books. Read the Real History. Read R.C Mazumdar's 3-Volume Compendium on the Indian National Movement.

This treasure will tell you that the movement was already petering out by 1922, and Gandhi had to call off the movement lest it either diverted into more ugly riots and violence, or completely dry out.

Why was the movement - such an important one as the Non-Cooperation Movement - flickering off by 1922 ? Why did it have to come to such an unceremonious end ?

Fast Forward to the Civil Disobedience Movement Part - I 1931, and Part - II 1934. Both showed great thunder and fury in the beginning, but then fizzled away like wisps of smoke in the face of strong repression by the British Government.

A Fate No Different for the Quit India Movement, 1942. In fact, it was worse. It couldn't even stand out for a month.

But why am I talking about this here ? What does this have to do with our Anti-Corruption Movement ?

The answer in the next section.

BUT WHAT HAS ALL THIS TO DO HERE ? AND WHERE IS - "HISTORY REPEATING" ?

I guess you've already seen where "history is repeating"; if not, let me show you.

But before I do so, let me first say that this is all with complete respect to Anna. He is my leader, and he'll always be. There is no way I could even think of deriding him; for one, I don't have any intentions, and two, even if I wanted to (which wouldn't even happen in the wildest of my dreams), I couldn't - I just don't measure up; I simply don't have enough size.

Ok...here's where history turns its wheel.

Part - I - Anna's first Anshan (hunger-strike) - after a severe penance of six days, he manages an assurance from the Central Government that the Lokpal Bill would be passed, and the Jan Lokpal would be considered, BUT the HARD ASSURANCE and FINER POINTS are missing.

Part - II - Anna's Second Hunger-strike - this time he stretches to twelve days, but has only an assurance of RECONSIDERATION of the bill, but NO HARD ASSURANCE again.

Part - III - Anna's Third Hunger Strike - he begins, but contracts a fever, and has to suspend the programme.

Has the Movement Fizzled Out ?

Whether the movement has run dry or not, only time will tell. But, assuming that it has NOT, how many times more will we subject Anna to the same penance over and over again ? How many times will we ask him to don the cap of thorns, and walk the mound of fire ?

Isn't it time we started thinking ?

Why wasn't such a strong movement able to achieve what it set out for ?

What went Wrong ?

Is there a similarity between the fates of all Gandhian Movements (Non-Cooperation, Civil Disobedience, Quit India etc) and Anna's Movement ?

IN OTHER WORDS, IS THERE A SIMILARITY BETWEEN OUR PAST AND PRESENT ?

I hope you've already begun to see there is.

Both built up great force in the beginning, but fizzed out later.

WHY ?

Lets begin by looking at the IMPORTANCE OF BOSE TODAY.

(1) When the First Gandhi Failed, Success was achieved by the methods of - BOSE.

(2) When the SECOND GANDHI HAS FAILED (IF HE HAS, HOWEVER WITH ALL RESPECTS TO HIM), SUCCESS WILL BE ACHIEVED AGAIN BY THE METHODS OF - BOSE.

TRY IT. THAT'S MY GUARANTEE !

In my opinion, the Second Gandhi is a much better Gandhi than the First - much cleaner, more honest, more transparent, more patriotic, more rational. And that is why while I DO NOT AT ALL LIKE THE FIRST GANDHI, I LOVE THE SECOND ONE, AND ACCEPT HIM TO BE MY LEADER.

But I suspect even his methods might not work. Here's why.

WHY WOULD BOSE SUCCEED AND GANDHI NOT ?

To begin with, let me first remind you of the WEAPONS I spoke about in the VERY FIRST POST OF THIS THREAD - BOSE'S QUALITIES - BRAVERY, PATRIOTISM, INTELLIGENCE, EDUCATION, WISDOM, LOVE, SACRIFICE, DEVOTION, FARSIGHTEDNESS, DYNAMISM AND RESOURCEFULNESS.

Of these, Bravery, Patriotism, Wisdom, Love, Sacrifice, Devotion are Personal or Psychological Qualities that I feel a lot of people connected with this movement already have. Hence, I'm going to focus on the others, and show you how these would make a big difference to us.

The Other Qualities - INTELLIGENCE, EDUCATION, FARSIGHTEDNESS, DYNAMISM AND RESOURCEFULNESS.

(1) PLAN, PLAN, PLAN, PLAN, PLAN :- The first hallmark of a man bearing intelligence is that he PLANS. As they say - "FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANNING TO FAIL".

This was the first BIG difference between Gandhi and Bose. Bose always believed in planning, Gandhi never did.

This is very evident from Bose's Memoir - The Indian Struggle. He recollects that in the year 1921, when he went to visit Gandhi in his Sabarmati Ashram, he had asked him for a concrete plan for achieving Independence. But Gandhi talked only about soul-force and satyagraha, and failed to provide him with any plan.

In Boses's own words - "......There was a deplorable lack of clarity in the plan which the Mahatma had formulated and that he didn't himself have a clear idea of the successive stages of the campaign......" (The Indian Struggle, by Subhash Chandra Bose, page 59).

Gandhi's futility of believing in soul-force was well demonstrated in 1942, when the Soul of the Quit India Movement was crushed by a shower of bullets from Allied (World War - II) warplanes in a span of less than two hours.

But much before that, in the Non-Coop Movement (1920-22), responding to his call, students quit colleges, many govt. employees left their jobs and joined the Non-Coop Movement. But the movement failed to provide its participants with further education or livelihood. Consequently, after some time, it began to abate, and Gandhi had to call it back lest it ventured out of control.

Bose on the other hand meticulously studied all Political Developments not just in India, but also across the World. He analysed the situation objectively, planned and prepared himself, and then took action. THE DIFFERENCE - HE SUCCEEDED !

As a very good source on this, I'd urge you to go through this resource -

Who Brought Freedom, Gandhi or Netaji? – Folks Magazine (LINK)

(2) EDUCATION MATTERS :- Though Gandhi was a lawyer educated in South Africa, and among the British, when it came to his personal philosophy in life, he almost orthodoxly restricted himself to the Ramayana, and many other trivial rituals, and asked all others to do so, in proportions that almost seem like coercion to me. Was it his fault ? I guess not - well, maybe not. At least not the whole of it. It was the doing of the surroundings he was brought up in.

But then that made a difference to our Indian Freedom Movement. In 1942, when Subhash Bose was hottening up things in the South-East Asian theatre of war, Gandhi was busy giving enemas to his ashram-mates, ensuring the cleaning of their bowels for their "inner purity".

Who do you think would succeed ? Would Gandhi even stand a fighting chance against Subhash, if it came to liberating the country from the British Rule ? You tell me.

(3) FARSIGHTEDNESS, DYNAMISM AND RESOURCEFULNESS :- Simply put, you just can't be a LEADER without these.

It were these very three qualities that determined that Subhash Bose was able to spot the opportunity of liberating India in World War - II, and use it to fruition, while Gandhi and many others weren't.

Whom would you call a leader ? A REAL LEADER ?

OK....A LOT OF HISTORICAL GYAN....NOW HOW DOES THIS AFFECT US TODAY ?

(1) PLAN, PLAN, PLAN, PLAN, PLAN :-

(a) For One, the whole Anti-Corruption movement began without a plan. But then, could anybody have planned it ? The intention was only for Anna to go on a silent hunger-strike in a corner of the Jantar-Mantar. That it would suddenly assume such humongous proportions would have been out of the wildest dreams of many.

(b) But that was only for Phase-I. When the movement did take on the mass it did, one would have expected better planning. That never happened.

(c) There was a huge gap of six months (or maybe even more) between Anna's first anshan and when the Lokpal was to be discussed in the Parliament. In my opinion, a good leadership would have made much more of the situation than it did. All my due respects to Shri Arvind Kejriwal, Shrimati Kiran Bedi, Shri Prashant Bhushan and Shri Shanti Bhushan - they are all icons for India - but still I feel, the situation could have been better handled, the time could have been better utilised.

(d) A stark example of a mismanaged leadership was THIS FORUM. I don't know whether Mr. Kejriwal, Ms. Bedi, and Shri Bhushan have anything to do with this INDIA AGAINST CORRUPTION forum. A big chunk of this nation, as well as many NRIs had been pouring their hearts out here, but strangely, there was little response from the Leadership on stage. One would have expected they would take better care of it. If the front-line leadership was busy, they could have deputed a few others to engage the contributors. BUT NOTHING EXCEPT AN EERIE SILENCE RULED. DISCUSSION BUILT UP AND WENT WASTED FOR LACK OF DIRECTION. I can cite my own case here, for after having put in more than 300 posts here, I couldn't figure out whether my writings were making any difference to the movement, or I was just wasting my time when I could've done something more productive for my nation. Obviously - I left. TO ME, A CASE OF CLEAR LEADERSHIP GAP. REASON - PROBABLY INSUFFICIENT PLANNING.

(2) FARSIGHTEDNESS, DYNAMISM AND RESOURCEFULNESS :- A Leadership gap staring you in the face tells you enough about these, or the lack thereof. I don't think I need to elucidate more.

RESULT - OPPORTUNITY WASTED ! AND ANNA ENDURING THE SUFFERING - AND GETTING WHAT IN RETURN ?

I wish to make it clear once again that in no way I'm trying to belittle Mr. Kejriwal, Ms. Bedi or Shri Bhushan. They are icons for India, and we hold every one of them in high esteem. However, I did see some leadership gaps in the movement, and I've only elicited my views about them.

In other words, I saw a lot of Activists, but NOT any Leaders.

BUT A MOVEMENT CANNOT SURVIVE WITHOUT A LEADER. AN ABLE LEADER.

AND THAT IS WHY, TODAY IF THIS COUNTRY WANTS A SUCCESSFUL MOVEMENT, IT HAS TO HAVE PEOPLE AT THE HELM THAT HAVE ALL THOSE VIRTUES INSIDE THEM.

ALL THOSE VIRTUES - THE QUALITIES OF BOSE.

IN SHORT - CREATING A BOSE WITHIN OURSELVES. AS MANY AS WE CAN.

THAT IS THE NECESSITY OF BOSE TODAY.

THE PAST IS BEING PLAYED BACK BEFORE US ONCE AGAIN. THE SAME PROBLEMS, ONLY IN A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT PACKAGING.

THE PAST ISN'T REALLY AS IRRELEVANT AS YOU THINK IT IS.

AND NEITHER IS BOSE.

OUR PAST HAS THE ANSWER TO OUR PRESENT - AND THAT IS BOSE.

WHY NOT THEN TAKE THAT ANSWER, ESPECIALLY WHEN WE ARE HANKERING FOR IT IN THE DARK ? IF NOT THE ENTIRE ANSWER, THEN AT LEAST A CLUE FROM IT.

DID YOU NOW UNDERSTAND WHY I'M TALKING SO MUCH ABOUT BOSE HERE ?

But then....

But then, not everyone here needs to read my articles on Bose. These are not meant for everyone. Precisely, my articles on Bose are not meant for people like you !

Exactly ! Not for people like you.

Stunned ? Don't be. Read Ahead.

For you already are what my articles on Bose try to make people. They try to inculcate the qualities of Bose in them. For that is the need of the hour. But you already possess the qualities that Netaji would have liked to see in his Indian children. You are educated, and very so. You have a clear and clean thought process. You are strongly rational, and do not base your thought, decisions and actions on mere whim. You ask for reason, and provide when asked for.

And that is exactly why I said that my nation is indeed fortunate and blessed to have people like you.

My articles here on Bose are for the masses. Not everyone has the qualities you possess. Take a look around the Forum and you'll understand. Some here are absolutely flabbergasted at the turn of events and desperately looking for a way out. They seem to be apprehensive, anxious, nervous, scared and unable to figure out where to go next. It is in this moment of strong confusion that we as fellow-citizens need to stand beside them. Help them find their way. And what better way to do that than to aid them find a strong philosophy in life ? What better way to assure them, to help them find success, to help them find the leader within themselves ? And therefore I teach them Bose.

That people like you reside in this land, gives me hope, that one day, we will certainly win this war against corruption.

For with people like you present, I feel I can devote my time to the masses. Energise them, mobilise them. Safe in the thought that, when the day of reckoning comes, you'll be there at the helm to take charge of the affairs.

It is in the masses where India lies. It is in the masses that the future of this country lies. It is in the masses that the source of our hunger and poverty lies, and therefore the seat of crime too. And so, it is in the masses that the source of exploitation and abuse of our democratic power lies.

Hence the masses have to be made stronger. Otherwise we'd never be able to break this vicious cycle.

AND WHEN YOU SAY THAT CORRUPTION WAS NOT AN ISSUE DURING INDEPENDENCE

That is wrong. Entirely wrong.

It is not only our present, but also our past that was steeped in corruption - our Independence Movement included.

I've posted about this earlier in several articles on this forum. For example, search for the two words "GBABA" and "NCHACHA" and you'll understand from the results what I'm trying to talk about.

The biggest evidence of Corruption in our Freedom Movement is wide before us - THE DIVISION OF INDIA INTO INDIA AND PAKISTAN.

Had this not been for the Greed and Corruption of our Leaders of the time, including some of the Biggest Names, India would still have been one country.

I'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT SUBHASH FROM ALMOST DAY ONE HERE. WAS I ALWAYS APPREHENSIVE THAT THE MOVEMENT WOULD NOT SUCCEED ?

Ok...I'll let you on to the secret...Right you are.

Yes I was apprehensive....no, not only apprehensive, but I could say I almost knew from the very beginning that the movement would not succeed.

Why ?

Again that very simple reason. I'VE READ THROUGH AND ANALYSED A LOT OF HISTORY TO KNOW THAT GANDHISM CAN NEVER SUCCEED. And when I saw that this movement being based on Gandhism, I immediately became certain of its outcome.

And to this I'm laying a challenge - START ANY MOVEMENT BASED ON GANDHISM - ESPECIALLY WHEN IT HAS TO ACHIEVE SOMETHING TOUGH - AND IT WILL FAIL !

IT MAY WORK UP GREAT STEAM AND THUNDER IN THE BEGINNING, BUT EVENTUALLY IT WILL PETER OUT.

I had seen this coming, and I knew that the only way this country would ever achieve freedom from corruption was to prepare itself the Bose way. And that is why I had started doing what little I could to make people more aware and educated about Bose.

I see that paying off somewhat now - even though nothing mentionable was happening offline, and not much care was being taken of this forum online, some activity was going on. People did find this article to comment upon. But the biggest difference I see now is that people have started talking a lot more about Bose than before, on this forum as well as on other sites. I do not know whether my little effort had any role to play in it, but I'm very happy that it is happening.

DOES THAT MEAN THAT ANNA HAS BECOME UNIMPORTANT FOR US ?

Never. That can never be.

The importance of Anna should not be judged by how much of the Jan Lokpal he was able to achieve, but by what he did for us.

He, an old man of eighty, went on a fast for 12 days at a stretch. He suffered so that he could make us stronger, make us more united. And he succeeded in that. The entire nation emerged as one behind him.

We Indians have a value of respecting our Elders. It is a big part of our Indian identity. And having seen Anna, I'm relieved that that part of our culture is going to continue for a long time ahead.

Anna taught us once again to respect our elders, not by prefect, but by example.

But the greatest value of Anna lies in what he gave us - A CLEAN START TO A CLEANLINESS MOVEMENT.

IT IS NOW UP TO US TO CARRY THIS MOVEMENT AHEAD. THE SECOND GANDHI OF OUR NATION HAS STARTED IT; IT IS NOW TIME FOR THE MILLIONS OF BOSE-s OF THIS COUNTRY TO TAKE IT TO COMPLETION.

AND THAT WE WILL ! VANDE MATARAM !