<img alt="" src="/imagedata/2010/jun/nanjappa.jpg" align="left" border="0" />What is the point of Anna Hazare? Don't get me wrong. Sure, he's doing more than the average Joe and putting himself out on a limb against corruption. Even while depriving himself of food and other such necessities. Idealists like a certain Vice President from Morgan Stanley, Hong Kong and thousands of young passionate people are marching the streets and thronging the gates of Tihar. But what is the point? Does anyone really think things are going to change? A couple of scapegoats will go to jail for a month or two and then as the well-oiled (by money) machine cranks into inexorable place, they'll be back outside with their hands in the honey pots. Pay a thought to the mountains of moolah that have already been sucked into the vast corruption quagmire.u00a0 Does anyone seriously think that the Karunanidhi Clan, the Maya Mafia and the Reddy-Yeddy Regatta are going to return even a fraction of the many crores they made (and make!). Forget even a fraction of the crores coming back to public good. They'll all be acquiring a tan in St Kitts (turning from black money to brown!) and chortling with glee as they are used to fund companies and private jets with equal abandon.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0 They say there's a Malayali tea shop in every corner of this country. Well, make that a chai store and a corrupt scamster. I have a corporator who is never seen in her office . A cop who looks at me with a slimy grin and a palm outstretched every time I need the law on my side. And an electricity supervisor who cuts the plug when he wants a little charge in his pocket. And it all trickles down from the top. We elect people to power only because they give us free washing machines and empty promises. And then we turn a blind eye to their shenanigans when they're on the take.u00a0 So what's the point of Anna's fast. The Annas of the underworld and the Ammas in the political circle are so much more powerful than a hungry man and the thousands who stand behind him. The Bill will be tabled. The na ve throngs that we are, will scream victory. The Opposition will wave its saffron hue and exhort that they have triumphed over corruption. And then things will go back to the merry money way of the guys in the gaddis.u00a0

The politics of friendship

Don't get me wrong. Sure, he's doing more than the average Joe and putting himself out on a limb against corruption

The hunger of the hordes

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The hunger of the hordes

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