Fast track to final law

Fasting is a strange and time-slowing experience. In 24 hours, a fast brings self-awareness and a shift of perspective. The morning is cramped with hunger and the afternoon droops into a headache and a dull sense of lethargy. Then night comes and a forgetfulness of what it ever felt like to be full sinks in. But something else happens, too -- you forget that you are physically hungry.

You realize that there are other things to hunger for, whether it is the feeling of lying outside and drifting, thinking of what you never have the time to think of or awareness of proximity to another person. Hunger, even for a day, can change views.

But Indian activist Anna Hazare's hunger lasted 12 days. Hazare, 75, vowed to starve until India's Parliament created legislation to establish an independent anticorruption agency with the authority to scrutinize government officials, according to The New York Times. Hazare was backed by hundreds of thousands of supporters while he fasted in New Delhi.

Under the pressure of the Hazare movement, the Indian Parliament issued the resolution to create the Lokpal Anticorruption Agency Aug. 27 after a unanimous vote by the two houses. The resolution included motions requested by Hazare to instate anticorruption agencies at the state level as well. Legislative steps will continue within a specific parliamentary committee before the final law is passed.

With the passing of the resolution, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced publicly that "The will of Parliament is the will of the people." Though it cost him 15 pounds, Hazare's movement built an abstract platform around which those opposed to government corruption could peacefully protest. His bodily hunger magnified his and other protester's hunger for what they perceive to be honest politics and an improved quality of life.

Other Indian activists, like Aruna Roy, are critical of the Hazare movement. The Times quoted her statement that "the tactics are Gandhian but the spirit is not." Perhaps hunger truly was the answer, and perhaps its publicized embodiment is capable of motivating nonviolent opposition. But was Hazare's intention really peace?

Other critics wonder whether Hazare is too close-minded to think that a Lokpal agency is the only solution to corruption. They wonder whether the Lokpal as one omnipotent organization could incite further issues of power distribution throughout the government system. Roy, in particular, is more supportive of the concept of establishing multiple Lokpal-like agencies in order to balance the new scrutinizing authority.

But who can say for certain what the outcome will be, which step is right and which is wrong? Back in Richmond, all we can do is read and wonder. And all of this is an ocean away.

At times like this, I feel lucky to still be in college. I feel lucky to be relatively free of political issues aside from class discussions. I am surrounded by people who have no need to go hungry, and whose only hunger is in the figurative sense. We are lucky to hunger to support a cause, or just a friend. To hunger for an experience we have never had. To hunger for what we have yet to make of ourselves.

Contact staff writer Katie Toussaint at katie.toussaint@richmond.edu