Cannot kill an idea.

The freeloading press has been engaged in a systematic campaign of lies and sermons to discredit and divide the civil society movement, led by Anna Hazare, against corruption. The first line of attack is that politicians and civil servants are criminals because we allow them to be. By paying bribes to get our work done and not taking part in elections the people, especially the educated class, are responsible. Tar everyone with the same brush and the real criminals escape. What they fail to point out is that although everyone should be saints it is the politicians who have taken an oath to protect the constitution and hence are guilty of treason. Also ordinary people have no defence against persecution by a vindictive government. There are always the dregs of society who will follow anyone in power no matter how repulsive he is. Thus Hitler was able to turn Germans into Nazis, Stalin turned Soviet Union into such a repressive police state that a man would testify against his own brother and Mao's Red Guards wreaked such terrible savagery in the name of Cultural Revolution that 10 million people perished. The government has such a stranglehold on our lives that paying a bribe is sometimes the only means of survival. If you buy land for, say, Rs 5 million you will not be able to register ownership without paying a bribe which means you cannot get electricity or water connections. You will not get planning permission without paying a bribe so will not be able to build your dream house and after building you will not get a completion certificate without paying a bribe. If you complain to the police the officer will be merely transferred and before going will tell his successor to brand you as a troublemaker. Your file will keep getting lost and you will have to pay a bribe on your knees to protect your life's savings. To say that we are all criminals is a vicious lie put about by criminal politicians and faithfully repeated by the press. The second prong of attack is to taunt people by saying that since we merely criticise without doing anything about it we are just full of hot air and hence should shut up. By constant goading the press has succeeded in getting Hazare to form a party to contest elections. Since he has no black money and goons to resist physical attacks by opponents he will lose badly. The lying press will then trumpet it as a rejection of Anna Hazare and his followers. What the politicians and the lying press do not realise is that Hazare has already won. He has managed to portray the politicians as criminals in the minds of the people and it will not change whatever they do. You can persecute us but you cannot change our minds. Criticism works.