Kisan Bapat Baburao Hazare popularly known as Anna Hazare is an Indian social activist and anarcho-pacifist.

He was born on 15 January 1940 in a small village of Maharashtra. He is especially recognised for his contribution to the development of Ralegan Siddhi, a village in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra . He calls himself a fakir a man who has no family, no property and no bank balance. He lives in a 10ft x 10ft Spartan room attached to the Yadavbaba temple in Ahmednagar's Ralegan Siddhi village, and wears only khadi. Hazare had six younger siblings and the family faced significant hardships. Hazare's childless aunt offered to look after him and his education, and took Anna to Mumbai. Hazare studied up to the 7th standard in Bombay and then sought employment, due to the economic situation in his household. He started selling flowers at Dadar to support his family. He soon started his own shop and brought two of his brothers to Bombay. He started his career in the Indian Army as a driver in 1963. While he was in Indian Army he spent his spare time reading the works of Vivekananda, Gandhi, and Vinoba Bhave; they inspired him to become a social worker and activist. Movements like uprooting alcoholism, watershed development programme, increasment in milk production & education, removal of untouchability & collective marriages had transformed many villages of Maharashtra which is a result of his hard work. He also had many protests like anticorruption protest, right to information movement & campaign against liquor from food grains. His achievements have won him many awards like the Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra award, the Krishi Bhushana award, the Padma Shree, Padma Bhushana and the Ramon Magsaysay award.

After leading a number of nonviolent protests in

a Satyagraha movement (fast unto death) on 5 April 2011 to exert pressure on the government of India to enact a strong anti-corruption act as envisaged in the power to deal with corruption in public offices. the Jan Lokpal Bill, a law to establish a Lokpal with However, Lokpal Bills were introduced in the

Maharashtra state against corruption, Hazare started

Parliament several times but failed to be passed all

the time. The Jan Lokpal Bill was drafted earlier by N.

Santosh Hegde, former justice of the Supreme Court of India and Lokayukta of Karnataka, Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court members of the India Against Corruption movement. and Arvind Kejriwal, a social activist along with This draft bill incorporated more stringent provisions

and wider power to the Lokpal than the draft Lokpal to nationwide protests in support of Hazare. Even his detractors and politicians, who hate his guts, grudgingly accept he is the only person who has the and shake up a government. power to mobilize common people across the country

bill prepared by the government in 2010. The fast led

With innumerable scandals the country is facing now, social activist Anna Hazare has decided to take things in his hand and take on the corrupt "babus" by fasting unto death against corruption. Hazare began his fast unto death on 5 April 2011 at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. After his demand was rejected by the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh . He stated, "I will fast until Jan Lokpal Bill is passed". The movement has irked various political parties that had to bear the brunt of Hazare's fiery rhetoric that doesn't

seem to spare anyone. On 6 April 2011 Sharad Pawar resigned from the group of ministers formed for reviewing the draft Lokpal bill 2010. The movement attracted attention very quickly through various media. It has been reported that thousands of people joined to support Hazares effort. Almost 150 people are reported to join Hazare in his fast. Many social

Patkar, Arvind Kejriwal, former IPS officer Kiran

activists including Medha

Bedi, and Jayaprakash Narayan have lent their support to Hazares hunger strike and anticorruption campaign. This movement has also been Internet social media such as twitter and facebook. In joined by many people providing their support in addition to spiritual leaders Swami Ramdev,Swami many bollywood celebrities like

Agnivesh and former Indian cricketer Kapil Dev, Kapur, Siddhartha Narayan, Anupam Kher, Madhur Bhandarkar, Pritish Nandy, Priyanka Chopra,

Shekhar

Prakash Raj, Aamir Khan, Chetan Bhagat showed their public support through twitter. Hazare decided that he would not allow any politician to sit with him in this movement. Politicians like Uma Bharti

and Om Prakash Chautala were shooed away by the protesters when they came to visit the site where the support from Indias youth visible through the local and Twitter. protest was taking place. The movement gathered support and on social networking sites like Facebook
Government accepted all demands;

all demands of the movement. On 9 April 2011 it formation of a joint committee. It accepted the

On 8 April 2011 the Government of India accepted

issued a notification in the Gazette of India on formula that there will be a politician Chairman and

an activist, non-politician Co-Chairman. According Chairman of the draft committee while Shanti Bhushan will be the co-chairman. The Joint Drafting

to the notification, Pranab Mukherjee will be the

Committee shall consist of five nominee ministers of the Government of India and five nominees of the civil society. The five nominee Ministers of the Government of India are Pranab Mukherjee, Union

Minister of Finance, P. Chidambaram, Union Minister of Home Affairs, M. Veerappa Moily, Union Minister of Law and Justice, Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Human Resource and Development and Minister of Communication and Information Technology

and Salman Khursheed, Union Minister of Water Resources and Minister of Minority Affairs. The five Santosh Hegde, Shanti nominees of the civil society are Anna Hazare, N. Advocate,Prashant Bhushan, Advocate and Arvind Kejriwal. By this Annas protest got half of the success as half work that is drafting of lokpal bill is still left. Bhushan Senior

End of hunger strike after meeting demands After the government issued a gazette notification on the formation of a joint committee to draft an effective Lokpal Bill, on the morning of 9 April 2011 Hazare ended his 98-hour hunger strike by first offering lemon

juice to some of his supporters who were fasting with him. Hazare then broke his fast by consuming some lemon juice. As an outcome of this movement, on 6 April, 2011 Sharad Pawar resigned from the group of ministers formed for reviewing the draft Lokpal bill 2010.He addressed the people and set a deadline of 15 August 2011 to pass the Lokpal Bill in the Indian Parliament. Anna Hazare said that if the bill does not pass he will call for a mass nation-wide agitation. He called his movement as "second struggle for independence" and he will continue the fight.
During the meeting of the joint drafting committee

on 30 May 2011, the Union government members opposed the inclusion of the prime minister, higher

judiciary and the acts of the MPs under the purview Pranab Mukherjee, chairman of the joint drafting committee sent a letter to the chief ministers of all states and the leaders of the political parties

of the Lokpal in the draft bill. On 31 May 2011,

seeking their opinion on six contentious issues in the proposed Lokpal Bill, including whether to bring the prime minister and judges of Supreme Court and High Courts under the purview of the proposed law.

committee considered that keeping the prime minister and judges of Supreme Court and High

But the civil society members of the drafting

Courts out of the purview of the Lokpal would be a Corruption.

violation of the United Nations Convention against Anna Hazare and other civil society members decided to boycott the meeting of the joint Lokpal Bill drafting committee scheduled on 6 June 2011 in protest his followers by the Delhi

against the forcible eviction of Swami Ramdev and Maidan on 5 June 2011, while they were on hunger strike against the issues of black money and corruption government corruption. and in taking doubting measures seriousness to of Police from Ramlila

eradicate

the

On 6 June 2011, the members of the civil society of the joint Lokpal bill drafting committee in New Delhi sent a letter to Pranab Mukherjee, the chairman of at the meeting and also asked government to make its

the committee, explaining reasons for their absence stand public on the contentious issues related to the future meetings will be attended only if they were

proposed draft legislation. They also decided that the telecast live. On 8 June 2011 at Rajghat, describing his movement as the second freedom struggle, Anna joint Lokpal Bill drafting committee and threatened to go on indefinite fast again from 16 August 2011 if criticized the Government for trying to discredit the

the Lokpal Bill is not passed by then. He also criticised the Government for putting hurdles in the drafting of civil society members of the joint Lokpal panel. a strong Lokpal Bill and its attempts to malign the

PROTEST AGAINST ATROCITIES AGAINST SWAMI RAMDEV & HIS SUPPORTERS

After successfully bringing the Lokpal Bill back to the centre stage of national politics through his fast at Jantar Mantar in April, On 8 June 2011, Anna Hazare and thousands of his supporters observed fast from 10 am to 6 pm at Rajghat to protest against the midnight crackdown of 5 June 2011 by the Delhi Police on Swami Ramdevs fast at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi. In front of thousands of supporters at Rajghat, the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, the 73-year-old called it "the second independence struggle". The fast was initially planned to be held at Jantar Mantar, but the venue was shifted after the denial of permission by the Delhi police. Anna Hazare held the Prime Minister of India responsible for the atrocities and termed the police action as a blot on humanity and an attempt to stifle democracy. According to one of the Anna's young supporters, the large presence of youths in the protest was due to their support to his use of nonviolence means of protest similar to Gandhi.
While Anna Hazare's crusade against corruption and the fight to get the Jan Lokpal Bill passed had the whole country rallying behind him, Baba Ramdev's fast was welcomed by both harsh criticisms as well as wide support of his followers. Hazare's campaign was totally centered on the Jan Lokpal Bill that had the support of both the prominent personalities as well as the common man. However, Baba's demands seem

myriad and many impractical such as a ban on 1000 and 500 currency notes and death penalty for corrupt officials. The support for Anna Hazare just mushroomed from nowhere spreading like a wildfire, which was taken up mainly by the youth of the country. On the contrary, Baba's movement was more of an organized attempt spending huge amounts of money on it and was largely consistent of his followers. A visibly angered central government played all its political tricks to stop Baba going ahead and his fast came in as a big jolt to the a scam-hit UPA government. Dead against his campaigning, the Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh described it as a 'five star satyagraha'. The war of words between Baba and the government, the opinions pouring in from the different corners, the most recent declaration of his assess worth over 1100 Crores, and the following controversies have spread a shadow of suspicion over the purpose and the honesty of his campaign and the transparency of his business deals. However, the efforts of Baba Ramdev is as laudable as Anna Hazare for the fact that the projected aim is nothing but bringing back the black money and making it a national asset. Although they have certain differences over the LokPal Bill, they have many things in common as they fight against the graft, indulge in positive political activism and are social activists to the core with strong mass support. "We have started the second independence struggle but you should not back off. We will be ready to die but we will not surrender," the Gandhian said, speaking in Hindi.
Anna Hazare, in the Indian army A large crowd of youths gathered in the freedom park in Bangalore to support Annas strike

Supporters of Annas fast are on a candle march from JantarMantar to India Gate. Ann Hazare Ended his fast on 9 April, 2011 by consuming some lemon juice. "I am not scared of death. I have no family to cry over me and if I die while doing something for the country I would be happy. We need to start a second freedom movement to get rid of corruption, red tapism, delays in government offices, frequent transfers of honest officials and lack of transparency.

With ANNA........:Mallika Sarabhai who is a social worker also joined Anna hazare on Thursday in Ahmadabad to support his protest.