Dear All
Enclosed please find the call to support the movement against corruption spearheaded by Sh Anna Hazare. I request all members of Gov body to reach the Jantar Mantar the venue of fast by 1100h on 5 April 11 to show our solidarity to the movement against corruption. A roster will be circulated by undersigned giving names of the members to be present date wise at Jantar Mantar.
IESM SUPPORTS INDIA AGAINST CORRUPTION
Dear All
You are all aware about the state of corruption in India. The situation has become so bad that it is not possible to get any work done in any Government office without giving a bribe. This situation is unacceptable and citizen of India are now waking up to oppose this state of affairs. Some eminent citizens have got together and made a forum called India against Corruption. The main plank of this forum and its members is that we will not give bribe for any work. The forum is led by prominent citizens of India like veteran Anna Hazare, Swami Ramdev Bharat vikas munch, Shri shri Ravi Shankar of art of living, Arun Kejriwal, retired bureaucrats, judges and veterans and citizen of India.
Under pressure of the people of India the Government has decided to bring in Lok Pal Bill in Parliament. The bill drafted by the law ministry does not give any powers to Lok Pal. Veteran Anna Hazare and other prominent citizens have decided to fight against this draft and have proposed more powers to the Lok Pal so that he/she can investigate any office including that of Prime Minister.
Sh Anna Hazare veteran of 1965 war and a Padma Bhushan awardee, supported by all Indians (small write up about veteran Anna Hazare is given at the end of this), has decided to sit on fast unto death on 5 April 2011 at Jantar Mantar New Delhi to convince the Government to consult citizens of India and incorporate changes suggested by the citizens and make the LokPal bill more effective. Please see the call given by Veteran Anna Hazare in linked video clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxksAURdwTI
It is the moral duty of all veterans to support the agitation spearheaded by veteran Anna Hazare and supported by other prominent citizens of India. IESM fully supports the agitation of Veteran Anna Hazare and will ensure that the voice of the people of India against corruption will be heard and heeded by the Government and the LokPal bill will be brought by the Government after incorporating the amendments suggested by the veteran Anna Hazare and other prominent citizens.
Governing Body of IESM will be present on 5 April 2011 at Jantar Mantar on behalf of veterans of India to lend full support to veteran Anna Hazare in his fight against Corruption on behalf of all veterans of India. Thereafter three veterans and members of IESM would be present every day at Jantar Mantar in support of the agitation of Veteran Anna Hazare.
Similar actions are likely to be taken in different parts of India. State conveners are requested to coordinate participation in respective States.
Gp Capt VK Gandhi VSM (Retd)
Gen Sec IESM
PADAMBHUSAN VETERAN SHRI ANNA HAZARE
1. There is a small village named Ralegan Sidhi in Ahmednagar district of Maharastra. A young boy hailing from this village joined Indian Army as a driver in Army Supply Corps. He was on convoy duty during INDO-PAK War In 1965, in Shakargarh Sector. In course of his duties as a driver, while taking Army Supplies/ stores from Pathankot for fighting troops in Shakargarh sector, these convoys used to be under heavy air attacks from the Pakistan Aircrafts, One day Naik (Nk) Anna Hazare was driving his vehicle as part of the convoy across international border when, their vehicular column came under intense attack of fighter aircrafts of PAF. The attack continued for 10 to 15 minutes. All drivers under took all passive measures to ward off the attacks. Once the attack was over, Nk Anna Hazare got up from the road side deep pit a shelter which he had taken to save himself, visited other vehicles and found that all other drivers and co-drivers had been killed due to Pakistan Air Force air strafing and he was the sole survivor. Anna was deeply shaken and questioned him as to why only his life had been spared among all his colleagues, however, he got no answer. As the Indo-Pak war came to an end, Anna Hazare requested for some leave .While moving back the question as to why only he survived never left his psyche. At Pathankot railway station he purchased one book on life of Swami Vivekananda which he read and re –read throughout his journey back home. One particular thought in the book really hit his mind hard that was, Swami Vivekananda propagated that we human being are meant to live for others not for themselves as most of the humans are doing presently which is next to animal behavior.
2. On reaching his village whose economic status and social status was very low. The whole village had no cultivable land, they had only 20 odd cattle’s for milking, there was no source of drinkable water and the general area around the village was devoid of trees. His village was located in rain shadow area which was draught stricken. The villagers were very poor and their only source of income was sale of locally brewed illicit liquor. There was not even one concrete house in the village and all were living under thatched huts. There was no school in nearby areas up to 20 kms. Drinking water used to come once in a week in water trailers sent by the Collector from Ahmednagar 60 km away. In general, villagers were living under very poor and pathetic conditions. Anna Hazare decided to do something for his village and at that stage he did not know as what he will do; nevertheless he decided to do something. He took premature discharge from the Army and came and settled in his village.
3. Anna only received Rs 25000/- from the Army as lump-sum payment for pension which he pooled in and jumped in to improve the village. There was one temple in the village Anna improved the temple and started living there. He vowed to remain unmarried and dedicate his life for the up liftment of the villagers. He motivated some young persons of the village and first undertook the task of watershed management for the village. Prior to the rainy season they made bunds so that water did not flow away. They planted trees, ensuring cleanliness in the village and organized classes in a make shift classroom at the temple. The village had almost 2500 acres of land out of which only few acres was cultivable. Through sustained efforts of Anna and his team, the water table started rising, land bank of cultivable land increased, children started learning, and people purchased few buffalos and cows.
4. Today the Anna Hazare, s village displays a different story. All 2000 acres of land is being cultivated, village has 3000 cattle, all houses in the village are pucka and per capita income of villagers has gone up by many folds. There is one school which is of international standard. This school apart from taking students of the area also admits students who have been dropouts or failures. The School is being run like military schools and it produces very good results. All areas around 40 kms of Ralegan Sidhi have green cover, water table has come up and water is being conserved through watershed management techniques. He accomplished all this through “Sharam
Daan”, motivating villagers to work on the rolling landscape of the area around his village. He developed a very innovative bunds and small reservoirs along the contours which were designed to hold almost every drop of whatever scanty rainfall the parched land received. Soon the subsoil water reserves reached a level sufficient to cater to the agricultural and drinking needs of the village even if it did not rain for two consecutive years. There is one institute come up in the village being supervised by Shri Anna Hazare which conducts classes for students and farmers from all over the globe. They come to learn techniques of rural development and watershed management. Today Anna has been asked by the Maharashtra Government to bring up 300 villages of the state on model village like Ralegan Sidhi. Shri Anna is on advisory in agriculture and rural development of five states and has got 45 awards to his credit out of which 30 are international awards.
5. Anna sahib spearheaded “Bharastachar Nirman Andolan”, a movement aimed at cleansing the society of the malaise of corruption in public life. Anna Hazare was the person who initiated the Right to Information act first time in Maharashtra. He had to agitate for a very long time to get this act through in Maharashtra against all the opposition from the politicians and beuaurecrats; thereafter he agitated to get it through at National level. He was the force behind getting Telgi Stamp scam unearthed and later investigated in which number of ministers had to resign and many Babu,s were suspended.
6. One fine day one contingent of police led by one inspector reported to him at his residence at Ralegan. Anna very politely asked inspector purpose of his visit. The inspector informed Anna that Chief Minister had detailed him with 20 Sepoys saying that Anna was under threat in view of his role in unearthing Telgi Scam. Anna very politely told the inspector that he had died long back while serving in Army during 1965 Indo Pak War and if anyone wants to pump some bullets into a dead body let them. He asked the inspector to go back and inform the CM that he needs no protection.
7. While serving as Commandant Mechanized Infantry Regimental Centre at Ahmednagar; I came very close to Shri Anna Hazare. Once I invited him to our regimental centre to address 5000 soldiers posted there and large number of them was under training. Anna accepted our invitation; most interesting part of his one hour talk to them was that out of 5000 persons not even single person dosed off, which used to be normal phenomena since training schedule for the soldiers used
to be very hard and invariably some of them used to fall asleep in the mass lectures. All men identified themselves with Anna Hazare since he was Ex soldier were highly motivated with his talk to them.
Regards
Gp Capt VK Gandhi VSM
Gen Sec IESM
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