Kisan Baburam Hazare is the original name of 73-year-old social activist Anna Hazare.
Anna Hazare is one of those few leaders of India who always wears white Khadi clothes and a Gandhi cap on his head.
He was born on 15 June 1938 in a farmer family in Bhingari village in Maharashtra. His father’s name is Baburao Hazare and his mother’s is Laxmibai Hazare. Anna has six brothers. Anna’s childhood was spent in extreme poverty.
Due to the financial crisis of the family, Anna came to Mumbai. Here he studied till the seventh standard. Seeing the family in difficult circumstances, he worked in a flower seller’s shop at a salary of 40 rupees per month to reduce the burden on the family.
Served in army
After the Indo-China war in 1962, on the government’s appeal to the youth to join the army, Anna was recruited as a driver in the Maratha regiment of the army in 1963.
Anna Hazare was posted at the Khemkaran border during the Indo-Pak war in 1965. On 12 November 1965, all the soldiers posted there were killed in Pakistani air bombardment on the post. This incident changed Anna’s life forever.
13 years after the incident, Anna retired from the army but did not even visit his birthplace Bhingari village. He started living in nearby Ralegaon Siddhi.
By 1990, Hazare was known as a social worker who made Ralegaon Siddhi of Ahmednagar district his karma bhoomi and wrote a new story of development.
work for village
This village had a huge shortage of electricity and water. Anna inspired the villagers to build a canal and dig pits to collect rainwater and he also contributed to it.
On Anna’s advice, trees were planted at various places in the village. Electricity was supplied to the village through solar energy and cow dung gas.
After this, his popularity increased rapidly.
Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan
Anna Hazare, who was awarded ‘Padma Shri’ in 1990 and Padma Bhushan in 1992, is known for using various methods to develop Ralegaon Siddhi village of Ahmednagar district and to increase the availability of water there.
Anti-corruption public movement
Anna’s national-level identity as a staunch anti-corruption social activist was established in the nineties when he started the ‘Anti-corruption public movement’ in 1991.
He went on a hunger strike demanding the removal of some ‘corrupt’ ministers of the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra. These ministers were Shashikant Sutar, Mahadev Shivnkar, and Baban Gholap.
Anna Hazare had accused them of having assets disproportionate to their income.
The government tried to persuade him but had to give up and remove two ministers Sutar and Shivnkar. Gholap filed a defamation case against them.
But Anna could not produce any evidence in this regard and was jailed for three months. However, the then Chief Minister Manohar Joshi released him after one day of detention.
An inquiry commission declared Shashikant Sutar and Mahadev Shivnkar innocent. But Anna Hazare also accused many Shiv Sena and BJP leaders of being involved in corruption.
Anti-government campaign in 2003
In 2003, Anna launched a campaign against four allegedly corrupt ministers of the Congress and NCP government – Suresh Dada Jain, Nawab Malik, Vijay Kumar Gavit, and Padmasingh Patil – and went on a hunger strike.
Hazare’s protest worked and the government had to bow down. The then Maharashtra government formed an inquiry commission.
Nawab Malik also resigned from his post. When the commission framed charges against Suresh Jain, he also resigned.
In 1997, Anna Hazare launched a campaign in support of the Right to Information Act. Eventually, in 2003, the Maharashtra government had to pass a strong and stringent draft of this law.
Later this movement took the form of a national movement and in 2005 the Parliament passed the Right to Information Act.
According to some politicians and analysts, Anna Hazare misuses fasts for political blackmailing and many political opponents have used Anna.
Some analysts call Anna Hazare autocratic and say that there is no trace of democracy in his organization.