“SATYAGRAHA” AS A KEY TO GOOD GOVERNANCE AND PEACEFUL CO- EXISTENCE. But, what about Anna?
Satyagraha, like all other Gandhian concepts like 'Swaraj,' 'Sarva Dharma Samabhav', 'Harijan,' and 'Trusteeship,' are all rooted in truth – the truth that we are all children of the same Creator, God, imbued with the divine spark, and therefore are required to be motivated by love rather than hate, by justice and non violence rather than by a “might is right” approach; that women, dalits and minorities have equal rights as that of exclusive privileged Anna team; that all rights emanate from duties, that the total welfare of all, should be sought and that all wealth, power and the environment must be handled as trustees of past, present and future generations.

For many intellectuals, truth is as indefinable as God Himself. But Gandhiji had no difficulty with either. For him, as Truth is what IS, and God is the only reality that eternally IS, “Truth is God.” He affirms that “There is an indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything, a living power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and recreates. That Power is God… He who denies the existence of that Force, denies to himself the use of that inexhaustible Power and thus remains impoten...Satyagraha (holding firmly to Truth), is soul force pure and simple”.
The fact that millions of Indians followed Gandhiji's lead and were willing to suffer and die in his Satyagraha battles, is proof that they accepted his definition of Truth, even though few, if any, comprehended it.
In history's most blood-drenched century, Gandhiji showed that people could be empowered, imperial and corporate oppression challenged, freedom achieved, and age-old inequities ended, by firm adherence to truth, justice, and non-violence, and focus on the most disadvantaged. His success in inspiring, mobilizing and leading millions of poverty stricken Indians in non-violent battles against an immensely powerful empire, confronting it and its corporates, with the charaka, and getting them to leave India as friends, is undoubtedly, the greatest management achievement of the 20th century, and perhaps of all time.
Though 'Satyagraha' was Gandhiji's prime motto and strategy, it was Sarvodaya which was devised first. Having read Ruskin's 'Unto This Last' on a 1904 Johannesburg to Durban train journey, and greatly impacted by it, he translated it into Gujarati and titled it 'Sarvodaya', (sarva + udaya : the all round uplift of all). This, thereafter, became the beacon of his economic and social programmes. 'Satyagraha' was fashioned soon after the historic September 11, 1906 meeting, at Empire Theatre in Johannesberg. He offered a prize for an appropriate name for the new non-violent struggle which they had adopted. A cousin of his, Maganlal Gandhi, suggested “Sadagraha” (firmness in a good cause). Gandhiji amended it to “Satyagraha” because of his dedication to Truth (Satya). He declared “Passive resistance” as a weapon of the weak. But Team Anna was not of the rural poor - the Dalits and the Minorities. For Gandhiji, “A non-violent revolution is not a programme for seizure of power. It is a programme for transformation of relation-ships ending in a peaceful transfer of power.” Satyagraha's basic rules are:

• Clearly identify the issue on which the struggle would be launched,
• Highlight its “Truth” to the opponent and request negotiations,
• Keep the opponent and news media fully informed of the campaign's objectives and plans;
• When the opponent agrees to negotiate, formulate and conclude a

mutually acceptable agreement, and thereafter adhere to it faithfully.
Gandhiji's completely open approach emanated from his deep faith in Truth. For him, “Secrecy aims at building a wall of protection around you. Ahimsa disdains all such protection. It functions in the open in the face of odds, the heaviest conceivable…. People that have been crushed under the heel of unspeakable tyranny for centuries cannot be organized by other than open, truthful means.”
Gandhiji's ideas of a village based democracy of “concentric circles,” and minimal state control of the economy, have been ignored by Independent India's governments after governments. Poverty, disease, unemployment, illiteracy, and lack of housing still afflict a third of India's population. The urban – rural divide has widened, and over 10,000 farmers have committed suicide since 1998, after the seed market was opened up to the multinationals. Naxal activism in over 150 districts is stark proof of the extent of economic and social distress and anger in rural areas, over uneconomic prices for their produce.
The rejection of Gandhiji's Sarva Dharma Samabhav approach, and propagation of “Hindu Rashtra” concept by the ultra-rightist political and communal outfits against Christians in Orissa and Karnataka, is tragic evidence of this. Those vociferously promoting “Hindu Rashtra” by means - fair and foul, might do well to recall his words written just five days before his assassination- “It would spell the ruin of both the Hindu religion and the majority community if the latter, in the intoxication of power, entertains the belief that it can crush the minority community and establish a purely Hindu Rashtra.” On the occasion of the third anniversary of the martyrdom of over 100 Christians, I want to remind the Ramlila dramatists and the Media-cracy that - Gandhiji had declared that “Peace will come where Truth is pursued and Truth implies Justice.” What the world and India needs today much more than a “war on corruption” is a war on untruth, injustice, oppression and the very cause of corruption itself.

• Is it the Truth?
• Is it Fair to all concerned?
• Will it build Goodwill and Better Friendships? And, more than anything else,

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• Will it be Beneficial to all concerned?