Anna Hazare has delivered another masterstroke. He timed his silence perfectly — just after Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan put their feet in their mouths and the Congress was made to eat humble pie in the by-polls.
That has been the key feature of Hazare's agitations ever since his early days - perfect timing. Hazare's April fast started after the World Cup, not during it. His second fast started on August 15, giving it the hollow of the independence struggle.
In April, Open magazine detailed his journey in a feature that gave insights into the making of Hazare. Almost everybody now knows Anna comes from Ralegansiddhi, in Parner taluk, Ahmednagar district, also called Nagar district. Therein lies the secret of Anna's success in grounding the biggies of Indian politics.
For the uninitiated, Nagar is Maharashtra's most politically aware district. It lies on top of the sugar belt in western Maharashtra and is home to most political bigwigs. It was here that Asia's first sugar co-operative mill was founded.
Vaikunthlal Mehta, Dhananjayrao Gadgil and Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil were the pioneers of the co-operative movement in Maharashtra and their contribution transformed the drought-prone district. Farmers weren't as affluent as they are today, and the trio went from house to house collecting the share capital. After the sugar co-operative came about, the issue was to get sugarcane. Again, the farmers went about it by themselves and laid down pipelines as long as 5 km. Today the district has 19 sugar co-operatives.
It also made the people of the district extremely politically aware. Those who have seen Saamna, Jabbar Patel's classic Marathi film, will have an idea of the cut-throat politics played in villages and how the sugar barons retain control over their fiefdoms. Nagar district, too, was witness to such great rivalries over the last few decades.
There were great visionaries, administrators and politicians — Abasaheb Nimbalkar, Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil, his son Balasaheb Vikhe Patil, BJ Khatal, Shankarrao Kolhe, Shankarrao Kale, Bhausaheb Thorat, Yashwantrao Gadakh, Madhukarrao Pichad. Almost all of them were considered CM material and yet no one could make it to the top.
After Ashok Chavan was removed, the two names that were discussed most were those of Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Balasaheb Thorat (both from Nagar). Again, both couldn't make it. Sharad Pawar, the wiliest of the Marathas, learnt his ropes in Nagar and has often narrated how Nimbalkar mentored him.
The district also has a large number of higher education institutions and even small taluk-like Sangamner has thousands of engineering and medical students. The shrewd politicians moved from sugar to milk and to education and ensured their money flow remained. In the process, they also lifted the profile of their neighbourhood.
Hazare often gained from the cat fights and garnered as much as Rs150 crore for his village's development through various state schemes. Whoever has dealt with Nagar politicians can easily deal with anyone. This experience came in handy for Hazare when he first took on the Sena, the Congress-NCP combine and now the UPA.
That has been the key feature of Hazare's agitations ever since his early days - perfect timing. Hazare's April fast started after the World Cup, not during it. His second fast started on August 15, giving it the hollow of the independence struggle.
In April, Open magazine detailed his journey in a feature that gave insights into the making of Hazare. Almost everybody now knows Anna comes from Ralegansiddhi, in Parner taluk, Ahmednagar district, also called Nagar district. Therein lies the secret of Anna's success in grounding the biggies of Indian politics.
For the uninitiated, Nagar is Maharashtra's most politically aware district. It lies on top of the sugar belt in western Maharashtra and is home to most political bigwigs. It was here that Asia's first sugar co-operative mill was founded.
Vaikunthlal Mehta, Dhananjayrao Gadgil and Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil were the pioneers of the co-operative movement in Maharashtra and their contribution transformed the drought-prone district. Farmers weren't as affluent as they are today, and the trio went from house to house collecting the share capital. After the sugar co-operative came about, the issue was to get sugarcane. Again, the farmers went about it by themselves and laid down pipelines as long as 5 km. Today the district has 19 sugar co-operatives.
It also made the people of the district extremely politically aware. Those who have seen Saamna, Jabbar Patel's classic Marathi film, will have an idea of the cut-throat politics played in villages and how the sugar barons retain control over their fiefdoms. Nagar district, too, was witness to such great rivalries over the last few decades.
There were great visionaries, administrators and politicians — Abasaheb Nimbalkar, Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil, his son Balasaheb Vikhe Patil, BJ Khatal, Shankarrao Kolhe, Shankarrao Kale, Bhausaheb Thorat, Yashwantrao Gadakh, Madhukarrao Pichad. Almost all of them were considered CM material and yet no one could make it to the top.
After Ashok Chavan was removed, the two names that were discussed most were those of Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Balasaheb Thorat (both from Nagar). Again, both couldn't make it. Sharad Pawar, the wiliest of the Marathas, learnt his ropes in Nagar and has often narrated how Nimbalkar mentored him.
The district also has a large number of higher education institutions and even small taluk-like Sangamner has thousands of engineering and medical students. The shrewd politicians moved from sugar to milk and to education and ensured their money flow remained. In the process, they also lifted the profile of their neighbourhood.
Hazare often gained from the cat fights and garnered as much as Rs150 crore for his village's development through various state schemes. Whoever has dealt with Nagar politicians can easily deal with anyone. This experience came in handy for Hazare when he first took on the Sena, the Congress-NCP combine and now the UPA.
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