The legendary folk singer Bob Dylan, singing his song of awakening The Times they are a - Changin’, wrote:

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall…
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin’
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a - changin’

Times sure are changing for India and Indians. The middle class has woken up from its materialistic stupor, the students have woken up from their political lethargy and change is in the air. But will the congressmen and politicians heed this call?

While one man in his 70s, a 7th standard - pass truck driver (as we are reminded by cynics) rallies for a whole nation against corruption sitting in a Maidan, another senior citizen in his 70s, an Oxford - educated, world - renowned economist with a doctorate, who happens to be the Prime Minister of the largest democracy in the world sits smug, motionless and emotionless in Parliament, quietly watching as his people suffocate under the reign of corruption. Maybe he’s lost in thought wondering where he put his magic wand.

All these days, the Congress let loose its mercenaries who either try to convince or confuse us, then they brought forth their arrogant spokesperson who addressed Anna Hazare, an older person, in the singular, considered disrespectful in our culture, as he delivered his dark lines in full filmy style “Tum upar se neeche tak bhrashtachar me dube ho” (you are drenched from head to toe in corruption). When this backfired, they indulged us with Rashid Alvis’ comic performance where he first said, “USA was behind these protests,” and then repeatedly said, “There is some other force behind this.”

As for “some other force behind this” rhetoric, the Congress must know, the only force powering this anti - corruption movement is the Congress party’s own arrogant attitude and 64 years of generous dissemination of corruption by political and bureaucratic class.

It is ironic, considering that they say education will set you free but here we have a “7th standard pass” doing what a team of highly educated people are unwilling to do. What is the point of being a world - renowned economist, dear Prime Minister, if you cannot even see the virtue of dissent in democracy? What is the point of being a Harvard Law School graduate and a highly appreciated lawyer in the Supreme Court, dear HRD Minister if you can’t even address an issue without putting a spin on it in a sarcastic and patronising tone? What is the point of being a Harvard Business School graduate and highly acclaimed economist, dear Home Minister if you can’t see the ground swell against corruption and make the right choices?

So it seems an educated politician cannot always be a liberator, especially when he is part of a government that is caged in its own ego and elitist arrogance. Is that what happens when even good people get into politics or work with the government? Is that why even a person like Nandan Nilekani is not for civil society’s movement? Has heading the UID project for the government, taken him too far from the suffocating realities of corruption suffered by his lesser privileged countrymen?

“Parliament makes laws, not civil society”
The other cynical statement is, “the Parliament makes the laws, not civil society.” Yes indeed a valid point, but the civil society is not expecting its Bill to be accepted as is. What they are asking for, is a Bill that actually serves a purpose be passed by the Parliament itself.

All of us want a bullet to deter or kill corruption, even a rubber bullet is fine but when the government gives us a cotton pellet instead, don’t we have the right to protest? So tomorrow if the government makes a law that says politicians should never be prosecuted, should we simply accept it because only the Parliament is allowed to make laws?

The government makes it sound like the civil society is inflexible in its demands, which is not true. The very fact that Anna Hazare has agreed to end the protest in 15 days instead of the previous indefinite stance shows that civil society can be engaged with, and can be reasonable without compromising on principles. But, how can they be flexible when the government wants to remove the most crucial clauses that make a Bill effective?

“Protestors don’t know better”
Now for the other argument that “most of the protestors don’t know what Lokpal or the Jan Lokpal Bills are.” Should a high school student who was forced to pay a bribe for his bus pass know both the Bills in and out to show his support against corruption? Should a housewife, who has struggled to get her ration card and her weekly ration, know every clause of both the Bills to support Kiran Bedi? Should a 90 – year - old man who struggles to get treated in a government hospital know both the Bills before he decides to trust an Anna Hazare over a politician? No.

For an Indian who is exposed to corruption and extortion from the day he is born to the day he dies — from his birth certificate to his death certificate — support for civil society’s call against corruption is the obvious choice, even if they don’t know about the intricacies of the Bill — “yet.”

We also would like to ask the cynics why they did not raise this question when on December 23, 2008 the Parliament passed 17 Bills in 12 minutes. Did the erstwhile Parliamentarians know everything there was to know about all these 17 Bills that they so eagerly passed? No way.

NAC ok, civil society no?
If the government and cynics can accept the National Advisory Council (NAC) which is made up of non - political class, then why not civil society members? Why the aversion towards Anna’s group? Is it because the NAC is made up of too civil a bunch who are non - confrontational which the government is comfortable with?

Civil society’s fight is for a noble cause, the people’s support is for the cause and Anna just happens to be a trustworthy symbol of that cause; the Congress needs to understand this.

Congress may have got India independence but it is also the party that has caused the most damage to our democracy by tolerating every kind of corruption, from V. K. Krishna Menon’s 1948 (not even one year after independence) jeep deals to Kalmadi’s 2011 CWG misappropriation.

It’s also ironic that a party that got us freedom, also brought us Emergency and now it has stooped so low that it can’t even allow a protest, a peaceful one at that. Is the government and its machinery treating us worse than our “former” imperial masters did?

Congress may have fought hard to get us our fundamental rights, but they have shown quite often that these rights are only privileges, granted to us to be snatched away whenever it feels threatened? This is not freedom, this is not liberty, this is neo – liberal - imperialism.

As for the BJP, while Arun Jaitely defended “the right to dissent,” his argument ended there. Why doesn’t the BJP come up with a draft based on the inputs from civil society and introduce that Bill in the Parliament? They won’t, because the Bill is going to stifle most politicians and “ALL” political parties of “funds.”

But BJP’s Varun Gandhi now suddenly wants to introduce the Jan Lokpal Bill against the wishes of his party. Is this just another stunt to score points over his more powerful cousin Rahul, who like his Prime Minister and mom is mum? How can Congress let another Gandhi steal Rahul’s thunder? And so maybe the Congress will come to a consensus with civil society under the leadership of Rahul and pass an effective Lokpal Bill, which will then make Rahul the hero and put him in a justifiable position to be the next Prime Minister of India.

We as a nation and its people have suffered so much corruption that it has become our second nature. Like prolonged exposure to small quantities of radiation causes genetic mutation, may be our prolonged exposure to regular doses of corruption for generations has created in us a genetic predisposition towards corruption or tolerating it. Yes we are ashamed of what we have become. And maybe, just maybe, this protest is our chance at redemption.

Maybe this is our chance to unbecome what we are today — unsecular, overly - religious, habitually - uncivil and perpetually - greedy citizens and become what the Mahatma wanted us to be — secular, spiritual, peaceful and prosperous. Long shot, but at least we can try.