Almost 40 years ago, in October 1962, young men of the Ahir Charlie Company from 13 Kumaon faced an extraordinary assault. It came in the early hours of dawn, as snow was falling at Rezang La, 17,000 feet above sea level. The story of their resistance became a legend..Of the 120 defenders, only three survived, seriously wounded. The rest – including their commander – were discovered after the winter, frozen, mostly holding their weapons but with no ammunition. This was a genuine ‘last man-last round’ defense…and it succeeded in stalling the …

Here’s a 15-min video of an extempore speech at the Odisha High Court Bar Association in Cuttack on the topic of Lokpal, laws and corruption.
I made the following points in this informal speech:

Almost all of corruption in India is linked to government. So open-ness, transparency helps…
..but merely “opening up” the economy is not enough
You also need to bring change at the top..by changing the people …or by changing behaviour of those at the top
To change behaviour, need to have “consequences” in place
How do we change leadership at the top?
For that, …

From “Remember Jatindra Nath Das?” by Sh Balbir K Punj (emphasis added):
On September 13, 1929, a youth from Bengal gave up his life in a prison of Lahore fasting for 63 days. He literally fasted unto death in Gandhian fashion though Mahatma Gandhi himself never touched that apogee despite undertaking 17 fasts unto death in his lifetime.
…does any Congressman remember Jatindra Nath Das (1904-1929), who adopted the Gandhian instrument of fast unto death and adhered to it steadfastly unto his last? Of millions in the country who swore by Gandhism, Jatin …

..or Notes from the Road and the 3 States, 4 cities, 20hr workdays Outreach…
Its been more than a week since I got into my normal routine…but the ideas keep coming in …The outreach earlier this month was one of the most intensive to date. It was also a great learning experience and a chance to see first-hand the impact of Anna-ji and IAC on the socio-political landscape in India. I witnessed that impact first-hand – at colleges in Odisha and at meetings in Delhi, in MP and in numerous conversations …

“..I want that numbers of our young men should pay a visit to Japan and China every year.
Especially to the Japanese, India is still the dreamland of everything high and good. And you, what are you? … talking twaddle all your lives, vain talkers, what are you? Come, see these people, and then go and hide your faces in shame. A race of dotards, you lose your caste if you come out! Sitting down these hundreds of years with an ever-increasing load of crystallized superstition on your heads, for hundreds …

In the concluding lines of “India needs reforms not a super babu“, Kanchan Gupta writes:
Anna Hazare is right…
India does need a second freedom movement, but not to recreate the Inspector Raj of our socialist past.
We need a second freedom movement to secure economic freedom and freedom from a system that intrudes into every aspect of our lives.
That’s how democracies have dealt with the menace of corruption elsewhere in the world.
Tavleen Singh made a similar point a few weeks back:
Corruption has eaten into India’s soul and its future. It must be …