I’ve never been asked for an autograph in my life: Anna Hazare

Bangalore Mirror

Mangalore, 28 May 2011: It is an honour that Gen X usually reserves for rock legends and movie stars. And, naturally, the object of adulation was the one who was caught by surprise. The crusade against corruption seems to have become the new badge of India’s counter culture, and Anna Hazare its messiah in paisley.

 

Signs of his new stardom were there in plenty the day he arrived in Bangalore to take the anti-corruption movement forward. In fact, right at the moment he landed at Bangalore International Airport on Friday noon, Anna was in for a pleasant surprise, when a young girl requested for his autograph. A bemused Anna revealed that it was indeed a first for him.

 

Sabha Jaggi, a Standard VI student from New Delhi, had just landed in the city for a family vacation with her parents and her brother. In a happy coincidence for her, Anna Hazare was also in the visitors lobby at the same time. Without wasting any time, the little girl grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from her father and rushed to Anna for an autograph.

 

Completely taken aback by this request, Anna gave the child his trademark grin and said “beta kabhi kiya nahin, but I’ll sign this for you”. For the unassuming Gandhian, it was quite an emotional moment. “I see a Bhagat Singh or a Shivaji in every child who is our future. If this can motivate them, then I am happy to do it,” he said.

 

Anna Hazare signs his first-ever autograph for Sabha Jaggi at the BIA on Friday

 

The precedent having been set, it took only a few minutes for others gathered in the visitors’ lobby to take the cue from Sabha. They whipped out their notepads and pens and were seen badgering Anna for an autograph before he exited the glass doors into the waiting crowd.

 

Sabha, for one, was still a few inches off the ground long after Anna had left the scene. “My brother (pointing to her teenaged brother) had gone to Jantar Mantar, when Anna sahib sat on a fast and made the government listen. That is how i got to know about him,” she said. So does she know what Anna is fighting for? “I know it is to get a bill passed, though I am not sure about its name. All I know is that he is fighting to help us,” said the happy kid who could not stop gazing in awe at the string of Hindi letters by which Anna signed his name.

 

This idol worship was not limited to Sabha’s age group. A 60-something, S V Geetha, a retired principal, was also quick to grab the opportunity and get her autograph. The academician, who has been part of the movement against graft in the city, said “I can show this to my grandkids.”

 

The rock star treatment did not stop with Anna. His trusted lieutenants, RTI activists Arvind Kejriwal and the controversial legal brain Prashant Bhushan, also signed their first autographs in the city. “This is fun,” said Bhushan as he signed his second autograph ever for Yours Truly.