These were the remarks of social activist Anna Hazare, fresh out the jail after a reduced sentence for failing to prove charges of corruption against Maharashtra social welfare minister Babanrao Gholap. He was speaking at public lecture entitled Environment and Corruption at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, to mark the conclusion of the National Conference on Potential of Water Harvesting: Traditions, Policies and Social Mobilisation organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Hazare is riding an unprecedented crest of public appreciation for his fight against corruption. This was evident by the packed hall. People were sitting in the passage-ways and heard the social leader from Maharashtra with bated breath. However, the enraptured silence of the audience was broken frequently by the waves of laughter that followed Hazare’s witty remarks and unmistakable rhetoric. This went on till late at night.

Hazare, who is known to have transformed the village of Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra from decadence and poverty to prosperity through integrated watershed development, stressed that the fight against "money harvesting" should go hand in glove with the effort to harvest water. He laid a lot of stress on the citizens’ right to information as the primary weapon to fight against corruption.

"Developmental activities are ineffective if we cannot contain corruption. Corruption facilitates unscrupulous exploitation of natural resources, leading to degradation of the environment," Hazare emphasised. Citing the example of corruption in social forestry projects in Maharashtra, he said that the term corruption is inappropriate to describe officials and elected representatives when they siphon public funds in a planned manner. "This is dacoity, not corruption," he quipped.

"In 1989, we laid our hands on the case of siphoning of funds in social forestry. But the government refused to take action despite the evidence as a minister was involved. I returned the Vrikshamitra Puruskar and the Padma Shree awards given to me. In the following election, the ruling party lost and another party came to power.

"I tried to work with them for a year-and-a-half. But I realised that whereas the last government had "done its graduation" in corruption, the new one achieved a master’s degree. I resigned from all committees that I was on. I went on a fast unto death. Public support was such that about 100,000 people visited Ralegan Siddhi in a week’s time. Under pressure from overwhelming public pressure, the state government appointed a committee to investigate the corruption charges. One minister was let off, while another was asked to resign.

"So you can see that our fight is not new, and it is not restricted to two ministers and four officials. We are fighting against the tendency of corruption in the country, which includes small things like cheating in an examination hall. For this, we need to create public awareness and mobilisation. My recent arrest has generated a lot of this. The average citizen on the street is realising the importance of the issue and is raising his/her voice against corruption. What we need is a movement of a scale similar to the Quit India Movement of 1942.

"In one of our campaigns, we go and sing bhajans in front of the houses of public officials who do not function properly. The results are outstanding. The officials are shamed into fulfilling their duties. Non-violence underlines all our methods to fight against corruption.

"In Nasik, educated unemployed young people came to me and reported cases of extortion from in the giving out of unemployment dole. I asked them to join our campaign against corruption till they can find jobs. They started scanning government vehicles in market areas after working hours. Wherever they found evidence of misuse of these vehicles they deflated the tyres."

Hazare appreciated the efforts undertaken to provide the right to information by Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh. "Equally important is the right to recall elected representatives if they fail to fulfil their promises," he said.

Earlier, while welcoming Hazare, Sunita Narain, deputy director, CSE, said that in the absence of right to information it was impossible to prove charges of corruption. "As 90 per cent of our politicians are corrupt, the onus should be on them to prove their innocence," she remarked half-seriously.

Her address was followed by a brief presentation on environment and corruption by Anil Agarwal, director, CSE, which set the mood of the evening. "The natural estate is the biggest estate of the government. Loot of natural resources becomes a major problem if the society does not adequately respect nature," he said, adding that in such circumstances corruption becomes a severe source of oppression. He cited an observation made by the economist Gunnar Myrdal that everybody talks about corruption but there are no studies on it.

"An indicator of corruption in the society is the amount of money being spent on construction activities. In our country, we only invest in areas where there are chances of corruption," he said. In India, there is too much stress on hardware as there is money to be made in it. "But nobody spares a thought to software. So you have school buildings but no teachers, hospital buildings but no health care," he emphasised.