In his Sept. 21 article, "Game show challenge in India," writer Kevin Rafferty calls the anti-corruption fast of Anna Hazare a tamasha, a rural word for a classical drama. It is used generally in a negative sense. We Indian citizens watched this high drama unfold, and in my opinion, it did not go down the drain and was not that negative.

Indian people have become aware that even ordinary people can unite against corruption and the corrupt, and that they can bring change to the system when politicians won't or can't.

Shouldn't that be a welcome sign? When Western media go gaga over the Jasmine Revolution or the so-called-change that Barack Obama sought four years ago (has that happened yet?) or the political change in Japan two years ago (what happened next is well known), I wonder what makes people like Rafferty write about Hazare's challenge in a negative manner. Maybe he doesn't know the true meaning of tamasha. Whatever Rafferty's answer may be, Hazare has definitely shown the Indian people a way ahead and a way to check corrupt politicians. Enough is enough!

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.

shrikant atre