The Anna Hazare movement is being widely discussed globally as Governance Now's conversation with Thomas Pogge, professor of philosophy and international affairs, Yale University would suggest.

Pogge said, "The Anna movement is a huge example for the world."

“The Hazare movement is the most powerful thing you can have in any democracy,” he added.

He said that the big US citizen movements - the Tea Party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement - do not have the potential to imitate the Hazare movement. “The Hazare movement was very, very impressive mobilisation and the United States is very far from that capacity,” said the professor, who is currently designing new and improved indices of poverty and gender equity.

Pogge praised the anti-corruption movement's peaceful protest, terming it Gandhian. He said the scale and nature of the movement would amaze outsiders as it has been a sustained, peaceful fight against the government.

Emphasising that such movements have great bearing on civilised society, the professor said, “That is much more powerful than the protest movement where you throw stones and beat people. It is irresistible. The British could not resist the movement of Gandhi in old days and, similarly, the Congress party cannot resist this massive non-violent movement.”

Tipping his hat to the protestors, he said, “The people remained peaceful in India pressing their demands. There is a capacity and discipline to act non-violent. It is very much in the spirit of democracy because you are appealing to the rest of the population and saying to join the cause, if you can.”

Comparing the Hazare movement with Occupy Wall Street, he noted, “In the Hazare agitation, the people moved very non-violently which was almost counter–productive. In the US, the current movement is pluralistic, much more rowdy and could easily be provoked into violence.”

He suggested that India has a big advantage on moral values as it has a history of non-violence and is also the world’s largest democracy. “The country should build on such strong points,” said the Yale professor, who is on a sabbatical, working on measuring poverty with the Australian National University.

He delineated India's role vis-a-vis China saying, "The Chinese are playing their own game, they are different country. As I see India, which has the capacity to become spokesperson for the developing world."