Thursday, August 25, 2011

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I am Anna,who?

I was walking down the street adjacent to the Regal in Mumbai when a procession passed by with Nehru topi donning youngsters shouting slogans in support of Anna Hazare. A curious onlooker, conspicuously foreign, asked a young couple standing next to him, who this Anna was. That charming lady responded after stammering and faltering for a couple of seconds,picking up whatever came to her mind,"He is a Freedom Fighter". Unable to see some person from outside the nation form an opinion on how ill-informed our youth is about matters pertaining to national interest I pitched in and explained to him what this whole ruckus was all about.

In the dark and for how long?

That young lady,I had referred to a while ago is a precise representative of how we are. No, she was not extolling Anna, she was ignorant.So, is everyone among us.We are the youth of the nation,we love slogan shouting when we are in a mob,we love to be herded,we don't reason,we don't debate!

Any voice against the government would sound euphonious to us and if it is a peaceful war cry,as is the case now,it would enspirit us to no end!Anybody(that would be like saying everybody) who knows the prosopography of this current young generation would tell you that sporting the currently concupiscible Nehru Cap would appease the fob in them!You could as well spot people fighting for that cap when the media is around.We have aggression, loads of it but this is uncalled-for aggression.As in this case, the reason is justifiable but directionality and intent are flawed.How many know who or what they are supporting?Anna or the Jan Lokpal Bill?Wonder how many of us would have actually read the draft or even gone out for an open debate on the issues and implications of it.We would rather go out on a protest,shout some slogans,wave that flag,update our Facebook statuses or display images, but not debate.If one has the right to fast then he has the right to formulate his own opinion which might be open for speculations.Branding anyone who chooses not to go with the mob as 'not a "pure" Indian' or a traitor is as foolish as terming one person who did not stop his bike and dance when India won the World Cup as a Anti-India! You not supporting Anna does not mean that you support corruption, you might be against the concept of holding the government for ransom or the fact that you feel that establishing a Lokpal would create a totalitarian monster in the name of fighting corruption. I must have asked at least 20 people if they know the difference between the Lokpal bill submitted by the government and the Jan Lokpal bill and the only answer I got was 'we support Anna, we don't want corruption'.

Faux-Gandhian

Not to launch a personal attack but as many pointed out,though his means are Gandhian, Anna’s demands are not, his modus operandi has been questionable in the past,on many counts!Be it support for forced vasectomies as the only method of family planning or flogging people who used to come home drunk or supporting Raj Thackeray's xenophobia, the list goes on..

Why he did he never come out and support the plight of Vidarbha or any other case that needed immediate attention? Did he need time to fletcherize his ideas and think of something that would get the eyeballs? The palingenesis of Kisan Baburao Hazare as Anna Hazare is an entirely different story. He is no saint nor are the people in his so-called self-proclaimed “Team Anna”, sample Kiran Bedi, she has always been known for leaking official information to the press, abuse of power(fight against corruption, eh?),instigating junior police officers to defy administration,attempts to disrupt the President's visit among scores of others and as was pointed out by one of the journalists, sure, no one is perfect. And people should indeed get a second chance to redeem themselves. But this always comes with a pre-condition: admit your sins first, and then atone for them. Kiran Bedi has not done any of that. To exonerate Bedi for her transgressions would be nothing short of self-indulgence.Decentralization of power would have never been consistent with what any great leader would have ever demanded,let alone someone like Gandhi! You could not have easily gainsaid whatever we knew of his past or of the people in the Team Anna. We are not realizing that this is a coup of a different sort, might be not military but yet more potent, for it has started in people's minds.


Wildfire

I was just surfing through the channels on my TV when I paused at one that read “We kiwi Indians support Anna”, funny as it might sound, there are people from all across the globe esp. from the United States and the UK. I wouldn't have thought about it till AR pointed it out here. The campaign is being run by NGOs which have been generously funded by some of the leading corporate houses. Kabir, for example, which has the Magasasay award winner Arvind Kejriwal in the Governing body had been receiving largess from giant corporate bigwigs like the Ford Foundation to many other small time organizations. This protest seems to have made way into their respective CSRs as well. They are throwing out fistfuls of lagniappe towards them and it is getting redirected towards fuelling a single person’s whims and fantasies. The whole labyrinth seems so byzantine, there is something runic about the whole affair!Why else is it that Irom Sharmila’s ten year fast doesnot gain currency and headlines whereas this does. Just because we are still not sure of how to deal with the states in the North East India, as usual o

r is it because it did not have the support of these money minting houses. Or even the fast by

one Nigamanand to stop illegal mining on the banks of Ganga in Haridwar. We would never even have heard of them.Then there are people who want to generate positive awareness among the junta. With an irenic spirit they join the debate, at times ugly and vicious but we would not want to listen. You might see this as a fresh start but what we should do is just start by finding out the reasons and rationale behind whatever you voice your opinion about. With so many indices and surveys telling us where we stand as a nation, in terms of corruption and other worse things, such a bill which gives the ombudsman the power to prosecute and punish would been seen as a desiderata but also think about the repercussions that any such bill might cause. We are a mighty huge nation and also considering the fact that passing of a bill from the houses in the Parliament is therefore dilatory. Everything that we, the youngsters, the future of India support should be properly debated, discussed and then demanded for.


10 comments:

Anonymous said...

People seem to think that fighting corruption and fighting the government are the same. Which is wrong. They'd do well to understand both sides of the debate and then come to an informed opinion. Sadly, no one even talks about NCPRI's version of the draft at all.

Well written, and balanced points without getting into vitriol.

Aam Aadmi said...

I havent read any of the versions and therefore cannot comment much. All I can say is the reactions coming are consistent with what we have been as a Nation. We were ignorant by force then and now ignorant by choice. Whichever way, ignorance prevails and rules. Let us accept it.

Anonymous said...

Well written. The only way corruption or any other issues in India would be solved is when every single individual changes. Change should come from within. As Gandhi said "Be the change that you want to see", which is very appropriate.

Lokesh Majji said...

I am supporting Anna for the very reason that he is supporting anti Corruption and i don't know other persons who are trying to do the same, it's better to make a constitution for totally curbing corruption from India.

Pavan said...

Nice Interpretration. I feel majority of ignorant people supporting Anna are doing so either because they dont have a strong seperate view-point on Lokpal or they just want to go with mass and be relieved by being in illusion that since someone is against a common problem in hand so lets support it.

Chandra Sekhar said...

I have more points on this. Good work and I like the post.

Abhi said...

Referring to Kiran's and Anna's negative shades, every person has his/her drawbacks.. They cannot be used to define or relate to something so huge as the movement against corruption... As far as I am concerned, these issues are trivial... On the other side of the coin, your example of a lady addressing Anna as a freedom fighter illustrated the ignorance of Indian crowds....
Karthik, in my opinion... every step is required but still not sufficient.. #Lokpal movement has already shown us a tangible result.. the Gujarat Lokayuktha.. Lets be optimistic and await the fruits of the bill (assuming it is passed)

VJ said...

The nation with all the recent scams and scandals is frustrated about corruption. However, it is looking for a vent to release this and Anna has shown a way. So the people are simultaneously supporting Jan Lokpal and fighting against government without any rationale just out of this frustration.
However, we should appreciate some one coming forward selflessly to unite the nation. Remember, in this populist country, not many even know people they are handing the power to when they vote. Its not something new happening this time. But I am happy that this sheep flock attitude had been put to a good use. I appreciate you putting this so elegantly.

Deepak Satapathy said...

Very well written. Captures the feelings of billions of Indians. Its just the start, people have become active and are in no way, going to take a step back. Agitation of people has led to resurrection of the dead people in the parliament.

Unknown said...

Krishna Chaitanya Kavilipati says,"I would like to share an incident here. We had a 1-1 session with him with Santosh Hegde. One of our colleagues gave him the reason for corruption. His reason was because of insecurity we Indians feel for money. So we tend to gather more & more money to lose that insecurity. He seems so mature to me at the time till the time he confessed that he bribes officials so that he can save a penny so that he can save that in his vault :) . So stupid... Without individual's responsibility there is no bill which can stop this corruption

Karthik, In my opnion Anna should be appreciated for taking a leadership role(which many of us lack) in seeding a thought in minds of people or goverment regarding the deep rooted corruption. Whether this seed of thought grows into a tree , depends only on the conditions how much light it throws on public, fertility of this Indian soil with visionaries to take this movement forward , the way media Airs this issue, and last the extent to which individuals succumb to this mouthwatering money.

He should also be appreciated for showing how we , Indian Janata, are frustrated with the Scams that gets surfaced every now and then, and given a chance for us to think about the minor scams we do in our daily lives like bribing Traffic police, Bribing for house registration, wrong HRA documents & LTA docs to gain tax exemption, producing wrong docs in companies for getting monetory advantages

Even in Independance movement was not a one day process. It had its own setbacks. (I knw its sad to compare this movement to Independance struggle. But I thought its apt to compare it with it as we need independance from corruption) lets hope for the best where we see corruption free (not corruption for free :) as it exists now)India."

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The Edge Of Reason| by KK