“Yeh aar paar ki
ladaee hai”, I can still hear these words uttered umpteen times by Team
Anna especially Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal before and during Kejriwal and
others sat on a ‘fast’ against corruption at Jantar Mantar that began in the
last week of July, 2012.
Barely eight days into this final battle against corruption, the self-appointed audacious
heroes discovered that this wasn’t the best way to put pressure on government
on the list of corrupt ministers and for the early and time-bound creation of a
strong Lokpal or Jan Lokpal Bill.
The fast by Anna Hazare which had brought so rich dividends
last time fizzled out in a rather unexpected and disappointing manner.
The legions of people which showed up in lakhs last August
at the Ramlila Maidan were not particularly visible in as many numbers. The
media too did not go hysterical about the commotion at Jantar Mantar. The
government (browbeaten last time) smartly offered no reaction to whatever was
going on at the fast venue.
Since news channels were not giving much footage to the fast
program, for many Aam Aadmi there was
hardly any benefit of leaving home in drizzling Delhi to support the campaign.
With few people around to cheer them up, Anna in a rather
self-consolatory attempt, declaimed the ‘movement’ will go on unabated even if
there were only four of them left.
As days were passing with little impact anywhere, it struck
that the ‘indefinite’ fast by Arvind Kejriwal and others sans Anna had
practically no appeal to the masses, media and government.
Sensing this, they put in place their contingency plan and
Anna too joined the fasting (starving) teammates. Meanwhile, the "very patriotic" Kiran Bedi was
continuing with her calls for this being the final battle and a battle to the
finish against the corrupt and that crowd was in large number present at Jantar
Mantar and the sacrifice of Arvind, Manish and Gopal and that they would not go
to hospital howsoever bad their condition might become, and this is the
time to show patriotism to the country and be a part of history in making and
so on and so forth.
But surprisingly, still, there were no ruffles in government
circles; neither the media took that keen an interest.
Days were passing real quick, hunger becoming unbearable,
health weaning fast, doctors expressing concern laced with anxiety but the
government still unmoved. Diggy (Digvijay Singh) brushed aside the whole thing
reminding them of the poignant story of Irom Sharmila, on hunger strike against
AFSPA in Manipur for more than a decade.
The team of Anna went into a huddle, they pondered: looks like
media is a little harsh on us, some of them were manhandled by our over-excited
supporters. So what should be done? Tender an apology to the press and they
would again provide us the oxygen and make the campaign a revolution!
To some extent the apology did make headlines and increased
their air time on the news channels but it was still below expectations. Now
what..? Dear Arvind’s life is too precious to lose in such a way. We will have to
find a way out of this mess salvaging whatever tactical points remain. Any
suggestion..? Hey, there is a letter by 23 eminent citizens asking us to end the
fast as the government is too thick skinned to be troubled by these fasts
anymore and instead we should form a political alternative and take the fight
to the parliament..
Yes... we will fight elections and take the fight from
streets to parliament.
And with this the biggest, grandest and by far most visibly
apolitical (though there was hardly anything apolitical in it) group which
loathed politicians and despised politics, decides to tread on the same path.
No comments:
Post a Comment