The Great Indian Tamasha
Be it the saffron clad baba who a fortnight ago was busy teaching his aides different yoga asana or the white dhoti kurta clad Gandhian, the 90 something Hazare who’s eating habits creates a stir in the media every now and then.
Welcome to an era in independent India where civil society is up and active like never before. The likes of Anna Hazare and more recently Baba Ramdev have become the ire of the government. Everything that these people do or say is instantly linked by the ruling party to those of the opposition like the RSS and BJP. The movement against corruption that these people are heading is in a way sidelined and birth is given to petty issues and cheap politics.
The mute Prime Minister of the nation sometimes takes up the courage to get up and speak as and when nudged by UPA chief Sonia Gandhi. The blue turbaned man who won because of a clean image and famous for being an ‘honest’ politician, (an oxymoron in itself) has in fact let the country down by merely being a puppet in the hands of Mrs. Gandhi. And the fair skinned woman in an impeccable white cotton sari who has a lot to say during election time goes underground as the police beat peaceful protesters at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi.
The main purpose of these demonstrations, protests goes missing as the government blames Ramdev to be an RSS man while the BJP on the other hand creates a hullabaloo about the UPA sending the yoga guru out of Delhi. This whole drama grabs eyeballs equivalent to the latest blockbusters, complete with item number from a veteran BJP leader. This tamasha at the end is nothing but the various political parties’ trick of moving away from the main fight against corruption in which they all are deeply involved.
In the name of democracy, both the government and the opposition is busy cooking up ways and means to sideline the fight against corruption as this is one deal they won’t benefit from. The youth along with everyone today wants speedy action on the lokpal bill, we don’t care if Ramdev is an RSS man or Hazare is not gandhian enough. The youth supports the cause and not the people. But putting everything aside, we do care and support the work that Anna Hazare, Arving Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi are doing.
This is our nation, our constitution, our leaders and our money at stake. Let the cats fight over petty things, we are happy being the monkeys as long as we get to eat the fruit.