Saturday, April 9, 2011

Hazaron Khwaishein...

So the man has taken a sip from the cup of life...no not Dhoni from the world cup but Anna. Hazare finally broke his fast after nearly 4 days.Is it over.Really.Havn't we seen this before at different places different times different reasons.A nameless mother fasting in front of a police post to get her innocent son released or a pensioner on dharna because he has not got his pension for the last several years...it goes on and on.But these nameless persons dont hold the nation for ransom.Am i suggesting that Hazare did that...may be yes! may be no!.Without taking away anything from the fact that Anna is a very humble social activist whose fight is no less than Gandhi's fight for social justice,did this spectacle help.Yes it did .All over India there were supporting groups who voiced their vote to boot out corruption .But look at the people who joined the bandwagon...celebreties from the film and fashion world,Industrialists,babas,Swamis (excludes swamibloganand) what were they seeking...something worth its weight in gold- "publicity".It was quite nauseating to see a picture of Ramdev baba and choreographer Farah greeting each other in the shadows of Hazare as if they met in a mela!.The media circus has to be there too.Hazare could have done the same sitting at home, with a daily press release from his followers and kept the media out, then he would have realized who among the celebrated persons truly supported him.Let me not belittle some of the famous personalities like Kiran Bedi,Shabana Azmi who have always been vocal in fighting all forms of social injustice.And some celebs who use media like twitter to express their views,but most of them who were at Jantar Mantar wouldn't have any idea of what is Lokpal bill.In all this tamasha we have conveniently forgotten that we are a parliamentary democracy,we have a solid constitution,active judiciary and a system which has a built in mechanism to deal with anything including corruption...its only the lack of will that needs to be corrected.Media needs to be powerful but there should not be trial by media.Judiciary activism is welcome but there should not be any dictation to the Govt.on all matters,for that we have elected members to do the job.So do individuals,Institutions or groups hold a nation or a govt to ransom,does it amount to blackmail?.Is Mr.Hazare right in dictating to the govt.as to who should head the body or be its members,don't we have a constitutional mechanism for that.Will it not some day encourage someone to do the same to get a bill of his or hers liking to be passed...like say 'Ban all animal slaughter bill'.
Hazare too has used the electronic media to get his views across the nation.... effectively! or is it the media which used him.Why are we ,more than a billion common Indians so gullible and lemming like.Why don't we go to vote or rather 'vote out' useless parliamentarians.Why do we expect a Gandhian to do it for us always.Democracy is a mass movement in itself.We are all part of it.Those of us who have not yet joined it by not voting during elections are to be blamed for all the ills today.Hazare or no Hazare its our birth right to elect a suitable candidate to repersent us,if he or she fails, recall them.Total Recall.Let us all protest by fasting for one whole day,say on 15th of August or 2nd of Oct.Let it be a nation wide protest fast, voluntarily by 1.2 billion Indians.Lets see how it impacts us,if it does not change the Govt.attitude towards corruption atleast it will change ours.


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