anna hazare meant a lot to me in the good old days. here is someone who cares about corruption, i thought. here is someone who is able to get the masses behind him in his fight against corruption. this looked just like what the doctor ordered.
i even went to one of his rallies in bangalore when i was visiting there, made a donation, shouted a few slogans and felt the mood of anger in the general public. and what is more, i even bought a sticker that said 'i am anna hazare' and stuck it on my suitcase.
now of course, i am having second thoughts about this whole thing.
let's start from the sticker: what does 'i am anna hazare' really mean? i am NOT anna hazare really. anna hazare is anna hazare, and all the rest of us may if we so desire, love him, hate him, follow him or trample him. but for heaven's sake how can all of us be anna hazare? something did not sound just right.
the second problem is that anna's own sidekicks don't seem all that pure-as-snow types. i mean - if u r pointing an accusing finger at someone else for corruption, you should be free from that painful malady, right? but look at what good old kiran bedi got accused of. we read that she had smudged her travel records and collected more dosh on train tickets from charities than she ought to have. come on everyone - how can one accuse others of corruption and do the dirty oneself to earn a wee bit of moolah? how often have we heard that you shouldn't throw stones if you are living in a glass house?
then there is this kejriwal chap and his income tax scandal. i couldn't understand how one can face charges form the tax authorities if one was above board and below corruption. physician heal thyself - is an old adage that is still very much valid.
but to top it all - and what i found immensely frustrating - was that anna and his camp seem to be overdoing this fasting thingy.
i mean one can fast for health, for austerity, for religion and even in protest, i admit. but you cannot keep threatening everyone that you will keep fasting at the drop of every murky hat in existence. people get tired after some time. you can only fast so much and you can only hold the nation to ransom with your threats of fasting so much. after some time, people stop caring whether you fast, feast, stuff your belly or go hungry. and lets all be honest - how much fun is it to keep watching an old man who has very little oratory skills, and his bunch of sidekicks all of whom look like do-gooders-gone-berserk on tv every other day? it's not even like they are doing anything new: its the same old story of 'i-am-gonna-fast-and-all-of-you-better-listen-to-me-when-i-fast' that people feel tired and weary of hearing.
now of course, and very wisely i hope, they seem to have got on to the fact that people are tired of their fasting antics. remember what anna tried to do in mumbai, and gave up fasting when no one turned up to support him? he must have learned from that experience because all they seem to be busy doing nowadays is to fast one day in between when they feel that they have not had some limelight or media attention for some time. i guess a one day fast is not that bad on the belly - even my grandmother used to do that every fortnight on the ekadashi day in the hindu calendar, but no newspapers or tv channels ever covered the dear lady's fasts.
but what really put me off anna hazare and his team of do-gooders is that they say one thing and do another. they said they would not play a part in politics, but what did they do? they went all out to get the congress in the up state elections. they promised us they would not indulge in character asssination, but they went all out to malign pranab mukherjee after his presidential election.
to me this was disgusting. mahatma gandhi rightly said that one should become the change one wants to be. anna's group does not seem to have heard gandhi right.
but what is bewildering to me is that the media have suddenly started calling them the 'civil society group'. since when have anna hazare and his movement represented the entire civil society in india? they probably have a large following in some sections of civil society - predominantly the urban middle class who are educated and fed up with corruption and have a lot of time on their hands to stand on street corners waving 'i am anna hazare' flags - but they most certainly don't represent me. and i am also a part of the civil society in india. i am sure there are many others who feel the same.
anna probably means well - i am not disputing it at all.
but he should know his limits. he should not keep people who have questionable backgrounds as his flag-bearers. he should stop treating every politician as suspect. he should not allow his people to use character assasination techniques to make a point. and most importantly - he should stop threatening everyone with a fast at the drop of a hat.
too much fasting will be injurious to his health - and the nation's.
i even went to one of his rallies in bangalore when i was visiting there, made a donation, shouted a few slogans and felt the mood of anger in the general public. and what is more, i even bought a sticker that said 'i am anna hazare' and stuck it on my suitcase.
now of course, i am having second thoughts about this whole thing.
let's start from the sticker: what does 'i am anna hazare' really mean? i am NOT anna hazare really. anna hazare is anna hazare, and all the rest of us may if we so desire, love him, hate him, follow him or trample him. but for heaven's sake how can all of us be anna hazare? something did not sound just right.
the second problem is that anna's own sidekicks don't seem all that pure-as-snow types. i mean - if u r pointing an accusing finger at someone else for corruption, you should be free from that painful malady, right? but look at what good old kiran bedi got accused of. we read that she had smudged her travel records and collected more dosh on train tickets from charities than she ought to have. come on everyone - how can one accuse others of corruption and do the dirty oneself to earn a wee bit of moolah? how often have we heard that you shouldn't throw stones if you are living in a glass house?
then there is this kejriwal chap and his income tax scandal. i couldn't understand how one can face charges form the tax authorities if one was above board and below corruption. physician heal thyself - is an old adage that is still very much valid.
but to top it all - and what i found immensely frustrating - was that anna and his camp seem to be overdoing this fasting thingy.
i mean one can fast for health, for austerity, for religion and even in protest, i admit. but you cannot keep threatening everyone that you will keep fasting at the drop of every murky hat in existence. people get tired after some time. you can only fast so much and you can only hold the nation to ransom with your threats of fasting so much. after some time, people stop caring whether you fast, feast, stuff your belly or go hungry. and lets all be honest - how much fun is it to keep watching an old man who has very little oratory skills, and his bunch of sidekicks all of whom look like do-gooders-gone-berserk on tv every other day? it's not even like they are doing anything new: its the same old story of 'i-am-gonna-fast-and-all-of-you-better-listen-to-me-when-i-fast' that people feel tired and weary of hearing.
now of course, and very wisely i hope, they seem to have got on to the fact that people are tired of their fasting antics. remember what anna tried to do in mumbai, and gave up fasting when no one turned up to support him? he must have learned from that experience because all they seem to be busy doing nowadays is to fast one day in between when they feel that they have not had some limelight or media attention for some time. i guess a one day fast is not that bad on the belly - even my grandmother used to do that every fortnight on the ekadashi day in the hindu calendar, but no newspapers or tv channels ever covered the dear lady's fasts.
but what really put me off anna hazare and his team of do-gooders is that they say one thing and do another. they said they would not play a part in politics, but what did they do? they went all out to get the congress in the up state elections. they promised us they would not indulge in character asssination, but they went all out to malign pranab mukherjee after his presidential election.
to me this was disgusting. mahatma gandhi rightly said that one should become the change one wants to be. anna's group does not seem to have heard gandhi right.
but what is bewildering to me is that the media have suddenly started calling them the 'civil society group'. since when have anna hazare and his movement represented the entire civil society in india? they probably have a large following in some sections of civil society - predominantly the urban middle class who are educated and fed up with corruption and have a lot of time on their hands to stand on street corners waving 'i am anna hazare' flags - but they most certainly don't represent me. and i am also a part of the civil society in india. i am sure there are many others who feel the same.
anna probably means well - i am not disputing it at all.
but he should know his limits. he should not keep people who have questionable backgrounds as his flag-bearers. he should stop treating every politician as suspect. he should not allow his people to use character assasination techniques to make a point. and most importantly - he should stop threatening everyone with a fast at the drop of a hat.
too much fasting will be injurious to his health - and the nation's.
