Anna Shun

Anna is compelling. He is also shunning food ie anna in Sanskrit, and hence anshun, his hunger strike may not be compelling to the rulers but it surely is for the people.

But there is another compulsion playing somewhere nearby - the compulsion to genuflect before a family. Why is it, that intelligent, able bodied, powerful people feel completely enfeebled, and apparently compelled to jettison their good sense of priority, propriety and privilege, for accommodating whims of a family – the Gandhi Family of course. I just cannot understand why a long-standing convention of zero hour was violated to accommodate a completely tangential speech of Rahul Gandhi by the speaker. The PM too raced to attend his speech. Of course the answer is child’s logic.

Goonga gudda of goongi gudiya! The media and opposition go berserk highlighting this, but why are helpless and not able to do something about this? This element of our otherwise robust democracy is really farcical. Why do we feel impelled to carry the burden of this dynasty. England is carrying the burden of a dynasty, because during the time of the monarchy, it ruled the seven seas, and the saying went, the sun would never set on the British Armada. They owe their greatness to the time of the dynasty. The regalia is constant reminder to them of the great past the multitude of colonies that they exploited.

Rahul read his speech. On a subject that has set the country simmering, he was not able to pull his thoughts together till 11^th day and then also not able to speak extempore. He once again had to read his speech. His mother does the same even today. So why am I hoping against hope. I dread to imagine when he would become the prime minister.

What an irony. The youth icon is only able to inspire the old people of the Amethi / Rae Bareili belt or those young people who believe, being seen with him could improve their prospects in life. The 74 year old Anna appears to be the real youth icon, as he has successfully been able to fire the youth of the country.

When there is Hope....

In my last blog, I had written and I reiterate that most successful revolutions are bourgeoisie led either petite or grand. But at the same time, I had shown great pessimism about the Indian middleclass really shelving their mall lolling weekend plan, eschewing the evening drink with friends to participate in a movement with a missionary zeal.

But over the past few days, what I see happening had proven my gravely wrong, yet I am happy. My shaken faith in the Indian middle class, my misplaced perception of their priorities, my lack of understanding of their longing and desire to live in a country that moves away from chaos to at least a semblance of orderliness and conceive a system that works were all addressed in one go, when I saw the sea of humanity on the streets sloganeering in support of a seventy four year old self effacing person taking on the powers that be, for the cause of change.

I am also very happy that the revolution is led by a Marathi mother tongued Hindi speaking simpleton and the English educated/speaking socialites who in 64 years of independence are so wont to hypocritically championing and hijacking seemingly social issues, are conspicuously absent from the scene. So I see no Suhel Seths on TV or in the arena where the action is. No Arundhati Roy’s expressing the extremely contrarian views, or Shobha De’s waxing eloquent. These Indian by birth, western by aspiration people are little bit left out of the movement.

Another fringe benefit of Annas movement is the dumping of the motor mouth Manish Tiwari the congress spokesperson. I found him most sophomoric and shamelessly blatant. His tribe now growing, believes, by their verbal adroitness, they can deny and dismiss even the most obvious. They play on the fact that public memory is short-lived. This tribe is of spokespersons. Then there are some self appointed spokespersons like Dig Vijay Singh. They also have been temporarily extinguished. You don’t hear him. Kapil Sibal, another, koi farak nahin padta type politician has egg on his face. I love the sheepish smirk that he has on his face these days. These tacticians or even strategists failed their political masters; they failed to catch the pulse of the people; they kept faltering and falling in pits dug by their ownselves.

Fear these Furrows

Zero Resistance

It was the 13^th century, when the first attempt was made by the western world to reign in the absolutism of the kings who drew power from the theory of the divine rights of kings. This attempt appeared in Latin and not English in the form of the magna charta or the ‘great charter’ conceived by the feudality to restrain the powers of King John. I am sure, there were checks and balances to power of the kings even before the charta, but that was the time of the republics of Greeko-roman empires.

In India, the systems contemporaneous to the Greeko-Roman were quite evolved, and Kautilya clearly enunciated “Sahayya Sadhyam Rajatwan chakram ekam na vartate” – which meant that the king and council are the two wheels of the cart and the cart cannot move on one. So the council exercised restraint on the King.

The Magna Carta ( the ‘h’ got dropped somewhere down the line ) inspired many chaptalized versions of world constitutions, including some of the best in the world like the American or the Indian, and may be even the Aussie and Kiwi as well.

In that backdrop, it intrigues me no end, that today, in the same India, the democratically elected representatives of the people are toiling overnight to obstruct any public scrutiny or accountability which the Lokpal Bill may bring into the system.

I hear, that the Lokpal bill has been pending for 50 years. Parliament after parliament has, though not so inscrutably, glossed over the bill administering a peaceful demise – holus bolus – to the bill as it could have checkmated the systematized devouring of the tax payer’s money and the methodical loot of the state exchequer.

Exemplary means are used making my home state of UP the hub of innovative corruption. The latest in the litany of scams in UP is in health care, where few CMOs have even lost their life. Crores of central grant is being fraudulently siphoned off into pockets of a chosen few. The usual story. The next steps predictably being an enquiry commission, a judicial probe, 10 years of down time, and a report that my not clearly indict anyone - the powerful perpetuate their power and the loot continues unabated.

Stupor and slumber and archetypical armchair yellow journalism. These being the hallmark of Indian media, it takes an Anna to bring back focus to such a crucial legislation.

The government which today is so inimical to the Lokpal, will not be so, should it be allowed to bring its own moth eaten, watered down and toothless version of the bill, create an investigative agency Lokpal et al but keep it subservient to its whimsical mandarins, manipulate and manoevre it for political priorities just like it does to the CBI.

The problem is far deeper though. It is not only about an obstructionist government inimical to a bill that could bring all its actions under perpetual scrutiny of an institution whose probity would be taken for granted. It is about the people. Today there is a general rot in the society.

The people who vote are not educated enough - and here we should distinguish education with literacy - for exercising their right to franchise in right prudence. In south for example, usually people vote for dole. Any party promising a color TV would garner more votes than one promising a black and white one. What then will become of a democracy? This poll for dole community could be as much as 300 million strong. It is not that dole does not exist outside of India. In many western countries, social security exists which if withdrawn can create a havoc. See London and Burmingham. People are used to live on state benefits, unemployment stipends, free medical care etc. So India is not unique.

The middle class, or the bourgeoisie as many would like to call it, and both the haute bourgeoisie and the petite bourgeoisie is usually the class that spear heads a revolution. Any social scientist would easily testify to this. Once instigated, the rest of society joins in, the lower classes bring it critical mass and an element of universality and invincibility, and the so called elite, some visibility. The problem is that Indian bourgeoisie is still engrossed in enjoying the newly found freedom of higher disposal incomes. Their favorite pastime is snacking while watching cricket on TV front or lolling in the malls. Today it is not so concerned about taking serious and affirmative action curb corruption.

Nonetheless, it is true that the middle class is sick of corruption and they discuss and debate on this issue for hours on end. This somewhat lackadaisical attitude of the Indian bourgeoisie encourages politicians, granting them, their sycophants and the bureaucracy some sort of immunity.

But we all know, that the Government if fighting a losing battle against Anna and it is a matter of time that the right now apparently unconscionable bourgeoisie will stand up to resurrect a revolution that will be unstoppable and that will be the time when such bills will sail through with zero resistance.