Friday, April 08, 2011

Anna Hazare

There have been two articles posted by various people on the internet arguing against Anna Hazare's fast as some kind of show-boating.

The civil, cogent argument by Pratap Bhanu Mehta is here.

The juvenile, cynical one by Manu Joseph is here.

Manu Joseph adopts the most juvenile of tactics of getting personal when he couldn't find anything substantial to say against Anna. I don't think Anna is grand-standing only. He could have just as easily died and we would have had an outpouring of homages. Instead he lived.

This time, surprisingly more people caught on. I would rather we have flash mob style protests at RTOs, Taluk Offices each time someone demands a bribe (or for that matter a telecom licence), but it is easy to get cynical. And lets not forget more people are watching IPL than fasting with Anna or protesting similarly for some worthy cause. As someone pointed out on Twitter, Sharmila Irom has been protesting for over 10 years. It is not like justice has been served in her case either.

Do more of these and shame people into righteous behaviour. And then we can dispense with fasting as a means of protest. I don't get the cynicism. We don't exactly run a perfect government, do we? Anna has not exactly stopped traffic because his motorcade has blocked your ambulance or because his daughter's wedding has ensured you can't get to work. He has not taken front row seats on an airline only because he is a Member of Parliament or worse still, because he is related to one. Neither has he cornered government land or diverted public resources like an Air India flight for personal benefits. So what is the f* problem? Are we jealous of the attention he is getting?

The issue may not be life-threatening but he is just protesting. You could have just ignored him and let him die right?

So each has its place. By mocking him and taking a cynical stance, Manu and the likes are drawing attention to himself isn't he?

Jokes are welcome about Anna and anyone else. But this cynicism is pathetic. How difficult would it be to write at least a civil and cogent argument like Pratap Bhanu Mehta has done in the Indian Express.

If this is what it takes to shake us out of our general apathy, one such protest per year or more is welcome. When was the last time we showed we had a spine?

 

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