THE GREAT ICE-CREAM

REVOLUTION!

With candle in one hand and ice-cream in the other, they marched in their hundreds on Jantar Mandir to fight corruption. They are school children agitated by the state of affairs of the nation, who do not wish to go back to school till the Lok Pal Bill is passed. Lo and behold, even before many Indians woke up to Anna Hazare’s fast, NRIs were up in arms in foreign capitals and other cities against corruption! On television, it was a grandiose show the kind of which is rarely witnessed on our planet. But those who went to Jantar Mandir were disillusioned by the kind of people acting behind the scene. Television often hides the ugly face of reality, especially when it enacts the script of subterranean ideologues. The truth would dawn on the so-called civil society members, now basking in the limelight and walking like colossus, when they contest elections and lose even their deposits!

Indian democracy is notorious for the way major decisions are taken. They are taken, so to speak, on the streets rather than in Parliament, be it Telanga, OBC reservation or the creation of linguistic states. Brainlessness is the hallmark of a breed of politicians whose 3-D agenda is disruption, destruction and demolition. At a time when America is struggling to shrug off the ice of global meltdown and Europe still in a mess, Indian economy has done creditably well and the Indian middle class better off than their counterparts. Street politics is bound to retard the fast-track record of Indian economy. Imagine the sense of betrayal of the people when they are told they are participating not in the Second Salt March but the Second Rath Yatra! At the slightest hint of anarchy, the foreign capital that sustained Indian economy will fly out of the country, and with it India’s relative prosperity. What is bad for the Indian economy is good for the Chinese economy – especially the flight of foreign capital. The Mandarins have every reason to smile!