Anna Hazare landed home in a Mercedes Benz. Imagine Gandhiji using Mercedes!! That raises another question: Can we believe what we see; can we trust what we hear? Crowds love commotion; the dispirited love it doubly because they find in it a new meaning; and the angry love it even better because they find an outlet for their emotions. Can we trust what we saw on television, or the truth is what the television did not show?
The reality shows, notwithstanding the title, will not tell you the reality. That Anna Hazare looked far more real than Ben Kingsley in the shooting of the film Gandhi may be an outrageous comment. Suspend your outbursts for a minute and consider the following points:
Why did Anna agree to a Jan Lokpal Bill that would destroy the carefully built-in Constitutional checks and balances that is the maverick of Indian democracy? Why did the same bill that sought to bring every petty bureaucrat in its ambit leave out the NGOs? The answer, though embarrassing for some, is not difficult to find. A driver by profession, Anna Hazare does not have the acumen to understand the legal and Constitutional niceties. And it is common knowledge that a majority of NGOs do not file income-tax returns, though some of them get foreign funds, whether from Ford Foundation or World Bank!
What was designed to be achieved capitalizing on the anger of the people was a government of Lokpal, which intelligent and informed debate across the country has scotched. Clearly, Anna is not the leader but propped up as one by some Magsaysay Award winners for his image of integrity and histrionic skills.
The next question: Having tasted blood, will Anna Hazare retire to his pavilion, or will there be more road shows? A commotion once every six months will keep the crowds in fine fettle. Then will come the
A Malayalam movie released in the 1970s brilliantly portrayed how the swearing-in of a newly elected chief minister was thwarted by millions of people blocking the road from his residence to the legislative assembly building. The car simply couldn’t move! If a film producer could manufacture a crowd far greater than the ones we saw on television, who is speaking the truth?
Wait till the
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