My OperaWith due rerpect to Anna Hazare.
Sunday, April 10, 2011 11:26:50 AM
Anna Hazare has created a stire by undertaking a 96 hour fast unto death. He has also promised more such stires in the coming days.
Let me make one thing very clear: while I don't doubt the integrety and noble intention of Annaji, I must also confess that I am among those ungrateful few who hold such extravaganza as little more than pure farce.
That all roads in India led to Annaji's fasting site, that except for some upcoming assembly elections there being no political pot boilers, in such a drought season politicians found the site a great place of pilgrimage and made a bee-line to the place, that being fed up with 2G and CWG our politicians found a fresh lease of life when they got a new source of fodder in Anna Hazare to feed on just for a change, that our media had a great time supplying the news and related reactions dissappointing our cricket fans who wanted some more time to savour our CWC victory, that even a section of the general public like the unfortunate me suddenly turned vocal, that newspapers have found something to fill them with, with the front page photo of Annaji sipping from a glass held by a little girl, leave little room for me to speak.
Yet I am unable to understand the smaller details about such big hype and hoopla.
We often commit a mistake by forgetting a phrase of great import, i.e.'in the Indian context'. You spend a good amount of time on some presentation only to realise that your effort has gone down the drain just because you didn't remember that it was in the Indian context.
Let me give some example of 'Indian context'.
1. To the right of my humble residence lives a person who has been filling the ditch behind his house with pumped out ground water for the past ten years or so in the good intention of starting fish culture someday. He also has about 20 hundred watt electric bulbs lighting all over his plot 24 hours 365 days a year. Nobody including myself protests.
To my left there is a 5 story building. 4 out of the 5 have been rented out. The rent is inclusive of electricity duty. Naturally they attract customers and never fall vacant. Who wants to spend on gas if electricity is available free?
In the front the building is empty. The owner lives in the capital with his family. But all the lights and fans are on throughout the year.
What kinds of thieves are they. They are respectable and well-established persons in the society. But this is their true self. I am less bothered by a poor person stealing as much electricity as he actually needs than the savage and uncivilized manner in which my neighbours are wasting our national property. If it is stopped electricity could be made available at half its present rate. More importantly this wastage be it of electricity or anything useful must stop immediately.
Is there no law to stop this? Isn't that law enacted after due deliberations?
2. Ecologists and Environmentalists have spread themselves all over. There are plans, strategies chalked out. Awareness programmes, conventions continues. Treaties, charters, laws are made. Plenty of them are there.
But what I see is different. I see wood mafias cutting down hundreds of trees everyday. Timber being transported on the main roads in my town to the full public view is common sight. Customers include forest department officials. They have their share of profit. This is the way they show their gratefulness for the state providing them a secure job to feed their family and protect our forests!
The list is unending. You are free to add your own experience.
I ask again is there no law to stop this? There are enough of them. Venerable Anna Hazare wants another institution with its own laws. He wants to add one more to the existing ones. It only looks different. I have heard that Annaji has won. If ever he becomes successful, I think there should not be any doubt that he has succeeded in creating one more impotent weapon to add to the already existing arsenal.
Something is missing somewhere and we are searching for it somewhere else. Nothing short of a revolution can chang it. If Annaji understands what I mean, let him lead the nation to that revolution and I will be the first one to join hands. At the moment however, I firmly believe the existing laws of the country is enough to bring the guilty of any shade to book. More of them will create more confusion.
Let me make one thing very clear: while I don't doubt the integrety and noble intention of Annaji, I must also confess that I am among those ungrateful few who hold such extravaganza as little more than pure farce.
That all roads in India led to Annaji's fasting site, that except for some upcoming assembly elections there being no political pot boilers, in such a drought season politicians found the site a great place of pilgrimage and made a bee-line to the place, that being fed up with 2G and CWG our politicians found a fresh lease of life when they got a new source of fodder in Anna Hazare to feed on just for a change, that our media had a great time supplying the news and related reactions dissappointing our cricket fans who wanted some more time to savour our CWC victory, that even a section of the general public like the unfortunate me suddenly turned vocal, that newspapers have found something to fill them with, with the front page photo of Annaji sipping from a glass held by a little girl, leave little room for me to speak.
Yet I am unable to understand the smaller details about such big hype and hoopla.
We often commit a mistake by forgetting a phrase of great import, i.e.'in the Indian context'. You spend a good amount of time on some presentation only to realise that your effort has gone down the drain just because you didn't remember that it was in the Indian context.
Let me give some example of 'Indian context'.
1. To the right of my humble residence lives a person who has been filling the ditch behind his house with pumped out ground water for the past ten years or so in the good intention of starting fish culture someday. He also has about 20 hundred watt electric bulbs lighting all over his plot 24 hours 365 days a year. Nobody including myself protests.
To my left there is a 5 story building. 4 out of the 5 have been rented out. The rent is inclusive of electricity duty. Naturally they attract customers and never fall vacant. Who wants to spend on gas if electricity is available free?
In the front the building is empty. The owner lives in the capital with his family. But all the lights and fans are on throughout the year.
What kinds of thieves are they. They are respectable and well-established persons in the society. But this is their true self. I am less bothered by a poor person stealing as much electricity as he actually needs than the savage and uncivilized manner in which my neighbours are wasting our national property. If it is stopped electricity could be made available at half its present rate. More importantly this wastage be it of electricity or anything useful must stop immediately.
Is there no law to stop this? Isn't that law enacted after due deliberations?
2. Ecologists and Environmentalists have spread themselves all over. There are plans, strategies chalked out. Awareness programmes, conventions continues. Treaties, charters, laws are made. Plenty of them are there.
But what I see is different. I see wood mafias cutting down hundreds of trees everyday. Timber being transported on the main roads in my town to the full public view is common sight. Customers include forest department officials. They have their share of profit. This is the way they show their gratefulness for the state providing them a secure job to feed their family and protect our forests!
The list is unending. You are free to add your own experience.
I ask again is there no law to stop this? There are enough of them. Venerable Anna Hazare wants another institution with its own laws. He wants to add one more to the existing ones. It only looks different. I have heard that Annaji has won. If ever he becomes successful, I think there should not be any doubt that he has succeeded in creating one more impotent weapon to add to the already existing arsenal.
Something is missing somewhere and we are searching for it somewhere else. Nothing short of a revolution can chang it. If Annaji understands what I mean, let him lead the nation to that revolution and I will be the first one to join hands. At the moment however, I firmly believe the existing laws of the country is enough to bring the guilty of any shade to book. More of them will create more confusion.
