The citizens of India snatched full fundamental rights after a long struggle in midst of 19th century. The unique struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi was based on principles of non violence and brotherhood. Even though there was lot of violence perpetrated by the British authorities, the retaliation was by, just keeping oneself hungry. The agitation had the strength of thunderbolt that shook the inner conscience of everyone who saw the hungry protesters.
Similar modus operandi was adopted by Anna Hazare few days ago, when he shook the UPA government to agree on drafting a bill, that can put even prime minister and chief justice in purview of investigations. Lot of bickering, by congress leaders like Digvijaya Singh, tried to color the whole agitation as right wing propaganda but finally government conceded to demands by civil society for drafting of a bill.
Since this idea works even in present times, Ramdev baba too tried to set up mass fasting to bring back, huge money, stashed illegally outside India. A satyagraha, with monstrous tents, was planned on Ramlila ground in New Delhi. The government which is the face of corruption in recent times, wanted to save their face. Three high ranking ministers were sent to airport to receive baba. They held two days of talks with baba and tried to convince him to leave the fasting. Baba went ahead with fasting and motivating crowds to do fast. The silent rubble of losing grounds was felt by the government. A big briage of paramilitary force was sent at 1:00 AM and baba was taken by police amid high drama. The tear shells were fired without a forethought of fire accident inside the tent that could have burned thousands. The women and old citizens, who were staging this protest, were hammered to death, causing skull injuries, broken limbs and bruised bodies. The brutality continued and whole nation witnessed it minute by minute on new channels by over enthusiastic reporters until the ground was cleaned up of people and paraphernalia.
Sonia and her A-team would have definitely enjoyed a good 6 hour, second Jalianvala Bagh reality show. The so called mellifluous Shiela Dixit never uttered a single word to console the bereaved and injured. Not a word was heard until Digvijay Singh catapulted the best vocabulary synonyms on Baba and his supporters. Shame came upon the government when everyone from the civil society and political arena started condemning the action. The news channels roared with anxiety to grab as much as TRP as they can, by getting the best panel to discuss the issue. Furthermore, most of the congress spokespersons under-grounded themselves escaping media and shame. Prince Rahul never speaks on such issues and Sonia needs script. Manmohan anyways never speaks, probably he does not even know what his government had done. The only person speaking was Digvijay, who is subsided in his own state and Kapil Sibbal who discovered at midnight that this is RSS backed movement.
Amid all this chaos, Baba was thrown out of the city without an arrest. He was sent back from where he came from, symbolizing victory of congress and its rule. A huge embarrassment was smeared on a yogi who wanted to bring about a change by non violence and fasting. I remember the similar agitations by Myanmar's Buddhist monks and peace full crowds in Egypt. Though the change came at last.
There may be doubts about what Baba wanted to achieve by this fast, but there is definitely enough space for everyone to demand and protest, in democracy. Politics and country is not a career field for one group of profession. A singer, an actor, a socialist, a bank employee or even saint has full right to demand and agitate for the country. Though, Shahrukh khan thinks otherwise. I respect him for all the love scenes that he did but his entry in Cricket and tweets about every issue, does not reflect the same sentiment. But anyways he is Shahrukh, just like Rakhi Sawant, having foot in his mouth to be a news maker.
I know this incident will not mark anything in history except another chapter of using force and brutality. The suppression of freedom of expression and freedom to disagree will cost UPA in a big way. The Congress of Gandhi forgot what Ramdev Baba needs to remember:
Similar modus operandi was adopted by Anna Hazare few days ago, when he shook the UPA government to agree on drafting a bill, that can put even prime minister and chief justice in purview of investigations. Lot of bickering, by congress leaders like Digvijaya Singh, tried to color the whole agitation as right wing propaganda but finally government conceded to demands by civil society for drafting of a bill.
Since this idea works even in present times, Ramdev baba too tried to set up mass fasting to bring back, huge money, stashed illegally outside India. A satyagraha, with monstrous tents, was planned on Ramlila ground in New Delhi. The government which is the face of corruption in recent times, wanted to save their face. Three high ranking ministers were sent to airport to receive baba. They held two days of talks with baba and tried to convince him to leave the fasting. Baba went ahead with fasting and motivating crowds to do fast. The silent rubble of losing grounds was felt by the government. A big briage of paramilitary force was sent at 1:00 AM and baba was taken by police amid high drama. The tear shells were fired without a forethought of fire accident inside the tent that could have burned thousands. The women and old citizens, who were staging this protest, were hammered to death, causing skull injuries, broken limbs and bruised bodies. The brutality continued and whole nation witnessed it minute by minute on new channels by over enthusiastic reporters until the ground was cleaned up of people and paraphernalia.
Sonia and her A-team would have definitely enjoyed a good 6 hour, second Jalianvala Bagh reality show. The so called mellifluous Shiela Dixit never uttered a single word to console the bereaved and injured. Not a word was heard until Digvijay Singh catapulted the best vocabulary synonyms on Baba and his supporters. Shame came upon the government when everyone from the civil society and political arena started condemning the action. The news channels roared with anxiety to grab as much as TRP as they can, by getting the best panel to discuss the issue. Furthermore, most of the congress spokespersons under-grounded themselves escaping media and shame. Prince Rahul never speaks on such issues and Sonia needs script. Manmohan anyways never speaks, probably he does not even know what his government had done. The only person speaking was Digvijay, who is subsided in his own state and Kapil Sibbal who discovered at midnight that this is RSS backed movement.
Amid all this chaos, Baba was thrown out of the city without an arrest. He was sent back from where he came from, symbolizing victory of congress and its rule. A huge embarrassment was smeared on a yogi who wanted to bring about a change by non violence and fasting. I remember the similar agitations by Myanmar's Buddhist monks and peace full crowds in Egypt. Though the change came at last.
There may be doubts about what Baba wanted to achieve by this fast, but there is definitely enough space for everyone to demand and protest, in democracy. Politics and country is not a career field for one group of profession. A singer, an actor, a socialist, a bank employee or even saint has full right to demand and agitate for the country. Though, Shahrukh khan thinks otherwise. I respect him for all the love scenes that he did but his entry in Cricket and tweets about every issue, does not reflect the same sentiment. But anyways he is Shahrukh, just like Rakhi Sawant, having foot in his mouth to be a news maker.
I know this incident will not mark anything in history except another chapter of using force and brutality. The suppression of freedom of expression and freedom to disagree will cost UPA in a big way. The Congress of Gandhi forgot what Ramdev Baba needs to remember:
- "Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary"
