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More on Anna... as promised. Plus, more...
Binalakshmi Nepram is an extraordinary woman from Manipur, who gave up lucrative assignments in London and New York to come back to her home state with a one point agenda - "Get the guns out of Manipur''. That has been her impassioned campaign since her return.Manipur , one of our most neglected and demoralised States is dominated by guns in the hands of trigger happy cops and army men, accountable to no one.... a law unto themselves. Locals have been terrorised and brutalised for decades.. with nobody daring to speak up against this oppression. Binalakhmi has launched 'Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network', and is the Secretary General, 'Control Arms Foundation of India'.Beautiful, articulate and committed, she is also a published poet. Check out www.cafi-online.org. www.neiwip.blogspot.com. I am more than willing to fast for her and with her....
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This appeared in the Sunday TOI....
Why I’d hate to be in Anna’s Chappals….
It’s scary being Anna Hazare. Here is one man who has been compelled to carry the collective hopes of over a billion countrymen on his 74 year-old-shoulders. No matter how sturdy those shoulders are, that’s a lot of weight. So far, the situation is tense but not grim. How much longer will the ‘Main Hoon ,Na?’scenario last? Important question. If emotions dry up and nothing concrete comes out of the shrill protests ,who takes care of the disillusioned and desperate Anna followers waiting for the miracle to happen?Ironically, the Anna Phenomenon has divided, rather than united India. Instead of the aam aadmi focusing on the C- Word and backing Team Anna in its valiant fight against India’s Emperor of Maladies – corruption ( as malignant as the worst form of cancer), much-needed energy has been dissipated on finger pointing and name calling. Anna now finds himself in a bit of a spot, and how he negotiates this challenge will determine not just his own future but the fate of tomorrow’s India.Martyrdom is an attractive, seductive option. The thing is, Anna has been appropriated and converted into a talisman. His followers chant his name like a mantra. Some of them believe if they chant it often enough, and observe fasts, their wish for a corruption free India will be automatically granted. Just like Manmohan Singh does not possess a magic wand ( and has foolishly admitted it), neither does Anna.But we the citizens do! It’s called a ‘vote’. But passions have reached such a feverish pitch ,Anna devotees refuse to acknowledge basics(Anna alone cannot rid India of corruption).The solution to India’s myriad problems is not Anna. And this is where the faithful flock is making an expensive mistake.
Anna Hazare is no Jayaprakash Narayan. He most certainly cannot be described as the 21st Mahatma Gandhi. He is Anna - a simple man with a simple mind . Which is his biggest trump card and also his biggest liability. It is his simplicity that has attracted thousands of people to him. But it is the same simplicity that can become his undoing. A great man’s silence is open to interpretation. A diehard fan can read whatever into it. But when the same great man opens his mouth he risks everything if the content doesn’t match expectations. For all his other attributes, even his most ardent admirers will admit, Anna is no intellectual heavyweight. He is not a statesman , nor has he pretended to be one. What has touched so many people’s lives is his courage to take on the mighty, combined with a childlike obstinacy. Is that enough to ‘save’ India? Or are we being a bit too gullible, a bit too naïve pinning all our hopes on a single individual and his Jan Lokpal Bill? An Anna wave is what we have right now.Can it become a mass movement?
That the Congress-led UPA government has enough egg on its face to make a gigantic omelet, is obvious. The Big Boys have bungled and bungled badly. The Prime Minister managed to find his voice a bit too late into the fracas. By the time he spoke up, the Anna show was well on the road, with enough support to shake up India’s Debating Society ( read: ministers who waste precious time scoring debating points on television instead of engaging in smart politics). This debacle has added to the confusion, and worse, caused major rifts within the government. Anna’s decision to carry on fasting and stay put in jail was the master stroke that the Debaters had not factored in. Nor had they paid close attention to the mood of the nation, which was indeed clamouring for change.Unfortunately, what the mood also revealed was a growing sense of intolerance – and this is the frightening part. You had to take sides in a childish way – be fawningly pro-Anna or get labeled anti-Anna. Like we were playing kho-kho. Dissenting opinions were damned.Those who didn’t gush over Anna were dubbed unpatriotic. All this , while discussing the power of democracy!It is this divisiveness that will cost Anna eventually.Hate and condemnation of those with a different point of view can hardly be described as Gandhian thinking.Anna loyalists will require more than Gandhi topis and trendy tees to keep up the momentum, now that we have admitted there is an elephant in the room. Poor Anna Hazare. Who said a folk hero’s life is easy?
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