Today is the 65th Independence Day and we are ahead of watching the implications of our freedom fighters especially Gandhi but Gandhi seems to dominate for more reasons than these days. In his name there are old manner of protests. The most recent and current of course being the protest of Anna Hazare who this week is calling his protest the second’s freedom struggle. Time was when Mahatma Gandhi was the only leader visionary enough to call his fast as Satyagrah, all of our histories and our understanding of history is shaped and formed by Gandhi’s famous fast unto death. He undertook 15 of them in his lifetime but they were almost always not for individuals but for causes, for specific issues which played watershed part in India’s Freedom Struggle. Now of course fast unto death is almost synonymously associated these days with the clash between Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev with the UPA. As we look at Anna Hazare, we seem to forget the protests in other parts of our country as well. The longest running fast unto death has been infact has been in one corner of India North East portion of India by Irome Sharmila, a young woman who has been asking for the repeal of the armed forces special power act in Manipur. Why does she never gather the proper headlines which Anna Hazare does, Is the media culpable? Has fasting now become something which occupies urban headlines because current issue relates middle class. Is there a class bias in how we response to fast?
We need to ponder whether fast have become the Indian method of protest or whether they are in danger of becoming theatrical.
Taking the Government perspective, Team Anna certainly can’t force a law whose efficacy we are not sure of and in some sense many thinks it’s the wrong way to do it because laws should not be made on Jantar Mantar Road but in Parliament. Unfortunately, the campaign has made Indian into finger pointers, everybody who is standing with Anna is pointing fingers towards politicians but there is element of corruption within us. The corruption when we bribe to make our life easier. This the society has to look into by introspecting themselves before pointing fingers on the khaki clad.
On other perspective, we can see Government is ready with a toothless bill. In School we are taught Parliament is good and outside Parliament protesting is bad but it is lazy thinking in today’s scenario because we have to take a perspective what is right and what is wrong. If what is happened in the last session of Parliament is wrong where taxpayer’s money was wasted by consistent adjournment of the sessions then a non-violent protest to cleanse the system is not bad at all as nobody is taking arms like Naxalites.
I am ambivalent about this protest as I support the cause but cannot understand how we can subvert our institutions. We are probably a nation at puberty, at a stage that will separate youth from responsible citizens and to reach that it will be our institutions, it will be the rule of law. As a consequentialist, one can say that the old guy fasted in April and that’s why we have come across so far; we have cabinet ministers in jail and isn’t that is achievement. At the same time, we cannot get always from the fact that we are not during Gandhi’s time, when we were there was no constitutional democracy. The best thing we can do to fight corruption is to uplift the campaign to strengthen our institutions so that the bureaucracy, the judiciary, the police all become accountable by protesting before Government to make a strong and sensible Bill rather than finger pointing parliamentarians.
Swami Vivekananda advocated “Aggressive Good”. This movement has a potential for aggressive good, so if there was something we haven’t achieved in the last 65 years atleast now we can gain some momentum because how many times the country come together and debate for good cause which is gonna heard by entire society. But for God’s sake don’t call it a freedom struggle because we undermining the fact that we are a free country and that’s why Anna Hazare can write to the Prime Minister and say that he don’t have the right to unfurl the flag and is not being jailed for expressing such aggression .
There is a more important subject than history and that is the future. With my limited experience I can say there are people who are cribbers and there are others who are doers. Even with a criticized style but Team Anna is atleast doing something otherwise we surely would have a committee of Anti-Corruption headed by people like Sharad Pawar and none of the debate would have been going like what is happening now. But the doers must be with thoughtful because Hitler was also a doer but insensible.
As per Gandhian principle, idea of fast was for arousing the sense of empathy. Today the context has certainly changed or you may called distorted so we should not compare it with a Gandhian movement. Also a matter of fact, every note that is being steal in the name of corruption has a Gandhi picture on it and this thing should not be forgotten.
There are several issues to fast for that goes beyond what we are looking at but the consensus of masses is that today is 15th August and there is a need of a potential dialogue not a collapse of the relationships between the institutions which make democracy, so that we still have reason to be proud of.
A very Happy Independence Day to all.
