You Me And Baba

Watching one of the interviews after Baba reached Haridwar was amusing. In his words, he stayed around a wall in Ramlila Maidan for two hours. He then disguised himself in a ladies dress to escape (perhaps forgot about his beards) but police caught him. He claims the policemen pulled up his stole to strangulate him. “Arre bhai jaan maar doge meri kya ?” , he asked. He is a real marketing guy. He did not even forget the name of his favorite channel Aaj Tak claiming they were recording everything. Aaj Tak keeps repeating that line of Baba for its tag of “fearless” journalism. He further said,( maut se mujhe dar nahi lagta. Par mein aise nahi marna chahta tha). If the idea was to kill him, why did policemen not kill any of the people around?

Baba says he never faced such a violence in his life. Taking Metro from Rajeev Chowk is more violent than that. Jokes apart, has baba really thought of people who are abandoned from home in demolition drive? Or the kind of fast 30 percent of Indians do , not by choice or to persuade anyone ?

Strange are ways of life. Someone called Modi attacks the congress Government for the “barbaric” act of Baba being evicted. Comparisons are drawn with Jalianwala Bagh. BJP finds right time to bring back people like Uma Bharti back to politics.   

I am not writing here to justify what Congress did was right. But I understand with April movement a message has already been sent to the Governement for the malice called corruption and we were going into right direction formulating the bill. A committee is already there. (We were heading towards right direction of discussing things like including Prime Minister in its purview or not). Suddenly comes Baba who did give his initial support to agitation started in February.

Was this his chance to become a future King Maker? He no doubts has links with RSS but is not completely attached to them , hence can be of good use to both Congress and BJP.  I am often amazed by his meteoric rise, man with a business empire of around 1100 crores. His products widely sold. His Ashrams widely acknowledged. Has spa  at foreign locations as well. Owns a private jet and just 25 years before not sure if could have afforded a bike.

The height of absurdity is Baba willing to raise an army of its own. "Shaastra ke saath shastra ki bhi seeksha denge hum." Its in India that people have right to protest and go unhurt. His words have all the potential to incite and provoke people and fan the anarchy. High time he is ignored.

Question also arises of the weaker opposition. There have been no complete sessions of parliament for ages and this is a collective failure. That’s why we chose people, to represent our concern from district to district, from state to state. I doubt if we would have complete Monsoon session . This only allows Government to do what they want to do. Is this be the reason we are looking for alternative arrangements like civil society.

The criticism of the UPA Governement in my opinion is biased and it has not been emergency like situation. Dismantling Satyagraha mela is no doubt could have been handled in a better manner. Having said that, the maidan, definitely was potential law and order problem. Ramlila Maidan is close to old Delhi. It would have been impossible to control a mob by Baba. Leaders like Advani and Joshi could not stop Babri Masjid.

The role of media looks pathetic. Instead of informative it thrives on sensational stuffs. What the bill would be like and how it is going to help someone is rarely discussed. Perhaps it is good of people to realize of their strength and with that it is equally important to know our duties. People find getting “insider” information of business firms ethical to follow those norms in their organization. We feel nice to break queues, greater to use our position, gender, caste or region to get favors. Are we sure we would be able to break those attributes of ours. Will the bill not be misused?

I wonder if our country would only end up as a state of trials and tribulations? .