How the lights went out on Anna Hazare

In contrast to the massive support he received for his first two fasts for a strong Lokpal, there are hardly any crowds at Anna Hazare’s fast venue in Mumbai. The parallel fast by his core team in Delhi could barely muster 1,000 people. In Hyderabad it was even worse with hardly 100 showing up.
What went wrong with the strategy of the man whose name became synonymous with anti-graft movement and inspired people to sport ‘Anna is India’ caps and T shirts?
From a flower seller at Dadar station who organised people against thuggery of land sh­a­rks to the patriot volunteer to the army in the aftermath of the 1962 war and the eventual metamorphosis into a social activist, Kisan Hazare has come a long way to become the towering beacon of hope for millions who had almost given up on the fight against corruption.
However, somewhere down the path the Gandhian deviated from the target and went on a bashing spree on anyone and anything political that fell foul of him — the Congress and its allies emerged as his favourite targets.
His core team, whose nom de guerre is Team Anna, was seen manipulating public su­pport for the veteran activist to promote their personal agendas. Theatrics of Kiran ‘çrane’ Bedi may have entertained crowds at Ramlila, but little did the former top cop realise how close she was to the class she was trying to ridicule.
If it was the CD controversy that dogged the Bhushans, inflated air travel bills came as a major embarrassment for Bedi. Arvind Kejriwal lost face when he was pulled up by the I-T department over unpaid dues; Santosh Hegde, the man with impressive credentials as Karnataka Lokayukta, pulled out of the team; and Swami Agnivesh was ‘expelled’ for ‘colluding’ with the government. The halo that shined bright once has vanished.
With Anna going into overdrive attacking the Congress and even resorting to political campaigning against it in bypolls, the Gandhian was reduced to a Sangh Parivar instrument — something that cost his credibility and popularity dearly.
Another factor that Anna and his team underestimated is the public support for the politicians they elected to Parliament. Arm-twisting a democratically elected body to satisfy their whims and fancies may fetch an initial round of applause, but will not suffice to ensure constant support.
When pundits list the severe winter and holiday season as the reasons for the sparse attendance at the latest fast, they are indirectly acknowledging that the public is willing to give their elected representatives time to sort things out — something that India Against Corruption has overlooked.
With all due respect to Hazare and his noble intentions, it remains undisputed that the movement is destined to collapse from within when one man and his coterie are trying to steamroll all opposition and hold a country with a million divergent voices to ransom through emotional blackmail.
The blind opposition to government’s Lokpal Bill without waiting to assess its performance looks more like an ego issue than an argument based in logic.
A Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas at state-level, bolstered with extensive legal reforms to plug existing loopholes, are essential for the anti-graft legislation to work effectively.
Polity has a way of educating leaders, even the most battle hardened one. Anna has made a wise choice by calling off his fast and jail bharo movement.
Anna should show some patience. Isn’t that an inseparable part of the Gandhian approach?

Freedom from fear forever… really?

Sounds familiar, seen it somewhere? Yes, it’s the motto of the Hyderabad police.
The newspaper photographs and television news clips of senior police officers launching awareness and crime control schemes come to my mind. Let me tell you the story of my brief late night ‘encounter’ with the guardians of the City.
That day the movie got over at 11pm and my forage in the kitchen and the fridge to pacify my growling tummy yielded nothing. I roped in my bachelor neighbour to try our luck and see if some trolley vendor is still serving ‘fast food’.
Halfway we ran into a group of friends returning after a movie and we were soon immersed in our informal review on the sidewalk. Oblivious we were to the lingering suspicious eyes of a two-man bike patrol that slowed to observe us before speeding off.
An approaching police siren broke the silence of the night air and our conversation. “The cops are rushing to help someone in distress…” my friend contributed with his educated guess.
Even before he could finish his sentence a patrol jeep comes around the corner and screeches to a halt before us and half-a-dozen men in uniform emerge to form a semi-circle around us.
“What are you doing here? Don’t you *^&#* know it’s forbidden to venture out after 11pm?” thunders their leader.
After a few moments of petrified silence my friend musters courage to ask what wrong we have done to deserve such harsh treatment.
Bleep bleep… Another generous dose of Hyderabadi gaali that would shame the filth in Musi followed.
I offered my enlightened awareness of the rights of a citizen and asked them which law prohibited us from walking the streets at odd hours.
Immediately a firm hand fell on my shoulder and the cop pulled me towards their vehicle. “Why don’t we head to the thaana, where I can explain your rights to you in OUR style?” suggested the policeman, flashing a wicked smile as he exchanged glances with his colleagues. They nodded in agreement.
Sensing trouble, another friend offered an apology for our ‘ignorant and rude’ behavior and ‘admitted’ we shouldn’t have been out on the streets at this time and pleaded with them to let us go.
The cops muttered something to each other and told us to get out of sight and off the streets before they change their mind.
We scampered to the safety of our homes, still sweating from the ordeal but happy that we could decline the invitation to the thaana.
Every youngster in Hyderabad has a similar tale to narrate — tales of getting verbally or/and physically abused by the police.
If people have to stay off the streets at night to make them safe, what are cops for?
The action of enforcing an illegal and arbitrary ban on venturing out at night speaks volumes about incompetence of the Force in identifying and eliminating criminals.
We pay taxes that go into the upkeep of the law enforcement machinery so that we don’t have to fear to walk on the streets even at the dead of the night. It’s an irony that the same agency that is supposed to ensure that freedom to us ends up denying it.
Freedom from fear forever… Yeah right… tell me about it!

Whose power is it anyway?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has put an end to ambiguity over the government’s policy on how it plans to implement the controversial nuclear power projects by saying the Kudankulam plant will start operations in the next couple of months.

The four reactors, built with Russian technology, are slated to provide 4,000MW to the national power grid and cater to both the domestic and industrial consumers.

One can’t help but wonder if the newfound panacea for our power woes will go the same way as the mega dams, which Jawaharlal Nehru had touted as “temples of development”. These projects provided electricity and irrigated millions of hectares but also displaced millions of people and drowned vast stretches of pristine forests.

Till Fukushima, Japan was the poster boy for champions of “safe, fail-proof” nuclear power and the tsunami nailed all the well-crafted and well-publicised lies. It has come to a point where even breast milk in the nearby precincts have been found contaminated by radiation.

If somebody wants to establish a firecracker factory next to your house won’t you want it shifted to some uninhabited area? Won’t you be worried for the safety of your family and that of the neighbourhood even if the top rocket scientist comes and tells you about its safeguards?

In a country where operations and safety features of all nuclear facilities are ‘classified’ and details opaque due to ‘national security’ concerns, it is only natural that the threatened population is up in arms.

Visuals of tribal folk near the Jaduguda uranium mines suffering from unknown diseases, congenital defects in newborns, sterility in young adults, and lung disease in mine workers, from Anand Patwardhan’s War and Peace (the filmmaker had to go all the way to the Supreme Court to get the censors’ cuts quashed) are enough to make anyone have second thoughts about ‘safe’ nuclear power production.

The prime minister’s soft voiced yet razor sharp concluding observation that Kudankulam protests were “overdone” smacks of arrogance and makes a mockery of the idea of democracy. Not surprising for a head of the government who is used to being dictated by a higher power.

When the whole world is phasing out nuclear power and replacing it with greener and sustainable technologies, it’s sad that our government is going for it — a policy with single-minded focus of burgeoning the wallets of private players at the cost of health and safety of public.

It's not a strip show stupid!

Moral police gets cops to stop Slutwalk Bangalore

In another feather on the cap of to the nation of tolerance and the truly cosmopolitan city (pun definitely intended), the Bangalore police cancelled permission for SlutWalk citing security concerns — read threat from the 'moral police'.

SlutWalk is an in-your-face name coined for a movement that exposes the hypocrisy of taking refuge in hallowed culture and traditions — no wonder the knee-jerk reaction of the self-styled guardians of collective morality.

The logic of the moral police for upholding the social fabric and integrity of the society is akin to locking up an entire population permanently to save them from rabid dogs.

The sheer refusal of the self-appointed vigilante's to even allow the SlutWalk organiser's the freedom of expression — yes, the same free that guarantees the right to prudish propaganda — betrays the shallow foundations of their cause.

The irony is that the police, who are supposed to ensure that every person enjoys the rights legally, were hand-in-glove with the moral police brigade in denying the SlutWalk activists permission to hold their program. If police can't guarantee security then why are they still in their jobs. Ever heard of a company (not PSU) retaining employees who can't deliver?

Every human being has the inalienable right to dignity and an environment where one has freedom of expression is inseparable from it. It's high time we pull our minds out of the Dark Ages and make them one with our bodies in the digital era.

Freedom of expression — Dam(n) it !

Tamil Nadu ban on Dam 999 shows lack of maturity

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek and receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

— Universal Declaration Of Human Rights (1948)

The row between Kerala and Tamil Nadu over the 117-year-old Mullaperiyar dam has entered the celluloid dimension with the latter on Thursday banning Dam 999, a movie that is woven around the collapse of a 100-year-old dam.

The Tamil Nadu government has banned the controversial movie saying it was against the interests of the State, after political parties, including the DMK, raised the pitch against its release. Theatre owners in the State had on Wednesday decided not to screen controversial movie. The opponents of the movie contend that it is based on the Mullaperiyar dam and the release of the movie will create panic and promote animosity between the people.

One wonders what happens to the artistic freedom as well as the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. This is not the first instance where whims and fancies of the political class and interest groups have tried and succeeded in stifling voices of dissidence or difference.

Clause (2) of Article 19, added by the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, defines the grounds on which restrictions on the freedom of speech and expression may be imposed. According to this amendment, public order signifies "that state of tranquillity which prevails among the members of political society as a result of internal regulations enforced by the government which they have established.”

Now, who has the time to lose their tranquillity over some movie? No one is forcing the public to watch any movie. If a movie is an affront to their feelings, it will become a dud at the box office. There is no need for political vigilantes to protect the sensitivities of the public (who are mature enough to drive, vote, drink and marry) from getting disturbed.

Six decades have passed since we attained independence from colonial yoke. However, the restrictions introduced by the white masters to keep the large populace enslaved is still popular, albeit in different forms and for different purposes.

Authors, artists, film-makers, social activists face the ire of those with vested interests who wants to retain their stranglehold over their traditional support bases by any means possible — even through populist measures that proclaim dearth of grey matter. The disgrace and embarrassment of a great artist such as MF Husain breathing his last in exile hasn't taught us anything.

Groups who are in power and those who aspire for it always tend to discover causes that need their intervention. For this, a pressing problem has to be created for the “knight in shining armour” to enter the scene riding on the popularity stallion to slay the evil opponents.

Today one can't throw a stone in this country without hitting a civil society activist (and it's likely that the same stone will rebound and hit a human rights activist). From the anti-graft icon who wants to flog tipplers to the Delhi top cop who blamed the rape victims' dress for their situation, every T, D and H has their share of opinions.

If Anna Hazare is not prosecuted for suggesting violence, if leaders in different hues of saffron and green can tell mass gatherings that the “other” group need to be crushed and can still become legislators and ministers, then why target a film-maker?

Our right to state and propagate our ideas rests on the foundation of tolerance from everybody else. When we forget that and deny that right to someone else, we are setting the bottle spinning — you never know when you will be at the receiving end.

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Voltaire

Gandhi dreamed of Ram Rajya, got Scam Rajya

When Bapuji envisioned freedom for the country he hoped the empowerment would remove the social ills produced by centuries of monarchy, feudalism and colonialism. However, when the white man handed the spectre to the brown man nothing really changed.

It is difficult beat someone in his home turf. When corruption underwent 100 per cent indigenisation it became even more entrenched.

Such has become the state of affairs that more than the Right to Information Act, a comprehensive national list of bribes to be paid at each level of local, state and Central government would be more useful to the citizens.

The government says it would rather let foodgrains rot than give it poor so that the country's WTO-compliant image before the West stays intact. Repeated queries and directives from courts on social justice are given quiet burial in the labyrinths of red tape.

So what are the chances of your success in taking on corruption. The following are the possible scenarios:
1) Your requests are stone-walled by bureaucracy
2) Attempts to complain to higher authorities end up like complaining to Hitler about human rights abuse
3) You get locked up under one of those numerous security and terrorism laws for inciting unrest or conspiracy to wage war against the country
4) You are framed in false cases ranging from high treason to staring at someone for too long. Your family members are harassed.
5) You petition the courts and spend the rest of your life and energy in courtroom against top lawyers in the country.
6) You get killed in accident, during robbery attempt or will be gunned down by cops who launched an operation to bust the terror module you were running.

If only the country had the will to crack down on corruption....