My Country. My Movement.

Posted on August 21, 2011

7


I am pissed off with Anna Hazare.

He has started something we all wished we did at some point of our lives.

For me, it was when I was studying journalism at Mysore. I became disillusioned with the profession right from my first year in college. We did have a college newsletter, which would discuss happenings in the college. As journo students, we were in charge of publishing it. We were reporters, proof readers, copy editors, and publishers. But we weren’t really in charge. We could not write or publish anything that would criticise any of our teaching staff; we were not allowed to write about (the lack of) certain facilities in our college; nothing funny or sarcastic about our principal could be published; we were not even allowed to interact with the ‘rebellious’ Students’ Union of our college. Why? The college newsletter was funded by the college. I quickly understood that what we studied in the first year- the guts and glory of many newspapers during the Independence struggle – was just an unattainable dream. I was faced with the fact that no matter where I went, I wouldn’t be truly free and fearless when it came to my reporting or my commentary.

A few of us wanted to have our own newsletter – somewhat like an underground newspaper. This paper would be free from the clutches of our college administration because we would fund the publishing. This was at least a couple of years before blogging as a tool to vent really caught on. So, we would use the same tools we learned at college, use the same set of principles our freedom fighters used when it came to journalism, and we would be the best(est) journalists. Ever.

It remained just a plan. We got so caught up with studying for our exams, submitting our reports and assignments on time, and generally being college kids that we basically gave up. I say “we” to mean a couple of close friends and me. I am sure I have a few classmates who are still fighting their way through the media system (and I wish them all the best).

And now, some of us are married, a lot of us have good, secure, decently paying jobs. We probably think about what will happen to ‘the good life’ if we revolt or rebel against the system.

We’ve all thought of this, I’m sure. I am also sure that we have also thought about taking the system head-on and fight for our right to a corruption-free society for this great nation of ours.

Anna Hazare

It took me one Anna Hazare to remind me of who I was about ten years ago. It took me a 74-year old self styled Gandhian to remind me of what I could have been now, had I stuck to my ways ten years ago.

And I feel a little guilty.

Guilty because no matter what the outcome would have been, I would have had no regrets now having fought for a just cause.

Guilty because I have let the system corrupt me so much that I have stopped questioning the rationale behind paying someone extra to do their jobs.

Guilty because maybe now, it’s too late for me to start all this again.

And this is why I am pissed with Anna Hazare.

–

Mum Mohan Singh

In 2004, when Manmohan Singh became our Prime Minister, I was confused. Confused, because the entire nation applauded it. Some non-Hindu friends of mine went on to say that good things are going to happen since the ‘extremist’ BJP was out of power. I would go on to attribute that to

a) Their obvious non-Hindu-ness,

b) the Gujarat riots which was and still is a national shame and

c) their apparent love for anything that resembles secularism.

MMS seemed like a good bet for all involved also because of his ‘economist’ credentials. A lot of references to the ‘dream budget’ he supposedly created were made to justify his, well, credentials. He was, by all counts, an able leader. All fears of a certain Mrs. Gandhi wielding more power than him were scoffed at by analysts and Congress fiends alike, because… well, he’s honest and has integrity and all those nice things.

Fast forward to 2011, and I am tempted to call each and every one of these people, point at them, and laugh.

One of the most important things that this country is really angry about is the fact that there is no leader. There is not a single person who seems to be in charge. The one person who was really in charge is in the US, far away from it all. The one person who is supposed to be in charge is talking like my grandfather did when he went senile.

And this is where our country stands. Between who is and who should have been.

And this is why our country is angry.

Nobody from the government has ever seen to be in charge of a situation. Instead, we hear cliché after cliché to justify their actions.

One such cliché that is used is “Coalition Dharma”. This is generally used, mostly by the fearless Sikh that our Prime Minister is, to justify looking the other way when scams worth thousands of crores were underway.

The most obvious inference I, along with most people with standard IQ,  could come up with was that there is this set of people which is hell-bent on staying in power that they are willing to look the other way when OUR money is being looted by unscrupulous persons.

The very fact that “Coalition Dharma” is used as an excuse by the PM to wriggle himself out of pointed questions itself indicates how rotten our system has become.

The “Coalition Dharma” excuse is just one example of how leaderless we, as a nation, have become. The people want a strong leader. Of strong values and morals and someone who’d act immediately as soon as anything that conflicts his morals arises.

Sadly, such a leader has not been elected. Yet.

And this is where Anna Hazare comes in. What he has done is he has given us a leader – a person of high integrity, values and morals.

And this is what India has been looking for since Gandhi.

Gandhi was not a perfect man. But he gave people hope. And he gave them a purpose – for themselves and their country. And that, in my book, is the hallmark of a true leader.

The Anna Hazare movement should not be looked at as a movement against monetary corruption. It would be belittling it. It is a movement that has delivered us a competent (maybe even a great) leader. It is a movement that has asked the right questions. It is a movement that has asked you to ask the right questions – from yourselves and from your pseudo-leaders.

And what’s the best part about this movement? It’s not perfect – just like you, just like me, and maybe just like Anna Hazare himself. But nothing ever is.

Perfectly Imperfect

Anna Hazare has woken up Mediocristan. India’s Black Swan moment is here and I can only hope more and more black swans emerge for the sake of this nation.

Amen.

(images from Wikipedia and IBNLive.com)

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Posted in: politics