When to Stop?
As a little boy I struggled for
words. If someone asked me to write a couple of hundred words I would be
completely lost; a cow has four legs, two horns, a tale and gives us milk blah-blah
and that’s the end of a write up on a cow. Sometimes we would be made to sit on
the ground on some fancy occasion like Independence Day when a hotshot
government official would come and harangue us nonstop. Sitting under the hot
sun waiting for the packet of ‘laddus,’ courtesy government of India, after this
hotshot ends his discourse on morality and patriotism, I would marvel at the
fellows ability to think up words and curse the same fellow for not knowing
when to stop. Anna Hazare and his cohorts don’t know when to stop. All or
nothing is zero sum game that nobody wins. All the goodwill dissipates when we
feel exasperated at the snootiness of fellows unwilling to compromise. It was with
the Baba Ramdev the first time over; three central ministers went to the
airport to greet him, clearly the government was growling at his feet, he could
have extracted some positive measures from the government for his cause but the
stubborn stance ended in a resounding fiasco. Baba Ramdev ended up as another
rabble rouser with considerable loss of credibility. If he had compromised, his
influence and aura would have remained intact for future use. It is the same
with the Anna Hazare, people empathize with his cause but are also impatient
with their snootiness; my bill, my terms, my method no less. Even Mahatma
Gandhi a thousand fold bigger persona than Anna Hazare disappointed the people
for calling off agitation after Chaura Chauri incidence. So the trick is to
know when to stop. The other guy will only concede to a point never all the way.
The Media
The media has whipped up a non-issue
and put it up on the prime time discussion. It is like Picasso’s Guernica is on
display and the panel of experts are discussing the frame of the painting. The
issue is corruption and the empathy of the people with its eradication is well
known yet the ‘Media’ is discussing the lack of substantial crowd gathering at Jantar
Mantar. Our media apes the west and then moralizes; our culture, our values and
our ethos are different. When Obama came to India, you would think heavier
issues of real politics would be discussed thread bare but what you got was
saturation coverage of items on the dinner menu. The whole thing was whipped in
such a manner that it became a suspense thriller from Bollywood. There were scoops,
reporters taking risk going into the sanctum sanctorum of the hotel and trying
to eek out a response from the chef and chef predictably acting pricy about it.
In the end of it all we were made to realize that the revelation that is was
Hydrabadi Biryani and not Luckhnavi Chicken Tikka, was worth the wait. This is our media
And You?
The entire act is for you. You
are the central object of this exercise. Corruption matters to you and you are
indeed incensed that no action has been taken for its eradication. You know
that the people who will take action are themselves corrupt and will not move
unless pushed to move. You like Anna Hazare for doing what he is doing and
would like to contribute is some way. There is oblique inference in their
effort that makes you guilty for not going out and supporting him. You are not
to be blamed. You are doing what you are supposed to do. Average behavior is
designed behavior therefore you are behaving in the manner you are designed to
behave. It is OK to send SMS in support of Anna Hazare movement and also go out
and peek at the gathering if you happen to pass through that place but to
expect that you will take leave from your job and make effort to reach at the
gathering in support of the movement is to say the least foolhardy. An individual runs cost benefit analysis in his head and decides accordingly. Sure
send SMS in Anna’s in support, write comments in blogs etc. and generally help
out if it is not too much bother. I say you are doing just fine so relax and
cast off that guilt from your head.
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