When we were kids ( which is a very, very long time ago !!), I remember our maid used to say 'drink your milk, or the snake baba will come and take you away'. Each meal time we were confronted with a newer, and ostensibly a scarier baba, a snake baba, a wood smelling baba..... the list continues, I assume it was the fancy of the maid at that moment that conjured up the name with the hope it would make us gulp our milk down, and leave her free to chat with the other household help.
Cut to the present day : Baba Ramdev a new age yoga guru, jets into Delhi in his personal plane, to lead an agitation. Four cabinet rank ministers are waiting to receive him. A weak government all trembly in the knees, is on the back foot, and at pains to stop the baba from going ahead with his plans to agitate.
It indeed is a sad commentary of the times we live in, that yoga gurus and small time social crusaders are seizing the center stage of attention in a country of 1.2 billion people. The UPA, a duly elected democratic alliance of political parties headed by the Congress, chastened by its encounter with the last such episode of the earlier graft crusader, Anna Hazare, who fasted, and threatened to do so till death, would best like to avoid a confrontation of the same nature. It is therefore bending over backwards to persuade Baba Ramdev from going ahead with his proposed fast starting on the 4th of June.
Where do the Hazares and the Ramdevs derive their support from? The answer is nowhere. In a democracy, individuals derive their support from the people, either as elected representatives in the hierarchy of institutions, starting from the Panchayats to the Rajya Sabha, or by being mass leaders of a political party, or as an individual. When such elected representatives push for change, they have the mandate of the people, who have empowered them to do so. In the case of Ms Hazare and Ramdev, the have no such mandate, and are acting purely on their own accord, as self appointed guardians of public probity. An un empowered middle class, politically naive, and wanting change, cheers them along, till such time as it looses novelty value, only to then drop it to the next politically fashionable thing to do. ('I'm going to the sit in for tribals in Orrisa dear, like to join me?')
On a personal evaluation of the baba, Ramdev does not emerge as squeaky clean as he'd like to project himself to be, to lead a movement on probity in public life. A tax man's assessment of this net worth puts him and his organisation at around Rs 200 crores or so, however informed sources value him at Rs 1000 crores plus. His yoga centers teach massive numbers with no real systems of reporting financial accruals, and as such the vast sums of money they generate remain largely unaccounted for, and has become the personal fiefdom of the promoter. Further, with him foraying overseas, he too could be one of those Indians who have their funds carefully tucked away in some numbered bank account. His ayurvedic medicine business too, came under a heavy cloud in 2007 when Brinda Karat of the CPM had some medicines analysed, and found it to contain amongst other harmful substances, crushed human bones!
Where do the Hazares and the Ramdevs derive their support from? The answer is nowhere. In a democracy, individuals derive their support from the people, either as elected representatives in the hierarchy of institutions, starting from the Panchayats to the Rajya Sabha, or by being mass leaders of a political party, or as an individual. When such elected representatives push for change, they have the mandate of the people, who have empowered them to do so. In the case of Ms Hazare and Ramdev, the have no such mandate, and are acting purely on their own accord, as self appointed guardians of public probity. An un empowered middle class, politically naive, and wanting change, cheers them along, till such time as it looses novelty value, only to then drop it to the next politically fashionable thing to do. ('I'm going to the sit in for tribals in Orrisa dear, like to join me?')
On a personal evaluation of the baba, Ramdev does not emerge as squeaky clean as he'd like to project himself to be, to lead a movement on probity in public life. A tax man's assessment of this net worth puts him and his organisation at around Rs 200 crores or so, however informed sources value him at Rs 1000 crores plus. His yoga centers teach massive numbers with no real systems of reporting financial accruals, and as such the vast sums of money they generate remain largely unaccounted for, and has become the personal fiefdom of the promoter. Further, with him foraying overseas, he too could be one of those Indians who have their funds carefully tucked away in some numbered bank account. His ayurvedic medicine business too, came under a heavy cloud in 2007 when Brinda Karat of the CPM had some medicines analysed, and found it to contain amongst other harmful substances, crushed human bones!
Coming to the present agitation, what is quite obvious is that the Congress is missing the big picture. Corruption has invaded all sections of our economy and lives, the aam admi is tired of brushes with graft in his daily existence. The government, however continues remain blissfully somnolent, content in letting the present state of affairs drift, and besides the odd cosmetic attempt, has not taken any real steps to weed out corruption. As a result black money, slush money, money stashed overseas, have become fertile grounds for the likes of annas & babas to stage protests and achieve personal political stardom.
The government must in the first place, must tackle corruption, black money, and the 'cause celebre' of the present agitation, money stashed overseas, on a with a war footing. Rather than sending ministers to airports to receive the jet setting baba, and pander to his whim and fancies, they should take decisive control of the situation, thereby leaving such agitations with no legs to stand on. Once they begin this exercise in full earnest, the annas and babas will loose their credo, and whimper back to their original vocation, i.e. to oversee the water needs of their village, or to teach yoga, as the case may be, and leave reforms to the relationship between the electorate and the elected.
Sorry Ramdev, this time round you cant get the mileage you seek. You will not be catapulted to the political center stage which you so unabashedly seek - The India of today is smart enough not to get conned twice by the same ploy, and for all your jetting around baba, India will jettison you !
Sorry Ramdev, this time round you cant get the mileage you seek. You will not be catapulted to the political center stage which you so unabashedly seek - The India of today is smart enough not to get conned twice by the same ploy, and for all your jetting around baba, India will jettison you !
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