08 April, 2011

Aids, Anti-everything and Anna Hazare!

I'm so proud I can up with this title - I got all A's! Why the title? - I'll get to that.

Someone's FB status said 'Dares everyone with an Anna Hazare status update to actually say why he's fasting .....without Googling his name first'

Frankly, till this morning I had no idea who Anna Hazare was. When I first read his name my (evil) head said 'Why is he named Anna?' I read the article and got back to work. NDTV kept rambling on and on (as usual) about how people were supporting on road, social networks, magazines, papers. I was a little amazed. I decided to read up on this guy. Nope, I had no idea who he was. I Googled him! ;) I read up on Wiki about how he had literally brought up this village and made some great anti-alcohol measures. I wondered how he wasn't in one of our history books - then my (evil) head said 'He is still alive, he isn't history yet!'

I watched all the Tamil news channels making promises about their free mixies, grinders, ceiling fans etc and got back to Facebook. No notifications for my new pictures (disappointing). One page request - 'I support Anna Hazare'. My (evil) mind said 'How is 'liking' this page or 'joining' this page gonna help? Facebook was like a wall on the day of Holi - splashed with Anna Hazare! The only media unaffected was the Tamil media - nothing but the free goodies for the election. Amazingly, Barkha Dutt was reporting from Tamil Nadu at 10pm. I opened my Twitter page and the most recent tweet made me blink. It said 'I support Anna Hazare totally'. Oh did I not mention it was Lalit Modi's tweet?


An anti-corruption bill that wasn't passed since 1968. A single man's protest to pass the bill. The outraged nation's plea along with the single man. - Great!

Single Man's protest - Fasting. Works for India. Support from all over the nation, Indians abroad, social networks. - Awesome!

But as usual - it hurts to see Anna Hazare thrown all over the media more than what his cause is. - Big failure there!

Back to my title - Aids and Corruption. Once in, no way out. I used to always wonder why a marathon would help AIDS? In that case cancer, or any disease. Be it 5 people or 10000 people running - it makes no difference. Yes, you are putting out to the world that something like this exists and you are supporting the cause. By doing what - running. Hi-fi!

Why not an event that would generate money instead? Money to save the kids who have AIDS? Money to create a home for those thrown out of home because they have this deadly disease? An awareness campaign where you teach people to use their spare time to read to blind kids or do some volunteer work?

Its funny I compared the whole thing to AIDS. Fasting - no dude, you are 87. Get a grip - do something like Swami Vivekananda or Sai Baba or even Nithyananda. No wait, not Nithyananda. I didn't say that. Our country falls for sympathy and religion. Shiv Khera succeeded with that one book! But inspirational speaking doesn't work much here. You have the guts to challenge the entire government - don't you want to live a little longer to see the change you want to bring in? Your audience falls for the fasting this, agreed. But personally, you shouldn't do this to yourself. If its the whole 'I'm doing this for the next generation, not for me' crap - I'm not taking it. I still stick to what I say - You have the media's attention now. Stop fasting and use the crowd you have.

I do follow a lot of celebrities on twitter. My calculation says.. Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgan, Anupan Kher - (See three A's again) - their support is there for you. USE THEM! Also to cover the younger generation - Use the Hrithick Roshan sir!

I'm all for the anti-corruption thing. May I suggest one thing? When we are open about allowing a foreigner coach our Indian team to perform better - why not bring in a team to coach the selected leaders. We are a free nation since 1947 - We have developed a system slowly - its not perfect - it has huge holes - lets get them fixed. Anti-corruption is gonna take years! Come on, lets face it - we are dealing with people who have swallowed 2000 crores on scams. Its so easy for them. Swallow money, then be taken to court after 10 years in an air conditioned car and be given an A type cell in prison.


Bring in a team from a place that has its political issues fixed. Lets learn from someone else and make the change! Lets get a system in place where corruption is burnt at its roots, shot at the forehead and slammed in the nuts!


Anna Hazare - with all due respect - Use the people around you. There are hundreds of volunteers from just my friends list on FB, imagine around the nation. I plead you to break the fast, gulp down some red bull after a good meal and start working on your 'Things to do' list. Become the Subhash Chandra Bose of our time- Cause believe me, people like you are a rare breed today!

Also, if you are still planning on fasting till death - could you take M.Karunanidhi along with you?



**I support - "do not support his fasting, support his cause" campaign. Do you?**

17 comments:

Vishak Chandrasekaran said...

clever work. Fasting is basically to give the movement an ahimsa touch.. Had the old man not been fasting now the following things would not have been there.
1. pressure of a deadline
2. the protestors would have been lathicharged.
3. the government would have been more lax because it would have been just another protest.
4. now the public wont become violent because of annas fast, which could otherwise have happened.
5. hmmm... everything happens for a reason.. by the way japan is sinking to extinction.. another tsunami alert

Ree said...

I want to repeat precisely what Vishakl says here too. its a safe and non violent way of holding a government at ransom - and our government does deserve it considering how long we have all been held at ransom, with measly prices like free mixer grinders and crap like that (btw, there's no power supply on a regular basis so what use are the appliances anyway?)
Anna managed to get something that has been waitinf for decades to zoom into action within days. so kudos to that.
and abt money for development, well, yes, that is another matter all over again coz frankly Praggi, we are not dealing with a nation riddled with one or two problems - we are talking about loopholes on every step of the day - this bill should give an outlet to nepotism - red tape - bribery - political scandals involving tax payers' money - i like how one bill can hit all those things below the belt.

Unknown said...

Brilliant read, enjoyed it completely !! And agree with what you say.. btw I just loved ur tone of writing abt TN politics :)

Vijay said...

Awesome writing!!!

Great Photographs!!!

you should do more!!!

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