Binu Alex
Post August 16, 2011, two types of India emerged. Nationalists and Traitors, thanks to Bush doctrine. If you give good TRPs to the roaring televisions, high traffic to social networks like Facebok and Twitter, put Anna’s picture on your Facebook profile, have a candle vigil and have your kids put up a good demonstration in front of television cameras, you are a crusader against corruption, a true patriot. Or else……..
Suddenly all political leaders have become caricatures. Baba Ramdev, Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Anna Hazare, Kapil Sibal have all figured and interestingly not a single BJP leaders are in this list. Not a single soul made even a slight remark of Gujarat High Court asking the government of Gujarat why it has not appointed a Lokayukta despite its instructions. Convenience is the key to escapism.
I have some 300 odd friends on my Facebook and 99 per cent of them consider me as a traitor because I don’t support this. This is my story, story of a traitor, a social network traitor.
I don’t support this because I know this is not going to end corruption. I also know very well that corruption is not a temporary phenomenon that can be eradicated with a protest or fast. It is a disease and the best way to eradicate it is to clean the channels, which makes corruption so easy to develop and spread. I have been with some of the most corrupt people for ten long years in one of the most corrupt government departments in this country. It is easy to be corrupt in any government department. But it takes real courage to be straight and non-corrupt just like the current movement. It is easy to join a protest and flow with the stream. It takes courage to take a stand. I take a stand and I am out of contention for best Indian patriot.
Today we have an unprecedented nationally telecast, emotionally charged carnival running across the country written and directed by TRP hungry televisions’ well fed journalists who demonstrates live on TV each and every action of the main protagonist. They bring kids from around the ground and asks questions which an average TRP giving viewer would like to hear and feel proud of the movement. There are mimicry artists like Kumar Vishwas to keep the public busy. There are bhajans, orchestra, doctor visits and everything that can beat the best running soap opera.
So when I add myself to the countless number of people into Facebook with my own opinion, I immediately get response in different forms. Almost all of them painting me as a traitor – a social network traitor. According to them, by not supporting Anna, I am encouraging corruption. And what are they trying to do after eradicating corruption and bringing back the foreign stuffed black money back to India? They are going to have a big bash. Here is one observation :
“My dear frnds, If all black money comes back to India then Beer 8Rs Vodka 20Rs Whisky 35Rs ...Wine 45Rs Champagne 55Rs Soda 1.25Rs Atleasttt now support Anna... :-)..”
The entire movement has become a joke and still a majority of Indians still do not understand the underlying danger behind this. Their arguments are simple. ‘You can be wrong, but the entire country cant. See how they have marched in millions in support of this cause and you are the lone man standing.’
So much so that the most vocal critics of media who used to abuse the television channels just last week back are now putting rose petals on their TV. The opportunists they are, the chauvinism they show is unbearable. India has become a convenience store where you do whatever you like at whatever cost to the exchequer or the unity of the country.
I was going through a message put up by the Modi bête noire, Sanjeev Bhatt that said “Corruption has its own motivations and is self-perpetuating. No Ombudsman, howsoever powerful or no Law, howsover stringent can effectively deal with corruption untill we thoroughly study the phenomenon of corruption and eliminate the very conditions that breed and nourish it.”
I fully agree with this. But the biggest problem here is execution. How can you wash a man who is laced with corruption from tip to toe? Is it through another bill? Thanks to Raja and Kalmadi, India has found a new hero in Anna Hazare. The team behind this Gandhian simple person is cultivating Anna to be the alternative to the current disposition, creating a myth that introducing the Lokpal will eliminate corruption in the country despite the fact that two of the Anna Team were once government officials.
Arvind Kejriwal worked for Income-tax, one of the biggest breeding centre of corruption. Kiran Bedi worked for police department, where corruption is next to God. Both of them are very well aware that this bill is not going to change the corruption standards in this country. But this is their chance. Now or never. They are bargaining hard to get this bill passed and also to create a new hegemony where a select few civil activists will run the country from their backyard – without actually going to the people or being elected from any constituency.
I asked myself a question. Have I voted these people to represent me? No. So is this a Lokpal bill or Annapal Bill? But then those people whom I voted to represent never represented me anywhere. This is my grievance and shared by millions of people. This brings to what Arundhati Roy wrote in her article (read here) “This crisis has been forged out of the utter failure of India's representative democracy, in which the legislatures are made up of criminals and millionaire politicians who have ceased to represent its people. In which not a single democratic institution is accessible to ordinary people.”
Knowing very well that this is nothing but a carnival without any result (even taking into consideration that Annapal Bill will be passed without any changes), I have no option but to put my frustrations in social networking sites. But then that brings to the core question about your loyalty to the country.
Today, I am a social networking traitor. I don’t know about tomorrow because there is nothing called tomorrow.
Post August 16, 2011, two types of India emerged. Nationalists and Traitors, thanks to Bush doctrine. If you give good TRPs to the roaring televisions, high traffic to social networks like Facebok and Twitter, put Anna’s picture on your Facebook profile, have a candle vigil and have your kids put up a good demonstration in front of television cameras, you are a crusader against corruption, a true patriot. Or else……..
Suddenly all political leaders have become caricatures. Baba Ramdev, Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Anna Hazare, Kapil Sibal have all figured and interestingly not a single BJP leaders are in this list. Not a single soul made even a slight remark of Gujarat High Court asking the government of Gujarat why it has not appointed a Lokayukta despite its instructions. Convenience is the key to escapism.
I have some 300 odd friends on my Facebook and 99 per cent of them consider me as a traitor because I don’t support this. This is my story, story of a traitor, a social network traitor.
I don’t support this because I know this is not going to end corruption. I also know very well that corruption is not a temporary phenomenon that can be eradicated with a protest or fast. It is a disease and the best way to eradicate it is to clean the channels, which makes corruption so easy to develop and spread. I have been with some of the most corrupt people for ten long years in one of the most corrupt government departments in this country. It is easy to be corrupt in any government department. But it takes real courage to be straight and non-corrupt just like the current movement. It is easy to join a protest and flow with the stream. It takes courage to take a stand. I take a stand and I am out of contention for best Indian patriot.
Today we have an unprecedented nationally telecast, emotionally charged carnival running across the country written and directed by TRP hungry televisions’ well fed journalists who demonstrates live on TV each and every action of the main protagonist. They bring kids from around the ground and asks questions which an average TRP giving viewer would like to hear and feel proud of the movement. There are mimicry artists like Kumar Vishwas to keep the public busy. There are bhajans, orchestra, doctor visits and everything that can beat the best running soap opera.
So when I add myself to the countless number of people into Facebook with my own opinion, I immediately get response in different forms. Almost all of them painting me as a traitor – a social network traitor. According to them, by not supporting Anna, I am encouraging corruption. And what are they trying to do after eradicating corruption and bringing back the foreign stuffed black money back to India? They are going to have a big bash. Here is one observation :
“My dear frnds, If all black money comes back to India then Beer 8Rs Vodka 20Rs Whisky 35Rs ...Wine 45Rs Champagne 55Rs Soda 1.25Rs Atleasttt now support Anna... :-)..”
The entire movement has become a joke and still a majority of Indians still do not understand the underlying danger behind this. Their arguments are simple. ‘You can be wrong, but the entire country cant. See how they have marched in millions in support of this cause and you are the lone man standing.’
So much so that the most vocal critics of media who used to abuse the television channels just last week back are now putting rose petals on their TV. The opportunists they are, the chauvinism they show is unbearable. India has become a convenience store where you do whatever you like at whatever cost to the exchequer or the unity of the country.
I was going through a message put up by the Modi bête noire, Sanjeev Bhatt that said “Corruption has its own motivations and is self-perpetuating. No Ombudsman, howsoever powerful or no Law, howsover stringent can effectively deal with corruption untill we thoroughly study the phenomenon of corruption and eliminate the very conditions that breed and nourish it.”
I fully agree with this. But the biggest problem here is execution. How can you wash a man who is laced with corruption from tip to toe? Is it through another bill? Thanks to Raja and Kalmadi, India has found a new hero in Anna Hazare. The team behind this Gandhian simple person is cultivating Anna to be the alternative to the current disposition, creating a myth that introducing the Lokpal will eliminate corruption in the country despite the fact that two of the Anna Team were once government officials.
Arvind Kejriwal worked for Income-tax, one of the biggest breeding centre of corruption. Kiran Bedi worked for police department, where corruption is next to God. Both of them are very well aware that this bill is not going to change the corruption standards in this country. But this is their chance. Now or never. They are bargaining hard to get this bill passed and also to create a new hegemony where a select few civil activists will run the country from their backyard – without actually going to the people or being elected from any constituency.
I asked myself a question. Have I voted these people to represent me? No. So is this a Lokpal bill or Annapal Bill? But then those people whom I voted to represent never represented me anywhere. This is my grievance and shared by millions of people. This brings to what Arundhati Roy wrote in her article (read here) “This crisis has been forged out of the utter failure of India's representative democracy, in which the legislatures are made up of criminals and millionaire politicians who have ceased to represent its people. In which not a single democratic institution is accessible to ordinary people.”
Knowing very well that this is nothing but a carnival without any result (even taking into consideration that Annapal Bill will be passed without any changes), I have no option but to put my frustrations in social networking sites. But then that brings to the core question about your loyalty to the country.
Today, I am a social networking traitor. I don’t know about tomorrow because there is nothing called tomorrow.
1 comment:
Well said, Binu.
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