A novel movement started by Mr. Anna Hazare which got turned into a much more hyped socio-politico tamasha finally came to an end. During this four day fast I got lot of mails, messages, etc. Some saying to join the fast, other saying sign some poster or support campaign, some saying to join for a candle march. These are the people out of which I think 50% of them where not exactly aware about the Lokpal Bill and its happenings but still they were supporting it. This is what we call the “stand in a queue India” people. It is like this “hey I don’t know why you are standing in a queue but it doesn’t matters I will also stand”.Everybody had their share of publicity all around these four days. The actors, politicians and their parties, the most important common people. Media had big bytes of TRP’s. During these four day tamasha, there were common scenes of news channels holding debate sessions, group discussions, etc. where in the common man shouted on top of his voice, “Hame Bhrastachaar se azaadi do”. Where was this common man, especially my young generation friends who held candle marches and support campaigns now, all these 48 years? Today we have so much information everywhere especially on the internet still we were unaware about the Lokpal bill, till these last four days and all of a sudden now in four days people have thesis on it to be told. That shows no one is concerned about the issue it is just the breeze blows and we go along.
There are so many such bills that deal with some social issues which are still pending but no one will ever notice them until someone comes and hypes the issue. I am sure if Anna had not started this movement at Delhi in Jantar-Mantar amidst all the media hush-bush carrying out a rally, no one would even notice it (Specially the common people). Of course don’t worry the government would still have taken steps and would have accepted Anna’s all demands as they cannot take the blame for starved death of a great social worker. It is nowhere the case that the government gave in due to people’s pressure. So there was no need of such a big publicity drama. Medha Patkar has done so many satyagrahas and fasting but silently. Of course Anna did it with genuine interest for people but it got projected by others in a very bad way like a Bollywood blockbuster drama.
One more important angle that is still remaining to be discussed here is about the after events now. The discussion over the bill will definitely go under the pipeline as it was all these 48 years. It will definitely pass the deliberation rounds coming monsoon session of parliament but will it get passed or get few steps closer to passing is a big question to be asked? Or will it still require another blockbuster sequel of the tamasha movement to go ahead? The people of India are definitely going to forget about the whole story within in a week, then what next???????????? So the whole thing comes back to square one.
Sometimes I feel that we should act carefully and stop creating dramas over any national issue especially by doing some support and signing campaigns, candle marches, sms campaigns, etc. Such hyped campaigns and all actually shift the FOCUS of the issue to somewhere else and even may prove hurting or to some extent damaging the national sentiment in some way. We have done it all earlier as well but what happens next? This always remains as an issue undiscussed.We need to get mature enough to deal with such issues in a more natural way and not in dramatized way. Our media should also start behaving responsibly by showing some true concern instead of only worrying about the TRP’s. The Credibility issue of the Lokpal Commission will always remain hanging. Can anyone guarantee that the proceedinds and officials of the Lokpal commission will be corruption free? Hopefully we will have some better movements fought in a better way ahead in future.
