Swami Ramdev, Anna Hajare and the war against corruption
Anna is in the focus and limelight currently, and righfully so, due to his battle against corruption. This is a battle which he has been fighting for a long time time now. Swami Ramdev, another iconic and inspiring figure, a rishi, sage of the modern age, also took up the mantle of this fight against corruption through his bharat swabhimaan andolan. It is no wonder that these two good men along with other good men and women, like Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, joined forces. But who took the lead in bringing all of them together? Anna's battle was primarily limited to Maharashtra, and only lately when the central government under Dr. Manmohan Singh sought to dilute the Right to Information Act, Anna's pet project, he had to directly confront the central government. Anna issued an ultimatum to the government that he would go on an indefinite hunger strike to protect the Right to Information Act. After sensing that ignoring this threat would invite a nationwide agitation, government had to beat a hasty retreat. As always, the mainstream media gave the credit of this turnaround to Mrs. Sonia Gandhi's intervention. It is now a well established pattern, that when push comes to the shove, the magical inner voice appears and steals all the thunder. Why don't the media pundits question this curious delay? Why does the government give in only when Sonia Gandhi intervenes? Rather, why does the government wait for her to intervene? Is she the only clean and intellengent member of the establishment?
Anyways, it was Swami Ramdev's nationwide campaign against the all pervasive corruption happening under the present dispensation which initially brought all these luminaries together for the first time in a coherent way. This happened during the last months of 2010. The current agitation for the Jan Lokpal bill has its roots in the bharat swabhimaan andolan.
These videos prove the point here.
All the speakers including Kejriwal, Bedi and Anna himself clearly acknowledge the leadership provided by Swamiji in the fight. Anna clearly speaks out against the current government and argues that the government does not budge until it perceives a threat to its stability and re-electability. Is it not a clear political argument against the current central government, against the UPA?
Curiously enough, the mainstream media coverage of Anna Hajare's current agitation has blacked out Swami Ramdev. It is clear that the UPA and the Congress is afraid of Swamiji's Bharat Swabhiman Andolan. They have sought to link him with the RSS - a dirty trick which is also being tried with Anna - and levelled wild allegations against his Patanjali Yog Peeth. The media stooges and spinsters have also sought to drown the anger against the present government and morph it into some vague and fuzzy apolitical agitation. How can the UPA government be delinked from all these massive cases of corruption? Is it not the same government which tried to muzzle the RTI act and stonewall the Jan Lokpal Bill? Against whom was Anna fighting and fasting? A mythical supernatural creature named "corruption" or the very real, tangible UPA government which has presided over an unprecedented loot of the nation? Were agitations against emergency, bofors, Jharkhand mukti morcha bribery case, Sukhram telecom scam and multitudes of scams under the Congress, apolitical? Congress is the fountainhead of corruption in India. It has ruled the country for most of its independant history and is directly and squarely responsible for the all pervasive culture of corruption. Corruption has become a way of life in India due to decades of Congress misrule.
A clear case of mainstream media servility to the rulers of the day, is this piece of news. No wonder, it is from TOI, which is a collosal disgrace to the profession of journalism.
Ramdev hijacks graft stage for politics
"Anna Hazare's anti-corruption agitation dangerously skidded off track on its fourth day when Swami Ramdev politicized the campaign in a speech he delivered at Jantar Mantar where the 72-year old Hazare has located his fast unto death."
The whole writeup, it is not worthy of being called news, smacks clearly of a bias against Swamiji. As the videos given above show, there is no divergence of views between Anna and Swamiji, but the writeup tries to create a wedge between the two. It takes serious exception to the remarks made by Swamiji, apparently the against the foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi.
People have to be careful of the media management and portrayal of this popular agitation. All efforts are now on to carefully construct a saintly image of Madam Soniaji admonishing the Government for making Anna fast, and demanding from the government a strong anti corruption legislation. Hunting with the hounds and running with the hares? Soniaji and her holy congress party has put even the Pakistani army to shame in this game. And what purity of conscience! The same inner voice one day campaigns for Karunanidhi, and the next day demands a strong a strong anti corruption law and supports Anna against her own government? Along with the astronomically inflating graft numbers, the skills of media and public opinion "management" have become more and more sophiticated. It is difficult to see through all this witchcraft, but one can only hope and pray that the Indian voters' common sense prevails, come next general elections.
Nikhil.
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