India and Batman

It was a fun filled month for all the Indian Batman fans as we had our very own desi version of Bruce Wayne trying to fight for justice and attempting to clean up our Gotham city. Mr. Hazare in his own unique ways reminded me of The Dark Knight, trying to rejuvenate a slowly decaying system. His greatest problem however is that unlike Batman, he has to face more than one Joker, and all of them are actually very SERIOUS, when it comes to standing against them. I attempted to analyse his actions against the government, and noticed certain very peculiar things, not uncommon for Batman, but certainly astonishing if you consider Mr. Hazare a simple Gandhian.

Timing of the protest: A fast unto death was organised during the auspicious period of Navratri. Whether Mr. Hazare seeked Goddess Durga’s blessings along with an approval for the Lokpal Bill, is merely a speculative question but the timing may have proved beneficial for the entire protest. Fasting Indians must have thought it was better to sit in Jantar Mantar or other parks across India, for it would not only help them show solidarity with Mr. Hazare, but would also covertly please Goddess Durga, so that they can have more of wealth, health, fame etc. etc. A protest squeezed in the week falling between Cricket World Cup and IPL, coinciding with Navratri was either a well thought out strategy (just like Batman), or a mere fluke. Anyways, lets move on to the next point.

Role of Indian Media: That Mr. Hazare’s protest was highly publicised and discussed is a well known fact. What astonishes me actually is that, there were and are, several other issues of critical national importance which have been sidelined by the Indian media. Whether an 80 year old man staying hungry by choice deserves more attention than a 60 year old farmer dying of hunger is a question answered by TRP. No one wants to know whether a city in India has been cut off so badly from the mainland that leave alone medicine, even the necessary food items have not been available to its residents for more than 20 days. People are more interested in seeing a close to 40 year old getting badnaam because of his brother in law, while his husband is nowhere to be seen. But my point is, how come Mr. Hazare gathered such media attention in such a short time? Think about it.

The name calling: Indian media has a very bad habit of adding prefixes, postfixes or using a pseudonym for a popular or infamous personality and frankly they are not very good at it. More than 90% of the names for scandals are an allotrope of the famous Watergate scam and it makes me wonder that we need either more creative or at least better read people, in Indian journalism. Anyways, calling Mr. Hazare a second Gandhi is an insult to both individuals according to me. While Mr. Gandhi was a great man who deserved to be called the Father of India (ignoring the subaltern studies), though it is another issue how his entire family has been shrewdly kept out of Indian politics by the Congress, he would never have preferred comparing himself with Hazare. Its like comparing Dhoni (Hazare) with Sachin (Gandhi), where Dhoni is yet to achieve what Sachin has accomplished. And also, we should have first asked Mr. Hazare, how he felt after being called a semi nude old man who needed a stick to walk straight. However, whether the name ‘Second Gandhi’ was coined by the media or passed to it by someone else is an important question. Yet again, think about it!

I thought it would be a great disrespect to our PM if I ignored him in this post about issues which matter to us. As it is, he has been ignored so many times by his own cabinet and his party that I feel sorry for him. Ministers in his ministry have acquired wealth equal to Ghana’s annual GDP, while he still has the same old blue turban on him. When the entire Anna Hazare issue took place, PM only said “Yeh acchi baat nahi hai” like Mr. Vajpayee used to say, but in English. Moreover, the Govt. sent out Mr. Sibal to act as the mediator while the PM remained silent as usual. Sir itni safai leke kahan jaaoge? Anyways, I hope he has not forgotten that his first responsibility is towards Indian citizens and then to the Gandhi family. Sometimes I get the feeling that he has his priorities the other way around! L

P.S. : Sometimes it is better to play the devil's advocate. Not only does it bring out better perspectives, but it is also fun!