Ascent of Ramdev, descent of Congress

CP Surendran by Times of India blog

One of the stupidest things this government could do was to use force on Baba Ramdev, and they have gone and done it in the early hours of Sunday.

(I think Congress would lose both ways....if they didn't act then we could have seen mass fasts, a bandwagon movement out of control, and people starving to death at the door of the government....AND if they acted well it made them look like thugs on the defensive with something to hide....the fault lies with Congress for allowing such a situation given that hey have ruled the country for 63 years)

The UPA government has made a hero out of a simpleton and handed the Hindu right wing an opportunity of a life time to make political capital. With the removal of Baba from the Ramlila grounds, the game has changed for the Congress and its allies.

(Whats the evidence for this...do we have national polls which indicate this or its just a general feeling of a journalist with an ear on the street?)

Some seven years ago, not too many people knew of Ramdev’s existence. Now, there are very few who don’t. Since 2003, thanks to TV and India’s discovery of Yoga by Remote control, Ram Dev has a disciple base whose core is the naive, intellectually challenged lower middle class masses of rural India, and they run into their mystic millions, as illustrated by the 60 lakh and counting missed calls to volunteer for the Ram Dev movement.

This is not the candle brigade that gets into action when socialites are murdered and justice is not done. This is the cattle brigade, which actually believes there are goddesses wafting about in the high pavilions of heaven wearing silk blouses and Joy Alukkas jewellery. People who believe, as does Ram Dev, that if you practice yoga hard enough, the system of allopathy can be made redundant, and that if you breathe really, really deeply, you could be cured of homosexuality, which in Ram Dev’s lexicon is both a mental disorder and a crime.

This country may have come to such a pass that ignorance practised on an industrial scale can be seen as an alternative to its political system discredited by corruption--Tihar is already brimming with more politicians than murderers. And it is to the leaders of the incredulous India that the UPA government’s sophisticates like Kapil Sibal and Pranab Mukherjee are desperately seeking to engage in dialogue. It must be a heady trip for a man like Ram Dev, an 8th standard drop out from a remote Haryana village, to be courted by the prime minister one evening and the next by the finance minister or the education minister—or all together. And all in the presence of a compulsively mythologizing media, which keeps repeating round the clock the very many life giving and anti-homosexual yogic stances of the new savior, and giving out confusing signals: if you place a political movement in a spiritual-wellness context, how do you analyze it?

The essence of the trouble that the UPA or any elected government must face in dealing with allegedly apolitical agencies is that there are no terms of reference that normally come into play with political parties. In the normal course of events, the conflicts and resolutions are fundamentally defined and decided in Parliament.

But with agents of change like Anna Hazare or Ram Dev, the terms of discourse are different. These are loners -- parties like the RSS may align with Ram Dev, but they have primarily arrived at some historical junction in life on their own steam, and they bring into the picture new, hitherto unclassified forces into reckoning.

The UPA is dreading a confrontation with Ram Dev for a simple reason: he is backed by people who don’t think. They will fast with him, and they will, if given a chance, die with him. And like the misguided terrorist, they will have done so thinking they will go to heaven directly from the Ram Lila grounds. What better way to die than your favourite yoga teacher conducting the final tour from earth to heaven? What you have with Ram Dev is the stuff of riot and revolt without the least restraint of reason.

We have come to this, a point in politics where parties and leaders have lost credibility in the wake of a series of scams in recent years and over six decades of an Establishment built on the back of the poor, who see rockets to the moon whooshing over their heads, while their hands grope empty pots.

(eloquent and beautifully put)

Certainly, there is not much trust any longer between the elected and those who elect. If a survey is now taken on people’s trust in key public institutions like parliament, judiciary or the police, the results are not likely to surprise anyone.

(The key to fighting corruption and therefore restoring the public's trust is establishing independent, effective state institutions----which are modern and efficient. The Lokpal when its up and running will deal with corruption to a certain extent, here and there, after the crime of corruption is committed fingers crossed, BUT it is ultimately effective states institutions which will comprehensively contribute to decreasing corruption in India. Corruption in India is institutionalized not MERELY personality based on individuals, and thus requires a institutionalized solution......not through a mere ombudsman system.)

The fact is that trust deficit has eaten into the idea of parties themselves, without whom democracy will not work. It is into this vacuum of political leadership that well intentioned megalomaniacs with little or no concept of politics, science or economy assume spiritual captaincy. When politics fails, religion comes to the fore.This country certainly needs to fight corruption. But that war is best fought by the generals of democracy, not by mystic masseurs.