TRYST WITH DESTINY -- A SEQUEL

Fast rewind to another century, another time, another situation -- and another man!

But the similarities with the present should shock any upright, right-thinking, honest Indian.

--- A selfish and autocratic government that ignores and suppresses the rights and aspirations of its citizens, a siphoning away of the vast resources of the country into alien coffers, rampant 'double-speak', tricks of the trade like 'divide and rule', a "democratic championing" of the downtrodden minorities, laws rules and regulations to protect the government's own interests, threats of rightful protests being treated as sedition ..... the list could go on and on.

Surely we are talking of the India of the British Raj days. But it is not difficult to detect the similarities with the present situation or the tenor of the government. At the most what one would need to do is to rephrase some of the things to put them into the proper choronological perspective.

To those of a generation now somewhat long in the tooth, the pre-Independence scenario is all too familiar. Today those very epochal events that served to shape this great nation are only vague commentaries in the cavalierly textbooks that students cram to somehow get through the ten/twelve years of schooling so that they could sit for the "Entrance" exam and fulfil their destiny of being little better than info-coolies or medics to hand-hold the aging West. For today's "gen-text" (most of whose fathers were little more than mischievous gleams in the eyes of THEIR fathers and mothers at the time all that and the famous Tryst with Destiny happened!), it is mere text that has no contemporary relevance, especially in today's neo-liberal world without walls where chasing their destinies means being ready with skill-sets that have a demand. The parents who egg on their beloved children (oops! child!) sadly have no idea about how over the past decades a liberal education has deteriorated to little more than mere specialized training to impart 'skill-sets'. Add to that the Government's knee-jerk reactions to things like Lelyveld's book on the Mahatma, and the alacrity with which a ban order is slapped on it--which somehow promote the implanted poisonous comment that Gandhiji is "not all that great as he is made out to be" as he too was open to many "things". Dont blame the younger generation if they think that the past was not all that great. For them it is at best a distant unreal chimera.

But as they say, history repeats itself and historians repeat each other, ad nauseum. But unfortunately it is not the lot of mankind to learn from history. And today's 'truant' schoolboy has only his parents to blame if he is a stranger to history, and is more at home with other more 'utilitarian' studies. But he is fortunate that he has better and more "connected" tools to enable him to explore history and more, and share and interact with his peers. I urge the younger generation to do that NOW with a vengeance and come to their own conclusions. My job is merely to tell you what to look for, to ask to you look again and think again and see "the wood for the trees", to make comparisons and then, well, to ACT !!

If you read that first para again, and put it into the present context, you would agree that it pretty well reflects what is happening around us. Period. But I had in mind what the Brits were doing in pre-Independent India. Believe me, history is more entertaining than any fanciful novel you might have read recently. Just look at the example of the ridiculous "salt legislation" that the Brits dreamed up--so that their ships could sail with stabilizing cheap ballast of salt from London. But the salt would fetch a price in India only if there was acute scarcity of that normally plentiful commodity in India. Ah, easy. Legislate that no one should make salt in India, and if anybody broke that rule, nothing less than the "cooler" for him. The Dandi March (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Satyagraha) taken out by a determined Gandhiji is today the stuff of legends. The few crystals of salt that Gandhiji made in symbolic protest on the seashore of the obscure village of Dandi ultimately crystallized into Independence for this nation and its people, and earned the little village a name in the annals of history.

Today the caucus of politicians and their corporate cronies who style themselves as the government is enacting more draconian laws against its own people at the behest of "the powers that be". ( I dont have to ask you if you have read the India cables part of the Wikileaks.) They thrust "development" in your face--whether you want it or not. The Tehri Dam and the Jaitapur nuclear power stations are only a couple of examples that spring to mind. If today you so much as travel to Jaitapur, you will end up in jail as you have broken some law! Whose law is it anyway? Whose country is it anyway??

While the Brits siphoned off the money {John Keay's "The Honourable Company" is a delightful/shocking account of the legerdemain of the Brits in India: http://www.indiaclub.com/Shop/SearchResults.asp?ProdStock=6447. Keay paints a detailed picture of the Company "... a band of South China Seas buccaneers who helped create the London money market, controlled half the world's trade, recruited armed forces larger than those of most states and became a private empire that was the jewel in the British crown. Founded in 1600 to challenge the Dutch monopoly of the hugely profitable spice trade, the Company was built on hardship, greed and savagery... } largely into the coffers of the East India Company and indirecty into the British government treasury (and a proportionately smaller share into the pockets of the functionaries of the Company!), today's corporate and political buccaneers siphon it into numbered accounts in the many havens of black money like Switzerland. I am sure every Indian in every far off corner of the world is familiar with the flood of scams that marked the New Year, which surely would have contributed billions into the hoard. The echoes of the loud expostulation from the Supreme Temple of Justice in reaction to the apathy of the government vis-a-vis chasing the black money and the people behind it ("What the hell is happening in this country...") have hardly died down.

One thing is painfully plain. The 'government' is playing a game of obfuscation and delay and doublespeak. You cant blame them, in a way; it is their bread and butter (and more!) that is being threatened! We will be fools if we for a moment think that they are serious about ending corruption and sleaze and slush money; they are frantically looking for ways to "re-channel" all that money. Witness the 'legislation' that is planned to bring back to India all that black money by way of individual FDI, and the loud protestations of 'agreements' with many foreign governments that will be jeopardized if we publish a few names and clamp a few into jail in India on clear charges of grave economic offences. In this democracy they want us to believe that and more! It is a lark... At least the Brits in their day considered the public to be lesser fools and not absolute nincompoops!

It is all a big 'eye-wash' and the proposed Lokpal Bill too will be like many other Indian Bills--legislation without any "teeth", and with enough and more loops and holes--that is, if the government has its way. The 'watchdog' that is supposed to bite the wrongdoer or the thief, will instead be administering a "massage" to his fat bum! (http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/134429/latest-headlines/lokpal-vs-jan-lokpal-a-study-in-contrast.html) The whole thing is a laugh--if you can laugh at serious things. And they have been sitting on the Bill for very nearly half a century, and yet they have the gumption to ask us for more time!

We have had enough of "crony-corruption" in this land, and this has to stop. And that is where the relevance of this second Tryst with Destiny lies. And this is where the Gandhian protest of Anna Hazare assumes new significance.

The last century had thrown up an immortal man who gave us the freedom to speak our minds and to live proudly as free Indians. Today the poor soul lies (safely) buried under the mountains of black money amassed by his own 'followers', and his memory has been sullied by the lies and half-truths that fuel that party to which once he too belonged. Yes, I have the Congress party and Gandhiji in mind. If Gandhiji were to return today, just as King Mahabali does during Onam as Malayalis believe, he shall in all probability eschew non-violence when it came to "handling" his own partymen! In the India of today, the politicians and their cronies know for sure that Gandhiji, conveniently forgotten except on October 2nd, and safely ensconced in the protraits that line their rooms and their offices, could not come down to put a spoke in their well-oiled wheels of sleaze and corruption.

But Destiny works in strange ways. The 21st Century needed another Gandhi to spearhead our Second Liberation Struggle--this time not from the Brits, but from our own so-called elected, democratic government. Wasn't it the great American writer Edward Abbey, an umcompromising and honest humanist, who said that “...a patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government” ? Yes, the time has come for every Indian patriot to rally to do precisely that. Today the great Gandhian Anna Hazare has thrown down the gauntlet before the government and has signalled the start of an unrelenting, uncompromising struggle to wipe out corruption in government and public life. Surely this is already showing signs of building up into a groundswell that will shake and topple the thrones of corruption.

The noble Hazare put it like this: "... This is the next struggle for our independence. Even though the British have left, only the colour of the rulers' skin has changed, nothing else has." How true!! Our 'babus' and 'netas' are more British than the Brits when it comes to pure hauteur! Already there is growing concern and support for Hazare and the idea that he champions. The young and the young at heart are using the social media to reach out to one another and to put more steam into the iconic struggle, the likes of which we haven't witnessed for a long long time. Here is crusade which any average Indian can identify with and join while forgetting all other personal affiliations and preferences. Surely there is every chance the movement will beat with the pulse of all Indians and culminate in the 'liberation' of this nation from the octopus-like clutches of corruption.
Who is this humble man Hazare? He is a one-man army against corruption. The other day while launching his fast unto death at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi he said:

“I have been working for the society for long time. For the past 35 years, I have not gone home. I have three brothers and I don’t know the names of their children. I don’t have any bank balance.... the public takes to satyagraha when all the doors are shut. If he [a Congress party spokesperson] says that this is wrong, does he mean to say that people should continue to suffer? The public will have to protest when there is a threat to their independence." Hazare is an ex-soldier and in him we can see a humble, yet strong and determined man who is in every way suited to wear the mantle of Gandhiji. Read all about him and his crusade at: < http://www.annahazare.org/ >

Who are the people who are sharing the experience and fasting along with him? Hundreds have joined the symbolic crusade. Here are just a couple of stories of supreme sacrifice for the sake of the nation:

Sixty-year-old Geeta Gupta, one of the protesters who had come from Dehradun to participate in the fast, said, "My son came to take me back home and requested that I should end the hunger-strike , but I told him that my responsibilities for the family are over. I am ready to die for the country, if that is the sacrifice required to get rid of the menace of corruption." She said that sitting idle and thinking that what difference a joint committee or renewed draft bill on corruption would make is not going to help. "We cannot sit idle. Anna has shown us the way and it is the right moment to do something ," said Gupta. 
Dr Praveen Sharma, a professor of neurosurgery at MGM College in Mumbai, is also on fast. "I have treated many patients and will continue to do that till I live. But this is the moment to treat the malaise of corruption . I have taken off from my duties to participate in the protest.
(Do check out the full story at <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Groundswell-of-support-for-Anna/articleshow/7894607.cms > )

For the curious and the uninformed, here are other links worth reading:
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/article1604213.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1607789.ece
---> http://expressbuzz.com/nation/ready-to-talk-but-can%E2%80%99t-take-rash-decision/263294.html
---> http://expressbuzz.com/nation/show-courage-to-fight-graft-hazare-tells-pm/263166.html
---> http://expressbuzz.com/nation/hazare-caught-in-pmo-nac-crossfire/262996.html
---> http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1607058.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1607073.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1603784.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1603787.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1603791.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article1603879.ece

The time has come for all Indians to rally round the iconic figure of Anna Hazare as he takes on the powerful and arrogant Goliath of our government in perhaps a fitting replay of the true Gandhian approach. In these modern times, if we are to take a cue from what happened in Egypt and other countries where the regimes had stopped listening to the peoples' voices, the tools of social networking will demonstrate that they are also powerful tools for social change. The new tools will empower the people to interact in a more meaningful and powerful manner. It is up to all of us to fuel the wave of protests that will gather strength and, tsunami-like, break down the bulwarks of corruption and obfuscation that the politicians and their cronies have erected around themselves over the past decades.

The winds of change have indeed started blowing. It is only a matter of time before they will attain unstoppable gale force. The entire nation is waiting for the dirt and filth of corruption to be blown away. India is waiting for a rebirth into a nation founded solidly on truth, ahimsa and co-existence.

Destiny leads the nation and its people to a new tryst with its real future.

Are YOU ready?


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