Ban The Baba – Let's find reasons

This is to all my fellow-critics of Baba Ramdev.

Baba Ramdev is a gimmick, a big-mouth-small-act, politically motivated, maybe not even the best of yogis. He is an ordinary man who learnt some yoga tricks and set out preaching and got famous. Let me first extend my acceptance to all that the fellow critics have to say. BABA RAMDEV IS AN ORDINARY MAN who wears a saffron dhoti, sports a bushy beard, talks in hindi and has a big empire. I presume we are together on it so far.

An ordinary man who learnt yoga tricks: Yoga is a traditional INDIAN ( not confining myself to Hindu ) fitness mantra. Yoga is no tricksy hymns and chants to invoke blessings of unseen deities. Yoga is normal sequence of stretching, pulling, breathing techniques which suits everyone from age 3 - 100. It's a wonderful means to stay fit for one and all. We were ( and are) so proud when Britney Spears, Madonna and god knows who else heaved praises for the INDIAN yoga publicly and adopted yoga as an essential part of their lives.

But Ramdev baba went a step ahead and tried to make Yoga a practice of the masses in addition to the classes. We should give him that credit. So what if he is an ordinary man, so what if he is the not the best of yogis. He has done something which the best of yogis did not. This isn't such a bad thing. I believe all the fellow critics of Baba Ramdev will not object to this.

A man who wears saffron: I see little reason to object to that. He is a hindu and likes to wear the color he deems holy. That's not such a bad thing. Priests in churches like to wear white and they do, fakirs like to wear green, and they must. They have the right and liberty to don the color of their choice and one they deem holy. India can honorably proclaim that it gives people the right to uphold their customs, believes, faiths and modes of worship. So I guess the use of saffron doesn't make him a villain either.

One could infer that he wears saffron so he is not secular and must be hated... How would that even qualify as an argument? I wear my underwear inside my pant. Does that make me "anti-Superman"?

You could say he espouses Hindu Fundamentalism: I have little reason to believe that. I have seen many of his shows. He talks about "Aarogya" ( freedom from illness ), he talks about shunning McDonalds, Coke, Pepsi ( I like coke and Pepsi and McD is yummy but we all know these are not the healthiest of intakes ), I have heard him talk of reviving the greatness of India, making nationalist speeches ( even as he asks people to do the butterfly ) but I don't find that objectionable either. I rather believe nationalism is a good thing to pursue and arouse in people.

I have seen muslims, christians, doctors, industrialists flocking to his shivirs. I have also seen him on TV talking of religious harmony and fraternity. That sounds good to me. If any of my fellow critics have any videos / evidences that reveal the "dhongi baba's" religious fundamentalism and communal bend, please share it with everyone, let's expose him guys.

The fact that he talked about getting into politics: Yeah!! That was stupid. And then I think again and I feel, if the baba can, why not you and I. Why can't we, educated, sophisticated people who have our hearts, minds and sentiments in the right place, we who know the right from the wrong, why shouldn't we get into politics? Anyone who thinks for the good of the nation can and should get into politics, actively or in spirit.

And if anyone can, why can the baba not think of getting into politics. It would be mean and hypocritical of us to deny him that, given that he is a nationalist and accidentally or intentionally does good things. C'mon, we are liberals of the highest degree, we allow rated criminals to contest elections. I wouldn't want to be a hypocrite denying him that. If I feel he is not good enough, I would not vote for him, but I wouldn't stop him either.

Baba knows nothing about politics: True. I have no reason to doubt this one. He made some comments. Some people met him and talked to him and then he changed his comment. And then another group of people met and talked to him, and he changed his comments again. Looks like he has no concept of political leadership. But this doesn't qualify as reason enough for anyone to hate him.

It gives me the picture of a man trying to build a ship. A group of engineers asks him to start off with the hull. He pics up his saw, welding machine and other stuff and gets going. Then another group of engineers tells him that he should prepare the design first and he gets on searching for a pencil and paper. This does tell me that he has no idea nor imagination of ship-building. I cannot figure out though, how it can mean he is malicious.. something which would give me reason to hate him.

He has a lot of money, and it's dirty: How would I differentiate between dirty money and thrift in a country where the only people who have no dirty money carry an “Antyoday Anna Yojana” card instead, registers for a job under MGNREGA and is officially known as a BPL ( Below Poverty Line ) citizen? It would hypocritical of me to hold “only him” as a culprit. So what, if he has thousand of crores, I have yet not heard of his hidden cassino or him spending his fortune over his international super model wives or him buying a diamond studded swatch or gold-plated Armani. I would have the right to hate him the day I hear about these, but not until then.

He ran off the stage and changed to women's attire: Haven't we already established that he is an ordinary man who has done something that made him extrordinarily popular? I am an ordinary man, if I knew and believed that there is an attempt to take my life, I could do end up getting into the most outrageous acts. I could bury my head in the sand, I could play a lunatic, I could try and impersonate someone else, I could tell my assasins that I am ManMohan Singh's son and they'd be dead if they even touched me. Clearly baba did not have any of these bright ideas and all he could think of was changing into a woman's attire. Perhaps he was scared, perhaps this was the first time he had seen such an orgy of ruthlessness and didn't know how to react. These are possibilities that I can't ignore and these being possible, I see nothing hateful in an ordinary man going over the edge to save his life.

He broke his fast and he did not die: O, this is a conspiracy!! He knows he has failed this time, nobody is coming to talk to him, few people are bothered whether he is dead or alive. Those who are bothered are the village folks from haryana, UP, MP etc, but village folks, people who can be rated as demagogues, batoned, fired at and yet nobody will cared after the first two days of telecast on news channels. These are the people who are beaten up in bhatta parsaul, people who died in Bhopal and the Indian heads hardly turned off the computer screens and FB pages in response. These are people who rise only at their own peril and he civilized urban society feels uneasy, if at all only for a while in response. What difference are these guys going to make?

He knows this. Perhaps he now understands the futility of his hunger strike and though he knows that he has created for himself critics who are going to spurn him till his very death, he is breaking his hunger strike. I guess he wants to be better prepared and come back stronger again. But then, even this fails to make me hate him, rather, it is sort of respectable. A man, who's fallen off his feet and trying to get up again and get ready to run the race to the finish, is the mark of a respectable man.

My dear fellow critics, I did my best to find reasons to hate baba but I'm sorry I have failed you all. Even though I detest him from the very core, and even though I want to ban the baba, I have not yet found reason enough to justify my hatred and the ban. I am exhausted hunting for reasons. Please help me out here with some new arguments if you have any.

In the name of Anna

Another high-TRP contest, another victory for INDIA. A new set of pictures with scenes of jubilation, lights, camera, action and "Anna wins".

The government was humbled!!

Or was it?

Hours passed and gradually the political class playing possum until now started stretching their limbs. "Anna is a great man, but his actions do not quite fit in a democracy and the constitutional set-up" some said. "Anna is a good man but isn't this a sort of blackmail of a popularly elected government?" asked few others. In the hours that followed, the political class showed concern, none about corruption though and gave India free lessons in polity through the media.

The people, on the other hand were out there, jubilant and upbeat. Some said "I support Anna", other's promised, "I'd fight till the end for Anna". Anna, has been the buzz-word for sometime now. Actors, activists, students, professionals everyone loves Anna. Everyone supports "Anna".

Question: Who would they support if (God forbid) Anna is down with an illness, so much so that he cannot be involved in any public affairs? Mr Kejriwal? What if Mr. Kejriwal subsequently meets with an accident? Justice Hegde? What if he is implicated?

The point is, does the movement have enough fuel to sustain itself even if the agents of this new-found awakening are strategically plucked out? Do we, the people have the ability to bring up new stalwarts to the scene? Are we dedicated enough to stand behind a new champion "for the cause"? These will be the determinants which will transform the protests that we saw into a movement that we want.

It is a marvel that the country has come out of the drudgery or excitement of life, as they live and view the spectacle of a national protest and support Anna and his men. It is high time now that people came up to be his men, if the movement is to succeed. Anna has done his bit in uniting the people for this cause, creating awareness and initiating the impending process of mental reform in the country. It is time now that the country plays it's part by individually and collectively weeding out corruption, case by case.

The strength of the movement will not just be defined by "how many people turn up to Jantar Mantar next time Anna calls. The strength of the movement will be defined by how many us resolve to not give or take a bribe, by how many of us stand by our neighbors when they report wrongdoing on part of a government servant.

The awakening would come forth:

When a person in a police station out to get an FIR written is joined by tens of other passers by if he argues with the policeman asking for a bribe,

When even the last person in a long queue says "No" if he is offered a back-door entry for even a small illegal payment,

When government offices are flooded with complaints of any such wrong-doers.

That will send the message across the table, that will tell any scheming perpetrators that there is not just one Anna Hazare or one Arvind Kejriwal to put down, that there are a billion strong who will not stop until propriety is maintained.

Anna will live to be only a name in history if we, the people, fail to gain on the momentum he as got for us. He stood up for the people when nobody else was ready to stand. It is time the people paid back, not by shouting/scrapping/posting slogans "in the name of Anna" but by standing up for his cause, for our cause and causing the demise of "corruption" on this day to be put down in the history of the country.