When I was a kid, my friends and I used to ransack other people's gardens for fruit. We loved the thrill of it, and we ate a lot of fruit. We were always ready for action, and we were a menace in the neighbourhood, but people put up with us. It's not "legal" to steal other people's fruits, but a group of mischievous boys who carried no real malice clearly could be allowed to carry out some "illegal" activities. But, those times passed, and none of us turned out to be thieves as we grew up.
Today, for some reason, a lot of adults in India ARE okay with much more blatant, dangerous, and clearly malicious and malignant levels of illegality. They have no problem paying bribes, breaking traffic rules, and staying absolutely mute to a lot of wrong that goes on. They have no problem cheating with their ration cards, no problem evading taxes, and no problem looting crores of rupees from the nation's exchequer. Where do these people come from?
What I remember from my friends as a kid is that we were always happy. Sure we got into trouble once in a while, but we didn't have too much to worry about. I also remember that we had a lot in common - we signed on to the same ideas of "fun", and we had no hidden agendas. Most importantly, we stood by each other and understood each other's perils and challenges. On a raid, we could trust one another. Success or failure, we were there together, to try again!
This is where I have a problem with this bearded troublemaker Baba Ramdev. I don't trust him. I like the fact that he is making trouble, and I like the fact that he's got a lot of fools riled up with his demands against corruption. But he isn't one of us, folks. In fact, he's very much like the guys we're fighting against - wealthy, well connected, and powerful. Imagine if a thirty five year old father of two wanted to go on a fruit raid with us ten year olds. You think we'd take him along for the ride? Of course not! He has no business coming along with us.
This Baba Ramdev has planes to fly him wherever he wants, more than a thousand crore rupees in money, an island somewhere in Scotland, and a whole lot of followers who are willing to give him money. He has highly qualified people to advise him, legally and financially, and he has a bit of an "empire". Is this the guy who would be under pressure if asked to pay a bribe to get an apartment registered in his name? Is this the guy who will stand for hours in line to get something done at some government office with me? I don't think so. He doesn't need the same things I do, at a fundamental human level.
He wants all black money stashed abroad to be brought back to India. The task is noble, but the demand is not just naive, it is outright stupid, because it is steeped against a looming fast unto death. If this money has ever been quantified, or identified as belonging to such and such persons, we would have to initiate criminal proceedings against such persons, then declare them guilty, inform international law enforcement agencies such as Interpol, then ask respective governments of these tax haven countries to initiate transfer of funds. This is a precise process, and if a nobody like me can know what is involved, someone who is asking for that money to be brought back to India must actually ask for this process to be set under way, not just scream for the money to come back. Clearly, this guy is not very well informed and he doesn't present himself effectively. No leader.
I still stand by his right to protest peacefully, gather with any number of people anywhere, and make his demands to the government. But if he is important enough for cabinet ministers to receive at the airport, and important enough to be on the news making the Prime Minister and the government in power so nervous, we better know who this bum is. To me, an ill informed, unthinking, flashy, religious, dodgy, attention seeking noise maker is just a bum.
So, who IS Baba Ramdev? He is no Anna Hazare. He has no record of public service. He isn't qualified in any way to lead any enterprise. But he has an empire. How? He isn't a famous philosopher to have changed the way we perceive the world and the universe. He is not a great teacher either as far as I know. He sure as hell did not make his empire charging fees for yoga lessons. So what is his enterprise? I am all for yoga teachers getting into public service, and that is not my problem. The problem is, I don't know this guy well enough to let him represent me or any other Indian. So, I don't want him speaking for me. It is that simple.
His followers being many Indians cannot automatically make him the leader of many other Indians. His followers follow him for being the Baba, but Ramdev is who we don't know much about. Any Baba has followers, but not many of them can lead something they don't know much about. We're talking about the nation of India here. Baba Ramdev wants Hindi to replace English. Anybody who respects the Constitution of India and who is not a fool knows Hindi is not the national language of India. It irks me that after so many years of being a democracy, our public education level is so low that many, even political leaders, talk as if Hindi is the national language of India.
Now, he's called for an armed rebellion. He says he has a force of 11,000 people trained in the art of self-defence. Fair enough. But defence against what? Against our police forces? You don't need anything too sophisticated to take on our cops. Just post a couple of women journalists with video cameras, and all our cops will behave rather well. The only reason this police raid on this Baba's camp occurred at midnight was because media was asleep at the time. This Baba is going crazy, and this "sena" reminds me of the raid on the Babri Masjid - flat out trouble. It is the same monkeys that are backing this fool now.
The RSS and the BJP are his friends. The RSS is political, and so is the BJP. What is a yogi doing with the support of political entities? If something is political, it is not automatically corrupted, but there is plenty of historical record for us to worry about. The India I know and respect sometimes is secular, and does not lean towards any religion or political mindset. So, what does this Baba Ramdev represent? I'm not sure it is a healthy, vibrant, democratic, secular, forward thinking India. He talks of "shaastra" (knowledge) and "shastra" (weapons). What might be next? "Sati"? I hope not, but this guy can surprise anyone!
This is a prime example of how democracy can throw up lunatics who are free to do everything, including making asses of themselves - and others who follow him. What he is clearly doing here is protesting against the very government our own people voted for! He thinks we should be up in arms against the people we put in office? This is as anti-nationalistic as it gets!
This call for "swadeshi" when he flies in a foreign made aeroplane (which he himself by the way, exempts from his "swadeshi" list!), using foreign oil, owning an island in Scotland, and with a thousand other violations of the already outdated principle of "swadeshi" just make him an outdated lunatic to me.
He is not shy of theatrics, attracting attention to himself, doing stunts like dressing up like a woman to escape detection - there's an element of drama in him. But, anyone who mixes his religion and his politics, for whatever gain, is in my opinion an untrustworthy rascal. This is a secular country, and all religions are indeed welcome, but personal. So far, he hasn't spoken about his god, and that's a plus, but there is far too much saffron in his support group.
The bigger reason I resent this fool, even while giving him credit where it is due is this - after more than sixty years of being a nation, after reaching a point where we should be taking up an excellent place amongst the league of nations, after all the advancements we have made, is this Baba Ramdev the best face we could come up with to fight against corruption?
None of these misgivings should rob from this man, however, his right to speak his mind, gather with people, or start a movement. He should not have been evicted or thwarted from doing anything that is not a law and order threat. I do think however, that this man has some sort of power over people in government. I don't need to know what that power is, but he does attract an awful lot of attention from many bigwigs. Maybe he knows some of their dirty secrets? Maybe he sells a powerful aphrodisiac? He did try to export some medicines to the USA that were stopped by the Food and Drug Administration there! This is one hell of an active monkey! I wouldn't vote for him, or endorse his ways, but I would like to see him around. He is just too much fun!
- BSK.
