Actually as you must have noticed by now, there is a deliberate attempt to target Team Anna’s members one by one. First Shanti Bhushan, then Kejriwal and now Kiran Bedi; actually the attack is not on individuals, not even on the movement, it’s on the Indian psyche. The ‘You-Know-Whos’ of our political class who were/are/will be the worst affected by the Anna movement are making a deliberate, well thought out attempt to washout the memories of the Aam Junta. They very well understand that we are all Ghajinis (suffering from perpetual short term memory loss) and the media is nothing but paise ka piir or TRP ka piir.
In a country that demands to be constantly entertained, a new tamasha quickly and automatically erases the memory of the last one. You forget the humiliation that our cricket team suffered in England as soon as they start winning at home. Everybody was rooting for the cricketers’ blood when they were losing and now when they are winning at home again, England has been quietly and conveniently forgotten. Nobody is discussing or cares about why our current breed of players - just ‘Ghar ke Sher’?
The formula is Simple. The public memory is short lived, so create a new tamasha if you want to divert attention from the previous one. The news channels need TRPs to be able to sell soaps, detergents and itchgaurds for their sponsors. So get hold of the next sensation as soon as the current one shows signs of wearing out. If you can’t get one create one out of non-issues. How our Prabhus, Dutts and Sardesais work hand in hand with our politicians has been exposed time and again. The Netas in power committed hara-kiri when they attacked Anna at the height of the movement. But they realized their mistake and backed out to save themselves from the public angst. Now that the josh has subsided every dirty trick in the book is being used for personal attacks against people leading the movement.
For most people even the Anna movement was a tamasha, they were pursuing their quest for entertainment under the veil of support for Anna. There was a great mela going on. Now we are busy slipping 50 bucks into the traffic cop’s pocket every time he stops us for disobeying the traffic light. Now when there is little entertainment value in that movement we are busying looking for other topics to discuss on Facebook pages, chaupals and water-cooler sessions.
It pained me no end to see the skepticism and the pessimism that I saw in some of my friends at the height of the movement. But it pains me more when we fail to see reason even today and comprehend what is happening. It pains to see that attention spans have become so short and so easy to deviate. And it pains to see that we forget day in and day out that the movement was not about individuals; it was about corruption and its eradication. If a law, rule or legislation is put in place it’s going to affect everyone equally - be it be Kapil Sibbal or Kiran Bedi. The movement was/is not about character assassination or scrutiny it’s about tackling an important issue - an issue, the solution to which is by no means easy but extremely important. A change that will not be easy, rather slow and excruciating - but something that we all wish for India.
Here is wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous Diwali!!
The formula is Simple. The public memory is short lived, so create a new tamasha if you want to divert attention from the previous one. The news channels need TRPs to be able to sell soaps, detergents and itchgaurds for their sponsors. So get hold of the next sensation as soon as the current one shows signs of wearing out. If you can’t get one create one out of non-issues. How our Prabhus, Dutts and Sardesais work hand in hand with our politicians has been exposed time and again. The Netas in power committed hara-kiri when they attacked Anna at the height of the movement. But they realized their mistake and backed out to save themselves from the public angst. Now that the josh has subsided every dirty trick in the book is being used for personal attacks against people leading the movement.
For most people even the Anna movement was a tamasha, they were pursuing their quest for entertainment under the veil of support for Anna. There was a great mela going on. Now we are busy slipping 50 bucks into the traffic cop’s pocket every time he stops us for disobeying the traffic light. Now when there is little entertainment value in that movement we are busying looking for other topics to discuss on Facebook pages, chaupals and water-cooler sessions.
It pained me no end to see the skepticism and the pessimism that I saw in some of my friends at the height of the movement. But it pains me more when we fail to see reason even today and comprehend what is happening. It pains to see that attention spans have become so short and so easy to deviate. And it pains to see that we forget day in and day out that the movement was not about individuals; it was about corruption and its eradication. If a law, rule or legislation is put in place it’s going to affect everyone equally - be it be Kapil Sibbal or Kiran Bedi. The movement was/is not about character assassination or scrutiny it’s about tackling an important issue - an issue, the solution to which is by no means easy but extremely important. A change that will not be easy, rather slow and excruciating - but something that we all wish for India.
Here is wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous Diwali!!
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