Fast Forward !

At the drop of a hat every Johnny is turning to satyagraha or fast unto death these days, the so called non-violent ways of getting things done. It is said that everything is fair in war and love, but then some wars are outright pointless because of the silly reasons and some fights are ridiculous due to the methods employed. Not much different is the case with these new age Johnnies who quote Gandhi and resort to shameless acts like these. For them non-violence is restricted to not raising arms and spilling blood. The thought that emotional blackmailing is perhaps the cheapest of violent tricks doesn't occur to them.

In a democratic setup or even in any other sensible political system, if you have a difference in opinion with the way things are done, you sit down, talk about it and make changes as required. An alternate view point does not give you the right to hold the government at ransom with emotional blackmailing. Taking out a demonstration to get attention of the machinery in an attempt to get an audience is understandable. But resorting to fasts unto death to get things done according to an individual's agenda is lunacy; especially when the requests are as noble and constructive as declaring 'Mosquito' the national bird. Gimmicks like these of-course gets them an undue advantage over the opposition who is forced to bend over seeing the clout of the fasting leader.

Anybody with some fan following feel these days that they can start an agitation and get any of their whims and fancies made the law of the nation. For some this has become a habit. Due to fear of vandalism from supporters of these thugs, even governments refuse to take a tough stand... after all they too dream of coming back to power after the elections. The unfortunate thing is that every other Joe with a perverted political ideology or who swears by God has a decent fan following these days. Even shit attracts flies! Media-support for someone who fasts for the good of common man, but flies to the place in a chartered plane beats me. They fast for new states, they fast for abolition of currency notes and now what?

Then there are a few other rats who cunningly take mileage out of these situations. These are the local politicians and wannabe-gurus who come up with posters supporting the campaigns, pasting their pictures alongside the campaign spearheads. This is probably the only legit way for most of them to ride the wave and get some publicity. Most of the people I talked to had a favorable opinion towards the recent fasts against corruption, understandably so. Nobody is excited enough to check out what precisely are these protesting leaders talking about issues like corruption. They just assume that it should all be benign. And why blame them, who in their right mind would think that abolishing currency notes is the best way to prevent corruption!