India: Retreat of Modernity - Anna Movement created the road to political power for the BJP | Puroshottan Agarwal / Anna Movement ने BJP शासन के लिए राह बनाई - प्रो पुरुषोत्तम अग्रवाल [lecture in Hindi]

 

Recieved Material: Part of India Against Corruption (IAC) publicity team in 2011, he left them after seeing the RSS people behind this movement.

Anna Hazare and RSS links go back a long way

http://www.firstpost.com/politics/rss-urged-anna-hazare-to-start-anti-corruption-campaign-mohanrao-bhagwat-127877.html

Anna and RSS links go back a long way: RSS Chief by FP Staff Nov 10, 2011 #Anna Hazare #Digvijay Singh #NewsTracker #RSS #Swami Ramdev EmailPrint Team Anna is now embroiled in another controversy.The RSS chief, Mohanrao Bhagwat, has said that although the RSS never actively supported the Jan Lokpal movement, it was the RSS that urged Anna Hazare to go on the anti-corruption crusade. The RSS leader also claims that they had spoken to Baba Ramdev as well on starting an anti-corruption movement. In an interaction with journalists in Kolkata, Bhagwat claimed that Hazare's association with the RSS goes back a long way, and that Hazare used to visit and train RSS cadres in Maharashtra. Bhagwat admitted that RSS activists were present in the Ramlila grounds when the anti-corruption crusade was at its peak. IBNLive reported that the RSS chief had said, "If asked to, we will participate in the movement, but no request has come from Anna." Bhagwat has claimed that Anna Hazare used to train RSS carders in Maharashtra. PTI Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has been alleging that Hazare has a nexus with BJP-RSS in the anti-corruption agitation, and claimed that he had enough evidence to substantiate his allegations. The Times of India quotes Mohanrao Bhagwat as saying, "The links between Anna and the RSS go back a long way. It was the RSS that highlighted Anna's developmental programmes for villages. We even got Anna to help us in our village development programmes. It was during these interactions that the RSS suggested to him to go in for a movement against corruption. I was supposed to meet Anna in June but both of us got held up elsewhere." Bhagwat went on to say that the RSS backs Hazare and his movement, and that it will do so in the future as well. The RSS, he said, as an organisation, believes in creating better individuals who would lead corruption-free lives. The Congress leader had alleged that the anti-corruption agitation by Hazare and Baba Ramdev were part of an overall plan of RSS-BJP to divert attention from the Sangh's "terror links" and warned spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar that he too could be used by them. The All India Congress Committee General Secretary said that while Ramdev and Hazare were plan A and B of the Sangh-BJP, Sri Sri Ravishankar is Plan C and asked the spiritual guru to be "wary" of the two organisations. Singh remarked on the microblogging site Twitter "Plan A, B and C are of Sangh/BJP to divert the minds of the people from their involvement in terror activities to corruption. Plan A - Baba Ramdev. Crashed. Plan B- Anna? Plan C - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar soon to start his campaign". Anna Hazare and his team have so far denied any links with the RSS.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/rss-urged-anna-hazare-to-start-anti-corruption-campaign-mohanrao-bhagwat-127877.html?utm_source=ref_article

Publication Announcement: Anna Hazare Upsurge : A Critical Appraisal (edited by Asghar Ali Engineer and Ram Puniyani)

Anna Hazare Upsurge : A Critical Appraisal

Editors : Asghar Ali Engineer and Ram Puniyani

ISBN 978-81-8235-108-0

Price : Rs. 160.00 (Paper Back)
Rs. 320.00 (Hard Bound)

List of Contributors

Zoya Hasan * Neena Vyas & Vidya Subrahmaniam * Yoginder Sikand * A. Faizur Rahman * Uday Mehta * Rohini Hensman * Anand Teltumbde * Mukul Sharma * Shekhar Gupta * Asghar Ali Engineer * Praful Bidwai * J. Sri Raman * K. N. Panikkar * Sagarika Ghose * Akhtarul Wasey * Sadiq Naqvi * Prabhat Patnaik * Harsh Mander * Sukhadeo Thorat * Kanti Bajpai * Govind Talwalkar * Soumitro Das * Ram Puniyani * Amita Baviskar * Kancha Ilaiah * John Dayal * Happymon Jacob * Nilottpal Basu * Arvind Rajagopal * Sashi Kumar * Jyotirmaya Sharma * Bhanwar Megwanshi * Akash Bisht * Hartosh Singh Bal * Arvind Kejriwal * Medha Patkar * Prashant Bhushan * Anna Hazare * Aruna Roy

Contents

Part – I : The Janlokpal Bill

1. Parliament is for People— Zoya Hasan
2. Anna Hazare Stir: What It Has Achieved and What it Has Not—Neena Vyas & Vidya Subrahmaniam
3. ‘Bahujan’ Lokpal Bill Makes New Demands — Yoginder Sikand
4. Jan Lokpal Bill: A Critique — A. Faizur Rahman

Part – II : Anna: Theme Essays

5. Anna Phenomenon: Paradox of Indian Reality — Uday Mehta
6. What is the Real Goal of the Anna Movement — Rohini Hensman
7. The Neoliberal Revolution — Anand Teltumbde

Part – III : Anna and the Team: Background

8. The Making of an Authority: Anna Hazare in Ralegan Siddhi — Mukul Sharma
9. The Unholy Cow — Shekhar Gupta

Part – IV : Second Gandhi: Second Freedom Movement?

10. Is Anna Hazare the New Gandhi? — Asghar Ali Engineer
11. Gandhian Façade — Praful Bidwai
12. Anna Hazare: Tragedy to Farce — J. Sri Raman

Part – V : Interviews

13. Jan Lokpal: An Alternative View — K. N. Panikkar
14. Jan Lokpal Bill is Very Regressive: Arundhati Roy — Sagarika Ghose
15. Communalism is Bigger Issue for Muslims: Akhtarul Wasey — Sadiq Naqvi

Part – VI : Nature of Movement

16. Fuzzy Movement — Prabhat Patnaik
17. Why I didn’t Go to Jantar Mantar — Harsh Mander
18. Ambedkar’s Way & Anna Hazare’s Methods — Sukhadeo Thorat
19. Born Again Patriot — An Anti-Corruption Movement and The Rise of Illiberalism — Kanti Bajpai
20. The Ayatollah in Waiting — Govind Talwalkar
21. Hardly a Revolution — Soumitro Das
22. Anna Upsurge and The Social Movements — Ram Puniyani
23. A Tale of Two Movements — Amita Baviskar
24. Anna’s Social Fascism — Kancha Ilaiah
25. Enough! Mr. Hazare — John Dayal
26. Please Don’t Call It A Revolution — Happymon Jacob

Part – VII : Role of Media

27. Media’s Misplaced Triumphalism — Nilottpal Basu
28. Visibility as a Trap in the Anna Hazare Campaign — Arvind Rajagopal
29. A Feral Media Orchestrates Anti-Corruption Campaign — Sashi Kumar

Part – IX : Communal Undertones

30. India: Anna is the Icon of Banal Hindutva — Jyotirmaya Sharma
31. The Communal Character of Anna Hazare’s Movement — Bhanwar Megwanshi
32. Anna Hazare’s RSS — Akash Bisht
33. Why the Sangh Loves Anna — Hartosh Singh Bal

Annexures : Team Anna’s Version

‘We stand where we had Started on the Lokpal Bill’: Interview — Arvind Kejriwal

What Matters is the Cause: Interview — Medha Patkar

Anna Personality Cult should be Avoided — Prashant Bhushan

Appendices : Summary of Draft Bills

Government Draft Bill

Jan LokPal Bill – Summary and Guide to India’s Civil Society Anti-Corruption Bill
Deserves Our Support — Anna Hazare

Lokpal Bill: Aruna Roy and NCPRI’s Suggestions — Aruna Roy


Published by
Sahitya Upkram
E mail : sahitya_upkram@yahoo.co.in
Phone : 09654732174, 09350809192

The mask is off. Team Anna and his lieutenants are batting for the BJP

From: Open Magazine, 11 February 2012

BJP’s Team B
The mask is off. Team Anna and his lieutenants are batting for the BJP
BY Dhirendra K Jha

On 30 October last year, when Mohan Bhagwat claimed that Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement was actually supported by the RSS, the remark conveyed palpable nervousness and attracted criticism from Team Anna. Three months later, as Team Anna launches its voters’ awareness campaign in UP, there is not even an attempt to keep its secular mask intact.
[. . .]
If the RSS set the stage at Fatehpur and gathered the crowds, the speakers of Team Anna did the rest. Though members of the Team asserted that they had not come to tell voters who they should vote for, their categorical attack on “corruption” in the Congress, “criminalisation” of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and “misgovernance” by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and high praise for the BJP government in Uttarakhand for bringing in a “really strong Lokayukta Bill” in the state left no doubt in the minds of listeners who they were being asked to vote to the new UP Assembly.

Also, while members of Team Anna spoke, their volunteers distributed a leaflet—containing a 13-point ‘letter of oath’—to prospective voters. The ‘letter’ is an exhortation to the electorate to obtain 13 pledges from the contesting candidate before committing their vote. The first pledge in the ‘letter of oath’, quoting Swami Vivekanand, invokes an idea of India that today only the RSS will endorse: ‘…that I am a citizen of India and every citizen is my brother. Indians are my life and Indian gods and goddesses my divinities. India and its society are the swing of my childhood, the garden of my youth, my sacred heaven and the Kashi of my old age. The soil of India is my highest heaven. My welfare lies in the welfare of India. And this whole life I will chant, day and night—O, Gaurinath, O, Jagdambe, make me more humane and take away my weaknesses and unmanliness.’ It is inconceivable for a non-Hindu to take this oath. [. . .].
FULL TEXT AT: http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/bjp-s-team-b

Muslim and Catholic groups question secular credentials and tactics of the Anna Hazare movement

Indian Express

Minority groups question secular credentials

Express news service Posted online: Wed Dec 28 2011, 00:55 hrs

Mumbai : A day after Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal met Muslim community leaders here seeking their support and trying to dispel the impression of the movement’s “RSS links”, Muslim and Catholic groups questioned their secular credentials and tactics.

While the Catholic Secular Forum slammed Anna Hazare’s decision to protest outside the residences of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, the Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra said that while they were also against corruption, the activist’s ways were “like Hitler”.

Gulzar Azmi, general secretary of the Jamiat, said Hazare was undermining the authority of Parliament. “We do not support the movement and feel that the Bill should be debated in Parliament and then passed... No one should dictate terms,” said Azmi.

He also questioned the threat to protest outside houses of leaders who do not agree with them.

“These are tactics Adolf Hitler used... Team Anna is forgetting that they got Parliament to debate a Bill which was in the pipeline for more than four decades. It is now time to step back and let Parliament function,” said the Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra leader.

A few members of the community who met Kejriwal too said they had not committed to support the movement. “All we did was speak to him about certain issues,” said Farid Shaikh, president of the Bombay Aman Committee.

Catholic Secular Forum general secretary Joseph Dias said Hazare must clarify allegations that he backed Hindutva and questioned his decision to protest outside Sonia and Rahul’s houses.

“The Congress alone cannot be blamed for corruption. Why doesn’t Anna speak out against Narendra Modi, B S Yeddyurappa, the BJP...? He has not demonstrated against attacks on minorities,” said Dias.

RSS holds the leash as Anna Hazare sets out to perform - cartoon in Mail Today

Cartoon in Mail Today by R Prasad

A new shoulder for RSS and its tenets of Hindutva

by Ram Puniyani
[. . .]
NOW, RSS-BJP politics is entering the new phase. Having reached the acme of anti-minority polarisation, it has found the Hazare movement as the new vehicle for its politics of undermining democratic institutions to bring in a parallel authoritarian structure where the Lokpal plays the big brother. Though this sounds innocuous and is presented as a step to solve the problems, this is likely to create a new institution beyond the control of democratic norms. A few people and groups who are calling the shots and asserting that they are ‘The People’, ‘Anna is above parliament’, will rule through various proxies. This Hazare movement has polarised the social layers according to those who look at either identity issues (Ram Temple) or symptomatic issues (corruption) as the major issues while undermining the problems of Dalits, minorities and other deprived sections of society. Identity issues or matters focussed around symptoms, which are meant to preserve the status quo of political dynamics, is what politics in the name of religion desires.

Since the Ram Temple appeal is fading, those for sociopolitical status quo have jumped on the anti-corruption bandwagon. This is a shrewd move. Marginalised sections feel left out from ‘I am Anna’, ‘We are the People’ type of assertions, the message is that only ‘shining India’ will have say in the shaping of a nation, while the deprived India, will be permanently on the margins.

In a sense, the RSS-Hindutva politics is constantly changing its strategies to communalise, polarise the society and to distract social attention from core issues.

FULL TEXT AT : http://www.tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=Ws211211Ramped.asp

How BJP and Anna Hazare threaten parliamentary democracy (jyotirmaya Sharma)

Politics for the BJP and the likes of Hazare is nothing more than a religious crusade: get rid of the evil and evil-doers in society by having faith in us. In their universe, national unity can never be forged through reason, consensus, moderation, parliamentary democracy or even economic interest. It has to be based on either faith or in the construction of a myth.

Full Text here

RSS-Anna links go back a long way, says RSS chief

From The Times if India

RSS-Anna links go back a long way, says RSS chief Mohanrao Bhagwat

by Jayanta Gupta, TNN | Nov 9, 2011, 07.23PM IST

KOLKATA: Laying speculation to rest, RSS Sar-Sanghchalak Mohanrao Bhagwat said that his organization and Anna Hazare go back a long way. If Bhagwat is to be believed, it was the RSS that urged Anna to go in for a movement against corruption but the organization never took active part in it.

"If the RSS is asked by Anna to join the movement, we shall do so. But, no such request has come in as yet. However, we are not stopping RSS members from participating in Anna's movement. The links between Anna and the RSS go back a long way. It was the RSS that highlighted Anna's developmental programmes for villages. We even got Anna to help us in our village development programmes. It was during these interactions that the RSS suggested to him to go in for a movement against corruption. I was supposed to meet Anna in June but both of us got held up elsewhere," the RSS chief said during an informal interaction with journalists in Kolkata on Wednesday.

According to Bhagwat, the RSS also spoke to Baba Ramdev on starting a movement against corruption. "We can't force him to join hands with Anna but we did urge Baba Ramdev to be part of the movement. The RSS, as an organization, believes in creating better individuals who would lead corruption-free lives. This would finally give birth to a corruption-free nation. However, for the time being, any movement against corruption in the government is good," he said. [. . .]
Full Text at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/RSS-Anna-links-go-back-a-long-way-says-RSS-chief-Mohanrao-Bhagwat/articleshow/10669172.cms

Questions about the real motives of Anna Hazare's anti corruption movement

EXCERPTS from:

What is the Real Goal of the Anna Movement?
by Rohini Hensman (sacw.net - 7 November 2011)

The Sangh Parivar has always wanted to overthrow the present constitution, and would also cheer on Anna’s declaration that he would be willing to go to war with Pakistan and fight to the death to ensure that Kashmir remains an integral part of India (regardless of what Kashmiris might want). Anna’s vision of a society ordered by caste hierarchy coincides with theirs. As Jyotirmaya Sharma observes perceptively, ’Hazare is the leader of "banal Hindutva" . . . What Hazare is knowingly or unknowingly doing is to become the informal recruitment centre for the harder versions of Hindutva. By making "banal Hindutva" honourable, Hazare has begun the process of making the harder versions of Hindutva more acceptable and legitimate. The collateral damage . . . will be Indian democracy.’ [23]

This does not mean that there is no rivalry between Anna and the Sangh Parivar. Hazare has been unhappy with the RSS for trying to steal his thunder with their claims to have mobilised people for his movement, while the RSS has objected to the involvement of minorities in the anti-corruption movement. But they need each other. It is clear to the RSS that the issue of a Ram temple no longer has popular resonance, and Advani’s yatra has fallen flat because everybody knows that the BJP is mired in corruption; they need Anna’s clean image to win them votes. On the other side, Anna does not have the cadre to mobilise crowds, nor does he have a party machine that can win elections and instal him as the head of a Jan Lokpal. They have to work together, and they do. It was clear from the beginning that their agendas converged, and we can now identify the precise point at which their goals meet: the Indian version of a fascist state, a Hindu Rashtra, with a Jan Lokpal that will incorporate members of Team Anna: ’the viewpoint that Anna and by extension Kejriwal represent is the same simplistic and ill-thought-out rightwing nationalism of the Sangh which has no space for the Constitution or the liberal values it embodies…Through the twentieth century, this combination—a claim to efficient governance, a mythic father or motherland, a contempt for a certain section of people—has been the mark of fascism.’ [24]

Averting the danger of fascism

In this situation, the government has the primary responsibility to counteract the danger represented by both the Anna movement and the Sangh Parivar. If it enacts a strong Lokpal Bill and supplementary legislation, people like Justice Hegde, whose only interest in the movement is to curb corruption, would be satisfied. But not Hazare, Kejriwal, Bedi and others, whose agenda is regime change and might campaign against Congress on the pretext that the bill that has been passed is not their Jan Lokpal Bill. Counteracting this would require Congress spokespersons involved in public debates on the issue to come out with a critique of the JLB, drawing on what has been said by members of the NCPRI, legal scholars like Usha Ramanathan, and others.

However, even this is not enough. Any government committed to secularism has to act far more decisively to clamp down on the perpetrators of communal pogroms and Hindutva terrorist attacks, and especially to root out elements in the police, intelligence agencies, investigative agencies, bureaucracy, and army (Lt. Col. Purohit cannot be an exception) who are complicit in these attacks. Both terrorist violence and infiltration of the state apparatus are typical of the ways in which fascism ensconces itself, and unless action is taken now, it could be too late. In this context, the passing of the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill is a priority that the UPA simply has not taken seriously enough. If certain groups in society do not enjoy equal protection of the law, special measures are required to ensure that they do so. Of course the BJP will cry foul, but surely those within Congress who have been pushing for the bill have enough intellectual resources at their disposal to distinguish between Hinduism and Hindutva, and to point out that this is not the first time that legislation to protect vulnerable sections of the population has been passed?

However, the struggle against fascism cannot possibly be won if it is left to the government alone; members of civil society too have to be involved, and those on the Left have a special responsibility in this regard. This brings us to a disturbing question: what are people like Prashant Bhushan and Medha Patkar doing in a team that includes such right-wing elements? Conventional wisdom would have it that they are there to push the movement to the Left, but it does not seem to have moved an inch in that direction. Part of the answer lies in the authoritarianism that is an integral part of the politics of a large part of the Left. For example, Bhushan advocates plebiscites as a means of achieving a ‘participatory democracy’ that is more advanced than the representative democracy embodied in parliament, but does he know that Hitler carried out six plebiscites between 1933 and 1938? A plebiscite on the Lokpal Bill would in fact be less democratic than the process of public consultation that has taken place and a debate in parliament.

This is only one instance of a more general malady afflicting a section of the Left: a kind of political dyslexia that renders them incapable of distinguishing left from right. Thus instead of pushing the government to present and enact the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill speedily, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) effectively gangs up with the Right to sabotage it by raising spurious objections; insisting, for example, that it should cover only victims of communal violence and not victims of other forms of targeted violence. How would victims of communal violence lose if the bill covers other victims of targeted violence? And who but the perpetrators of violence would gain if the bill fails to be passed? Which side are they on?

FULL TEXT HERE: http://www.sacw.net/article2373.html

“Anna’s Movement Or Ramdev’s, We Never Go Anywhere Uninvited”

BJP president Nitin Gadkari on Anna Hazare, the party and the RSS.
Outlook Interviews Nitin Gadkari

Two months short of completing two years as president of the BJP, the rank outsider in national politics, Nitin Gadkari, for the first time has repositioned himself as a serious contender, also in the fray at the national level. No more satisfied just being BJP president, he will be contesting the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 from Nagpur. Gadkari’s announcement is not a one-off statement but serious RSS sanctioned politics. In his new avatar, Gadkari is not just flexing muscles but asserting himself more within the party and even setting the agenda for himself and the BJP. Here, Nitin Gadkari speaks to Prarthna Gahilote about the Anna Hazare movement, RSS and the BJP. Excerpts from the interview, a shorter version of which appeared in print:

Full Text at: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?278789

Why the Sangh Loves Anna - Open Magazine

OPen Magazine, 22 October 2011


Why the Sangh Loves Anna
He endorses the RSS worldview while appealing to people who lie outside its fold

by Hartosh Singh Bal

It is no coincidence that the Jan Lokpal Bill imagines an ombudsman who would be to the republic what Anna is to Ralegan Siddhi, someone who will whip us all into shape

It is ironic that a movement which has made so much noise about holding a referendum on the Jan Lokpal Bill, a referendum that has no sanction or validity under the Constitution, has so much trouble with a referendum in Kashmir. Surely, whatever an individual’s stand on the issue, it is reasonable to expect that we live in a republic where such issues can be voiced and debated openly. In this context, the Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena (the very name is an insult to Bhagat Singh) is contemptible but unimportant. What is far more shocking is the amplification of the same view by Anna and his sidekick Arvind Kejriwal, who more and more reflect the same fascist bent of mind that drives the RSS.

Prashant Bhushan’s statement on Kashmir was made weeks before he was assaulted. In fact, his stand on Kashmir was clear well before the Anna movement was conceived. Why did it take an attack on Bhushan, by people who were certainly once directly allied with the Sangh and are today part of it in spirit, for Anna to suddenly attack such views in public? How has this man given to so much vagueness while replying to every pointed question suddenly found such clarity? It is only because the viewpoint that Anna and by extension Kejriwal represent is the same simplistic and ill-thought-out rightwing nationalism of the Sangh which has no space for the Constitution or the liberal values it embodies. In that sense, when Anna’s team stands and shouts “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”, it is not hailing the Indian Republic but a mythic nation that exists only in the mind. It was no coincidence that the very stage on which Anna first fasted at Jantar Mantar had a map of India shaped in the image of Bharat Mata as the backdrop. It is no coincidence that Anna is a teetotaler given to flogging young men who do not obey him. It is no coincidence that Kejriwal has often shared the stage with an anti-reservation organisation called Youth for Equality. It is no coincidence that the electioneering they are doing is not directed against corruption but the Congress (even if the distinction is sometimes hard to make, it exists). It is no coincidence that Constitutional issues are so readily dismissed by Anna and Kejriwal, who has even anointed Anna above Parliament. It is no coincidence that through the Jan Lokpal Bill, they imagine an ombudsman who would be to the republic what Anna is to Ralegan Siddhi, someone who will whip us all into shape.

Through the twentieth century, this combination—a claim to efficient governance, a mythic father or motherland, a contempt for a certain section of people—has been the mark of fascism. Surprisingly, many of the Left, such as Bhushan himself, have been slow to recognise this. The news that two members of the core committee of Anna’s team, Rajendra Singh and PV Rajagopal, have resigned is no surprise; what is a surprise is that they were part of the committee to begin with, perhaps they were taken in by the rhetoric that is always so seductive to the Left, ‘we must be with the people’. The support extended by the RSS, the overt expressions of sympathy, the covert mobilisation of numbers, the desire to make common cause with Anna, is not some public play at deception and politics, it is the manifestation of a genuine desire to make common cause with a man who has managed to fulfill their aims. Mobilise the people, corner the Congress, and fight to the death for Kashmir (only rhetorically, of course, for in reality the soldiers who die in the fighting are motivated by a far more prosaic professionalism). This only leaves the question of how long people like Medha Patkar and Prashant Bhushan will survive as part of Anna’s team. Patkar is calling for a repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Everyone knows where Anna will stand on that one, but perhaps his views will become public only once some other organisation sympathetic to the Sangh attacks Patkar. But this is now only a matter of detail. The personal compromises that a Bhushan or a Patkar have had to make with their own views is up to them , what counts is that the attack on Bhushan has opened up the faultlines within the movement and exposed the delusions of those who joined it in the name of ‘liberal’ values.

This does not mean the movement is petering out. The Winter Session of Parliament will see a Lokpal Bill being adopted, but it is unlikely that in its details it will contain all that Anna and Kejriwal have demanded. There will be another fast, there will be more tamasha and television, but what should have been a means of channelling an anger directed against a corrupt government is now turning into a force that the RSS is only bound to welcome.


Hartosh Singh Bal turned from the difficulty of doing mathematics to the ease of writing on politics. Unlike mathematics all this requires is being less wrong than most others who dwell on the subject. He is the Political Editor of Open.

Show The Right Cheek (Saba Naqvi)

From: Outlook, 24 October 2011

Show The Right Cheek

by Saba Naqvi

In the twisted mind of Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, it was some sort of glorious act. "God give us the power to complete our mission," he tweeted before it. The mission: a coward's attack on eminent lawyer and human rights activist Prashant Bhushan by Bagga and two of his friends, Inder Verma and Vishnu Gupta. On October 13, the three men walked into the lawyer's Delhi office and thrashed him, an act that acquired spectacular dimensions because it was captured live by a TV channel that happened to be there to interview Bhushan. The next day, when the three were remanded to judicial custody in a Delhi court, their supporters viciously attacked some citizens who had come out in support of Bhushan which was also captured on live TV. A little-known outfit, the Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena, has hence come into the limelight. Inder Verma, one of the men who assaulted Bhushan, also claims to be president, Sri Rama Sene, Delhi unit. The men say they attacked Bhushan because he had supported the idea of a plebiscite in J&K and asked for a repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. On their Facebook page, they wrote: "If someone breaks my country I will break their head." There was a somewhat cruel irony in the fact that Bhushan was physically attacked by right-wing hooligans at a time when the Anna Hazare movement of which he is a crucial part is being accused of getting its organisational muscle from the RSS. Which is precisely why several conspiracy theories are doing the rounds about the Bhushan attack. And true or false, such speculation does reveal the confusion that still prevails about the Jan Lokpal movement, particularly now that it has taken on a political dimension with the campaign against the Congress in the Hisar bypolls. First is the theory that the Sangh parivar sees Prashant Bhushan as the awkward member of Team Anna, the man hardest to manage when said investments have to be encashed. Bhushan has been associated with too many human rights causes, counts too many "comrades" among his friends and is the one Team Anna member unrestrained in his critique of the parivar and Narendra Modi. As far as the right-wing brigade goes, he is the "unpatriotic anti-nationalist" inside Team Anna. The traitor within. Hence goons were sent after him. Theory number two is that perhaps the powers that be had a hand in instigating the attack as Bhushan has become a real headache, both for members in the ruling dispensation and the corporate sector. Indeed, when news of the attack was first flashed, there was apprehension that some Congress worker angry with the political actions of Team Anna had gone nuts and slapped him around. There are also murmurs that given the Sangh taint is an embarrassment for Team Anna, an attack by extremists pledging allegiance to an ultra-right ideology can be a face-saver, "evidence" that the movement is not being carried on the shoulders of the RSS. India Against Corruption (which manages the Anna movement) writes on its website: "It is a peoples' movement and every Indian ought to and is welcome to participate in it. The movement consists of people from all shades of political opinion, including the Left, Right and Centre. But the RSS is not part of the leadership...not connected in any way in running the movement." But as the RSS sees it, after years of failure, the Anna initiative is something worth backing. It's good strategy to prop up something that has already knocked the wind out of the Congress sails. In internal meetings, the assessment is that the BJP is in a position now to take advantage of the disarray in UPA-II. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was only being honest when he declared, as part of his Vijayadashami address, that the cadre was told to join the Anna movement. But such proclamations are certainly embarrassing for some individuals in Team Anna. Meanwhile, one of Bhushan's assailants has also been linked to the Sri Rama Sene that has in the past vandalised M.F. Husain exhibitions and repeatedly attacked Valentine's Day celebrations. Leaders of the group have also defended saffron terror planners like Colonel Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya. The three men who attacked Bhushan last week have also in the past disrupted public engagements of Arundhati Roy and Syed Ali Shah Geelani. The RSS, of course, denies any overt association with anyone who goes over the edge, although the kind of hatred such individuals harbour continue to be fed by the Sangh ideology. But to plan conspiracies, one needs to think, plot and trigger actions. It is unlikely that these individuals who attacked Bhushan could really fathom all the dots being connected here. It probably happened just the way they said it did he needed to be bashed on the head for he was speaking against the nation'. They too saw themselves as self-appointed guardians of the public good.

In the twisted mind of Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, it was some sort of glorious act. "God give us the power to complete our mission," he tweeted before it. The mission: a coward's attack on eminent lawyer and human rights activist Prashant Bhushan by Bagga and two of his friends, Inder Verma and Vishnu Gupta. On October 13, the three men walked into the lawyer's Delhi office and thrashed him, an act that acquired spectacular dimensions because it was captured live by a TV channel that happened to be there to interview Bhushan. The next day, when the three were remanded to judicial custody in a Delhi court, their supporters viciously attacked some citizens who had come out in support of Bhushan which was also captured on live TV. A little-known outfit, the Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena, has hence come into the limelight. Inder Verma, one of the men who assaulted Bhushan, also claims to be president, Sri Rama Sene, Delhi unit. The men say they attacked Bhushan because he had supported the idea of a plebiscite in J&K and asked for a repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. On their Facebook page, they wrote: "If someone breaks my country I will break their head."

There was a somewhat cruel irony in the fact that Bhushan was physically attacked by right-wing hooligans at a time when the Anna Hazare movement of which he is a crucial part is being accused of getting its organisational muscle from the RSS. Which is precisely why several conspiracy theories are doing the rounds about the Bhushan attack. And true or false, such speculation does reveal the confusion that still prevails about the Jan Lokpal movement, particularly now that it has taken on a political dimension with the campaign against the Congress in the Hisar bypolls. First is the theory that the Sangh parivar sees Prashant Bhushan as the awkward member of Team Anna, the man hardest to manage when said investments have to be encashed. Bhushan has been associated with too many human rights causes, counts too many "comrades" among his friends and is the one Team Anna member unrestrained in his critique of the parivar and Narendra Modi. As far as the right-wing brigade goes, he is the "unpatriotic anti-nationalist" inside Team Anna. The traitor within. Hence goons were sent after him.

Theory number two is that perhaps the powers that be had a hand in instigating the attack as Bhushan has become a real headache, both for members in the ruling dispensation and the corporate sector. Indeed, when news of the attack was first flashed, there was apprehension that some Congress worker angry with the political actions of Team Anna had gone nuts and slapped him around. There are also murmurs that given the Sangh taint is an embarrassment for Team Anna, an attack by extremists pledging allegiance to an ultra-right ideology can be a face-saver, "evidence" that the movement is not being carried on the shoulders of the RSS. India Against Corruption (which manages the Anna movement) writes on its website: "It is a peoples' movement and every Indian ought to and is welcome to participate in it. The movement consists of people from all shades of political opinion, including the Left, Right and Centre. But the RSS is not part of the leadership...not connected in any way in running the movement." But as the RSS sees it, after years of failure, the Anna initiative is something worth backing. It's good strategy to prop up something that has already knocked the wind out of the Congress sails. In internal meetings, the assessment is that the BJP is in a position now to take advantage of the disarray in UPA-II. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was only being honest when he declared, as part of his Vijayadashami address, that the cadre was told to join the Anna movement. But such proclamations are certainly embarrassing for some individuals in Team Anna.

Meanwhile, one of Bhushan's assailants has also been linked to the Sri Rama Sene that has in the past vandalised M.F. Husain exhibitions and repeatedly attacked Valentine's Day celebrations. Leaders of the group have also defended saffron terror planners like Colonel Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya. The three men who attacked Bhushan last week have also in the past disrupted public engagements of Arundhati Roy and Syed Ali Shah Geelani. The RSS, of course, denies any overt association with anyone who goes over the edge, although the kind of hatred such individuals harbour continue to be fed by the Sangh ideology. But to plan conspiracies, one needs to think, plot and trigger actions. It is unlikely that these individuals who attacked Bhushan could really fathom all the dots being connected here. It probably happened just the way they said it did he needed to be bashed on the head for he was speaking against the nation'. They too saw themselves as self-appointed guardians of the public good.

Anna is the icon of banal Hindutva

Mail Today, 17 October 2011

Anna is the icon of banal Hindutva

by Jyotirmaya Sharma

The ethical compass of his followers is skewed

DOES ANNA Hazare have an ideology? Despite the surfeit of emotion that Hazare generates, this is a legitimate question that ought to be asked, understood and answered. That he is no democrat in the sense the word ‘ democracy’ is normally understood is a foregone conclusion, something that even his most vocal admirers would admit. He brings to debate and discussion the rigour and predictability of a military drill. His model of rule, governance and statecraft is that of undiluted paternalism, something even his secret admirers would admit.

That he is medieval in his outlook, one who would like people who he doesn’t like to be flogged in public, hanged in public and humiliated in public, is no great secret waiting to reveal itself. His world is a simple world that divides people into friends and foes and proceeds to pass moral strictures against his foes.

Character

Neither is he too bright: calling actions evil can be polarising, but he calls people evil which is polemical and arrogant.

He does not have the mental facility to focus on actions rather than the agents of such action. He feels he has neither the capacity for error nor the capacity for self- deception. For him, rhetoric is a substitute for explanation and not a demand for explanation.

Hazare doesn’t think twice before abusing words like ‘ evil’ and ‘ corruption’. The excessive use of the words stifles thinking rather than promoting it.

By demonising the idea of corruption, he has managed to externalise the idea altogether as something other people do. And by other people, he simply means those who do not agree with him or do not attend his rallies. The poison of his rhetoric poisons our lives; it undermines our trust in people and institutions and robs us of our freedom to debate and dissent. He is a non- violent terrorist: he does not bother about collateral damage in carrying out his mission.

Having said all this, the question still remains whether Hazare belongs to the Hindutva camp. Notwithstanding Digvijaya Singh’s relentless rhetoric on this question, or Mohan Bhagwat’s open avowal of support, or Hazare’s own disagreement with Prashant Bhushan on the Kashmir issue, the question of Hazare’s seeming affinity with the Sangh Parivar needs careful analysis. One doesn’t have to belong to the RSS or the VHP or the Bajarang Dal or the BJP to be formally part of the Sangh Parivar.

Analysts have often categorised Hindutva into ‘ hard’ and ‘ soft’ varieties. It is, therefore, important to understand that there are people who have formal allegiance to Hindutva as represented by institutions and organisations mentioned above, but there are those who might vote for the BJP not because of an ideological position that they take but because of resentment towards a particular party or dispensation.

Going beyond the categories of ‘ hard’ and ‘ soft’ Hindutva, there is a third, and as yet not discussed, category of Hindutva.

This is ‘ banal Hindutva’. Its features are a love for abstractions rather than action, self- righteousness over self- improvement, inflamed nationalism, easy judgement, moral sanctimoniousness over moral understanding and a gnawing sense of inferiority and victimhood.

Type

It manifests in the form of the person who regularly violates traffic lights, spits in public places, raves and rants about the state of education in India and then sends his children abroad, speeds in his car as if there was no tomorrow and yet complains of the fast life in the West, bribes his way through in life but gets tearful when Vande Mataram is sung.

This sort of person does not have the application or the courage to question seriously the status quo, nor does he have the tenaciousness required to join a political party and work for a cause or an ideology.

He wants a comfortable existence, dislikes disorder of any kind, finds dissent and debate in his own circles to be a waste of time, and is happy to fit several air conditioners in his own home while signing petitions to save the ozone layer.

He is a misogynist at home but a serious champion of 33 per cent seats for women in Parliament.

He relentlessly speaks of India’s great Hindu traditions but knows no more than what he gleaned from Amar Chitra Katha comics. He swears by Hindu tolerance yet makes no effort to have a Muslim or a Christian friend; more so, he secretly detests them.

Being afflicted by this moral and ethical schizophrenia, he hides behind the rhetoric of the eternal Hindu civilisation, the dream of making India, which for him means Hindu India, an economic and military superpower, being the number one side in cricket and tracing the origins of all things good and noble to India. If confronted with questions of violence, cruelty and hypocrisy in India, he blames it on Western education, Christian missionaries, the Taliban, Pakistan, America, the rise in population, democracy, the Left and the intellectuals.

Hazare is the leader of ‘ banal Hindutva’.

He has no moral centre and his scruples are his misunderstandings. He typically is the kind of person described so eloquently by Hannah Arendt in her account of Eichmann’s trial: the pathetic, selfserving individual, who attains to a position of power and influence by accident.

Fallout

He is not demonic but just spectacularly mediocre. And he attracts a sizable number of those who are either his kind, or, if they are not necessarily mediocre, are just plainly opportunists, who find a state of political and moral anarchy convenient for their own ends. He is attractive because he does not challenge anyone intellectually or morally. All he asks anyone is to bask in his moral superiority.

Like Krishna asking Arjuna to suspend everything and come unto him, Hazare too wants us to suspend judgement and follow him.

Will ‘ banal Hindutva’ replace the more formal versions of the Hindu nationalist ideology? The answer is that it is unlikely.

What Hazare is knowingly or unknowingly doing is to become the informal recruitment centre for the harder versions of Hindutva. By making ‘ banal Hindutva’ honourable, Hazare has begun the process of making the harder versions of Hindutva more acceptable and legitimate.

The collateral damage, as stated earlier, will be Indian democracy. But does he care?

The writer is professor of politics at University of Hyderabad

WRITE TO THE EDITOR letters@mailtoday.in or editorsoffice@mailtoday.in

RSS threatens to derail Anna Hazare's movement

Source: India Today


Courtesy: Mail Today

Rajat Rai Lucknow, October 16, 2011 | UPDATED 14:43 IST

Angry at Anna Hazare's denial of RSS support to his movement, Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday issued a veiled threat that the Sangh could withdraw its support to the activist, which would cause his movement to fizzle out.

A statement by the RSS chief, read at the outfit's national executive meet in Gorakhpur, said: "Anna's response (on our support to his cause) is beyond our comprehension and has caused immense pain to me. It is tragic that a Gandhian like Anna got influenced by a cheap political conspiracy. His views could prove detrimental to his anti-corruption movement."

In his last interview before going on a 'maun vrat' in Ralegan Siddhi, Hazare said in Seedhi Baat on Aaj Tak that Team Anna had not campaigned against the Congress in Hisar bypoll at the behest of the BJP and the RSS.

Denying that he had ever met RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Hazare said: "I have only seen him on TV. I have never met him or spoken to him. These are all fibs. In politics, the parties are ready to do anything... The Congress, the BJP and the RSS are conspiring together to defame me." He also denied thanking BJP president Nitin Gadkari for the party's support and said, "If someone else from my team did, I cannot comment."


Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/rss-threatens-to-derail-anna-hazare-movement/1/155152.html

RSS chief wants Hindutva stamp on anti-graft stir

Source: India Today

Courtesy: Mail Today


RSS chief wants Hindutva stamp on anti-graft stir

Poornima Joshi New Delhi, October 7, 2011


Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/rss-chief-mohan-bhagwat-wants-hindutva-stamp-on-anti-corruption-stir/1/153951.html


Even if the electoral demise of the Congress had not been the avowed aim of Anna Hazare, his backers in the RSS would have been working towards that aim.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday highlighted the aim unambiguously with a rider - root out the "minority-based" elements in the anti-corruption agitation who opposed the use of nationalist symbols such as Bharat Mata and Vande Mataram.

The RSS chief's Dussehra speech is considered an articulation of the ideological framework of the saffron joint family's political and social activities. This year, while summing up the political situation, Bhagwat focused on the anti-corruption movements across the country.

Though he refrained from naming the movements - Anna Hazare's fast, Ramdev's campaign against black money, L.K. Advani's rath yatra and the yatras by Rajnath Singh and Kalraj Mishra in Uttar Pradesh - the RSS chief was categorical in instructing his cadre about how to shape the movement in the Hindutva mould.

He gave a call for unity among all the groups associated with the anti-corruption agitation and warned against those who were objecting to the symbols of Bharat Mata and Vande Mataram being used.

"The RSS volunteers are already active in all movements against corruption without craving for their own position and credit… We should stay clear from power groups which have dubious backgrounds and are impatiently credit-hungry. Rejection of symbols of patriotism such as Vande Mataram and Bharat Mata and gimmicks to gain cheap popularity can never be tolerated in any national movement," Bhagwat said.

"It is necessary to keep away from those tendencies and forces existing in the socalled minorities that pander to the narrow, fanatic and separatist ideas. We will have to take care that persons and tendencies that maintain total transparency, especially in the matter of money and resources, are on board. Otherwise, taking advantage of these weaknesses, the elements that oppose the movement can create an atmosphere of distrust and calumny," he added.

The RSS chief said while Hazare managed to get Parliament to bow to his demands, the target was far from achieved. He said all those involved in corruption movement have to sink in their differences to achieve the aim - a change in the government and jail term for "known and unknown bigwigs", clearly in the present establishment.

Bhagwat was emphatic that a change in the government was a pre-requisite for a change in society. He stressed on "pure character" and "good and moral conduct" for rebuilding the Indian society.

RSS says it is very much part of Anna's movement

The Times of India

RSS says it is very much part of Anna's movement

PTI | Oct 15, 2011, 07.43PM IST

GORAKHPUR: Insisting that it was very much part of his movement against corruption, RSS today said social activist Anna Hazare's comments that there was no support from the Sangh founthead to his Jan Lokpal campaign was beyond its comprehension.

"Anna had made some comments on the RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat and also indicated that he viewed the letter written by me in support of his movement as a conspiracy. These views, which were published widely in the media, go beyond my comprehension and cause immense pain to me.

"It is tragic that a person of Anna's stature too has got influenced by narrow political conspiracy," RSS General Secretary Suresh "Bhaiyyaji" Joshi said in a statement.

He was referring to a letter written by Hazare in reply to Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh. "The views expressed in his letter would prove detrimental to the anti-corruption movement only. It will be most unfortunate," Joshi said.

Joshi's statement is all praise for Hazare, calling him a man committed to noble ideals and one who has been leading a massive popular movement against corruption in the country.

"The entire credit for the success of this movement goes to him only. I and thousands of other activists of the country are familiar with and inspired by the ideas articulated by him on several occasions and the developmental activity undertaken by him," Joshi said.

RSS maintained that it was very much a part of Anna's movement against corruption both at the Ramlila grounds and across the country.

Anna to Modi, Are seeing a new acceptability of fascist means ?

From: Deccan Chronicle

Mistaken identity

September 17, 2011

By Antara Dev Sen

Life is hectic. Too many things to do. Nothing works. Corruption has got you in its python grip. Rising prices have yanked everyday needs out of reach. Terror attacks lurk in harmless garb, waiting to blow you away. And justice is peacefully ensconced in a torture chamber that you dread to approach. You want to fumigate the entire system. Bring in the pest control, burn the rubbish, clean out your life.

But wait. While burning rubbish, could you be burning down your home? In this quick-fix age of immediate gratification we seem to be doing just that. One big casualty is our fundamental belief in freedom and democratic rights. We seem to be veering towards a fascist, illiberal society that tramples on truth, human rights and basic freedoms.

Take Narendra Modi’s five-star fast that is being flagged off right now, as you read this and sip your morning cuppa. It is part of his “sadbhavana mission” to bring “peace, unity and harmony” to Gujarat. While cynics snigger that next year’s state elections might have something to do with the iron-fisted chief minister’s sudden resort to Gandhiji’s noble methods, others believe it’s his attempt to clean up his image as a Hindutva fanatic and be more acceptable as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in the Lok Sabha polls. The very fact that Mr Modi can be discussed as a possible candidate for the top job, without the nation erupting in hiccups or swooning in fear, shows how far we have strayed from our original idea of democracy and equality. And how liberal discourse, freedom and human rights can be swept away to usher in a strong, corporate-friendly ruler.

Mr Modi is a visionary. He can see victory where there is none. And make others believe it. Like in the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on Zakia Jafri’s case, instructing the SIT and the trial court to take up the matter of the Gulberg massacre of 2002. “God is great!” he tweeted happily. Then declared in an open letter to citizens: “The unhealthy environment created by the unfounded and false allegations made against me and Government of Gujarat, after 2002 riots, has come to an end.” This was far from true, but when has truth stood in the way of politics?

Mr Modi has always had this magical touch. He is saluted for his governance. For not being corrupt. For being among the best performing chief ministers in India. For his contribution to development. For Gujarat’s amazing economic growth. Even those who disagree with Mr Modi’s violent Hindutva praise his performance in these respects. This image of Mr Modi as a super-efficient chief minister has travelled beyond borders and even popped up in the US Congressional Research Service report released this month. “Perhaps India’s best example of effective governance and impressive development is found in Gujarat,” it declares, “where controversial chief minister Narendra Modi has streamlined economic processes, removing red tape and curtailing corruption in ways that have made the state a key driver of national economic growth.”

I hate to spoil the party, but I am a bit curious about the definition of “effective governance”. Doesn’t it include safeguarding the citizen’s right to life? When the state government fails to protect minorities, when about 2,000 people are killed in sectarian violence at one stretch, when trials are so badly biased that cases are moved out of the state, can we really praise Mr Modi’s governance skills? And when we say he is “clean” and has “curtailed corruption” do we mean that fake “encounter” killings (like Sohrabuddin Sheikh’s or Ishrat Jahan’s) are justified? Or the systematic denial of minority rights, or clapping Muslims in jail for crimes they didn’t commit (like Mr Modi’s rival Haren Pandya’s murder), or persecuting policemen who speak up against Mr Modi (like top cops R.B. Sreekumar, Rahul Sharma and Sanjiv Bhatt)? Are these elements of a clean administration?

Finally, when we talk of “economic growth” can we really ignore the way that growth has been achieved? Land has often been forcibly acquired to woo big business that props up that economic growth. Corporates get the land at negligible rates, often at `1 per square metre. Several land scams have not been probed and critical public accounts reports not tabled. The economic growth and development is certainly not as clean as advertised.

But then, everyone likes the rich and powerful. In fact, we have been hankering after the strong and ruthless everywhere. We are tired of sloth. We are tired of democratic freedoms and liberal means that trammel efficiency. We don’t want to pay the price for democracy if we can’t enjoy the results soon. We would much rather have a dictator. A lauha purush or iron man. We would rather have quick encounter killings and draconian security laws and salwa judum. It makes us feel safe. Never mind that it does nothing to make us safe. So even our new non-violent messiahs come in the form of benevolent dictators.

Like Anna Hazare. Who has brilliantly energised the country against corruption but by a completely non-liberal approach. Democratic dialogue and dissent have no place in his scheme of things — it’s his way or the highway. The Constitution is disregarded, Parliament is sidelined, democracy is undermined. And like Mr Modi, he has the propagandist’s tool — he powerfully presents a simplistic picture in black and white, where he is white and all others are black. We are either with him or against him. The God-fearing choose to be with him.

We are seeing a new acceptability of fascist means justified by useful ends. It’s not about party politics. It’s about us — the impatience and exasperation of Indian citizens. This does not sit well with our democratic rights or freedoms. For starters, we should recognise it as a dangerous trend. Unless we want to discard our democracy altogether.

Antara Dev Sen is editor of The Little Magazine. She can be contacted at: sen@littlemag.com

After Anna, Crowd Pulling Black Comedy . . . by BJP leaders LK Advani and Narendra Modi

From: The Times of India

COMMENT

Anna games that politicos play

Sep 17, 2011, 12.00AM IST

In politics, nothing succeeds like imitative success. Coming on the heels of Anna Hazare's crowd-pulling anti-corruption movement, at least two politicians so far are attempting to follow in the self-styled Gandhian's footsteps, blithely disregarding the awkward fact that the main target of the anti-graft crusader was the political class as a whole.

Veteran BJP leader L K Advani has announced that he will go on an anti-corruption yatra, which will possibly begin in Gujarat. The proposed starting point of Advani's yatra, the fourth such excursion of his career, lends support to the theory being floated by some that this is an attempt by the never-say-die neta to project himself as a future prime ministerial candidate and to do so on the home turf of Narendra Modi, viewed by many as the saffron party's most likely choice to grace the PM's gaddi.

Not to be outdone, NaMo in the meantime has declared that he will go on a three-day fast for the sake of 'peace and harmony' in Gujarat. Both NaMo's fast and Advani's yatra are obvious exercises in demagoguery a la Anna. That Advani's anti-corruption expedition could pass through BJP-ruled Karnataka, which of recent times has become literally a mine of graft and scandal, will not be lost on those who might view this yatra more as a jatra, or folk theatre, replete with unintentional dramatic irony.

Similarly, Modi's fast for peace and harmony in a state scarred by the post-Godhra riots, in which many claim he is complicit, could be likened to a black comedy of terrors. Interestingly, Modi's fast coincides with BJP president Nitin Gadkari's plans to undergo an abdominal surgical procedure which will reduce his food intake capacity and help him shed unwanted kilos. By curtailing calories, one aims to lose weight while by fasting the other seeks to become even more of a political heavyweight than he already is.

But, like chickens and conspiracies, political spoils should not be counted before they are hatched. The best- laid plans of might and mien often go awry, and backfire on those who devise them. Indira Gandhi's much-touted slogan of 'Garibi hatao' was lampooned by her detractors who morphed her mantra into 'Garib hatao: garibi bachao'. In much the same way, the NDA's catchphrase 'India Shining' lent itself to mischievous metamorphosis and became 'India Whining'. Despite such lessons of the past, in politics as in marriage, hope persistently triumphs over experience with netas and would-be netas in search of a sure-fire formula for success. This being the case, Advani and Modi apart, other political players may soon jump onto the Anna bandwagon. A word of caution, however, is advisable. An Anna by any other name or anagram becomes 'Na, na', which is the vernacular version of what in English might be called a strict 'no-no'.