Baba Ramdev, in spite of his much acclaimed yoga skills, could only manage to fast for a week. But before that, he created a new “anti – arrest” technique — the “whirlpool of women” around, with him hiding in the middle of it. Then he pulled a “kathron ke khiladi” by jumping off the stage. He almost pulled off a sex change, a trick of course, by wearing women’s clothes. But unfortunately he was arrested, or else who knows may be he would change into a dwarf, like Kamal Hassan did in the movie “Appu Raja”, and escape! Later, as he was not permitted to enter Delhi, he sat on a fast – unto - death in Haridwar. Anyway, the end result of all these theatrics — the dignity of fast - unto - death sullied. Now politicians have further reduced the noble protest into an ignoble mockery.
Baba Ramdev being offered juice by Sri Ravishankar Guruji and others.
Politicians have defamed fast – unto - death so much that we fear the next time Anna Hazare decides to fast, people will be unsure about it. Anna may have to lose significant amounts of weight and a kidney before people will believe that it really is a fast – unto - death. This is the effect of politicians announcing fasts and then ending them even faster with a sip of juice, usually fed by some agenda - based middleman.
The Nataka in Karnataka is running houseful. The artistes… sorry, politicians, are better than the artistes in Rangayana. Emotional scenes, action scenes and dialogue delivery come naturally to them. And so we have, in recent political history, witnessed “slippering” action during Ramakrishna Hegde’s time and wine & women scene during J. H. Patel’s time. And now we are witness to varied scenes from the teary emotions of CM B. S. Yeddyurappa to the dramatic fast – unto - death undertaken by former CM Kumaraswamy which saw a super fast ending.
The biggest dramatics and theatrics used to come from former MLA Vatal Nagaraj but now he too has faded into dramatic oblivion unable to compete with the new breed of artistes… sorry once again, politicians. Actually, may be like Sachin Tendulkar, the Indian politicians too should state their profession as “artiste” in the Income Tax forms so they too can get a tax concession. Yes, it is true; our greatest sports icon says he is an artiste! All to save a few bucks!
U. R. Ananthamurthy offering juice to Kumaraswamy to break his fast – unto - death.
Now our most dramatic politicians are saying they are spotless and want to be probed by CBI. Of course, the fasting party also added that the CBI should investigate the other side too… and with that the story came to THE END; but not until Big Daddy went and hugged Yeddy while sonny ended it in the name of mummy — yes, Kumaraswamy ended the fast for the sake of his mother who was very worried about his health. But can someone please tell us, why O’ why in this personal family drama did our prominent litterateur Dr. U.R Ananthamurthy (URA) appear? He appeared like the ever - smiling Narada to fix things. So finally has URA shed his intellectual sheep clothing and fearlessly displayed his ambitious political wolf skin? Finally, can we, the readers who enjoyed his literary skills now to believe the rumours that have floated for many years that he does harbour very strong political ambitions and has been harbouring them for well over a decade-and-half? Is this URA's new avatar borne out of many years of frustrating wait? Couldn’t he take the wait anymore and felt compelled to join in on the theatrics?
While Ananthamurthy was, ahh.... so lovingly feeding juice to Kumaraswamy (we didn’t know Kumaraswamy was so weak in 24 hours that he couldn’t hold his own paper cup), many of us were left wondering; one of the reasons Kumaraswamy ended his fast was because he was a diabetic. So wouldn’t it have been more dramatic and appropriate for URA to appear on stage with a syringe filled with insulin?
May be Kumaraswamy doesn’t trust URA considering that while today URA is feeding him juice and playing middle man for BJP and JD (S), back in 2004 he was very upset that the JD (S) did not give him a ticket to contest from Bangalore for the Rajya Sabha.
While he now plays conciliator between two parties, a few years ago he had said he was the saviour of “Kannada pride,” at a time when both BJP and the JD (S) were under - mining it by fielding industrialist Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a non - Kannadiga. But URA had no issue when before Rajeev; the JD (S) gave a ticket to M. A. M. Ramaswamy, the tycoon from Chettinad, Tamil Nadu. Where was his “Kannada pride” then?
It seems it didn’t matter that Rajeev Chandrasekhar has lived in Bangalore all his life and employed thousands of Kannadigas, but it is ok to broker a deal and diffuse a situation between two individuals whose moral fiber is questioned, whose greed and fighting has kept Karnataka poorer and unstable.
For a man who wants to “save Kannada pride,” it would have been appropriate if URA had encouraged Kumaraswamy to continue his fast and made sure both the parties came under CBI investigation. This would have helped save Karnataka’s wealth, Kannadigas’ pride and URA’s too. But by entering the stage with a cup of juice URA, let alone saving Kannada pride, has lost his own. It is disturbing to see a man perceived to be an intellectual brokering a political deal that is detrimental to the interest of his own — Kannadigas!
But then, why must we be surprised? URA is known for double - speak. A speaker of convenience. He said Rajeev Chandrasekhar was an outsider but he himself had no hesitation in accepting the Vice - Chancellor’s post for Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam. Nor did he bat an eyelid before accepting the Chairmanship of Maharashtra’s Film and Television Institute. Politicians will be politicians, but when the so - called thinkers in a society also gleefully join in to frolic in the murky political dirt pit, the light at the end of the tunnel gets a litter dimmer.
And so, with a cup of juice, was killed the dignity of a noble protest.
