Jalianwala Bagh with a twist at Ramlila Grounds

First Anna Hazare and now Baba Ramdev- the Government of India’s attempt at scuttling the demand for an anti corruption law is both brazen and foolhardy. The mid night police action against a peaceful demonstration on an assembly of the Baba’s supports brings back to memory the police action against a similar peaceful assembly of men and women at the Jalianwala Bagh grounds in Amritsar in 1919. The difference...the country was at that time being governed by the British and the action happened in broad daylight.

 This dastardly act of pelting tear gas shells and using lathi charge against unarmed men, women and children in total disregard of the ethics of democracy will come back and bite the Manmohan Singh government at a very awkward moment. One questions the wisdom of the oldest party “with a glorious past” at using such petty and utterly contemptible means to muzzle the voice of an angry populace. Does the government have a reasonable response to Baba Ramdev’s question as to why he had not been arrested legitimately in the day time if what he was doing was wrong?

I don’t know what Manmohan Singh and his party big wigs were thinking of when the police was kidnapping the Babaji and spiriting him away in a haze of tear gas shells? The party general secretary, Digvijay Singh, who has a penchant for putting his foot in his mouth whenever he opens it, has called Baba Ramdev a cheat and a thug. One need only cast one’s mind back a few weeks ago when this same politician tendered an apology for his likewise stupid remarks about the slain Al Qaeda leader’s burial and dismiss his comments as frivolous and inconsequential.  

 Does the UPA government have no better sense than to add to their already overflowing cart of scandal and shame? A gargantuan scam being unearthed every day, failure to tackle the terrorist issue, corruption at every level and in every field, constant price rise, unemployment, illiteracy the list is long- are these not cause enough for the government to sit up and do something. What do they do instead? Unleash their loud mouthed, mindless leaders to create more controversy than they can handle.

Media reports can be confusing but what is very evident, to anybody who is connected to ground realities at even the most superficial level, the Baba Ramdev phenomenon has not just sprung out of the blue on the horizon of the Indian polity. This wily Yoga Guru has been amassing a massive fan following for several years now. His methods work because he works at the grass roots level and his brand of propaganda appeals to the millions who benefit from his form of keeping physically fit. To try and gag his popularity by arresting him under cover of darkness and calling him names isn’t going to work. What Dr. Manmohan Singh and his honchos need is sincere efforts at passing the Jan Lokpal bill and putting in place a transparent and accountable system if they want to stay in power.