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The 'Fast' and the 'Furious'

It’s almost as if Navratras have arrived early. Coupled with a fresh new season of Roadies.
Because look around, and all you see are men fasting, or men cursing (oh and short fat women dancing at Rajghat, but then that’s probably just the Navratra fever) There are frail white-dhoti clad men, and hairy half-naked saffron-clad men, and sly, crafty looking IAS officers on fasts—we’re really running for variety here. When these men aren’t fasting, they’re busy calling the high-ups cheats or liars and gathering public applause and adoration for their impeccable use of cuss words.
We’re fasting, we’re swearing, we’re lathi charging, we’re holding press conferences every second hour and we’re hurling chappals in every second press conference. Oh and we’re a country of really, really mature people. No, seriously!

Whatever has unfurled over the past few weeks since April 5th is frankly no golden medal on our ‘2020 mein Superpower banenge ji’ perception of ourselves.
We’re currently at our immature, gullible best, as we run around Jantar Mantar, Ramlila Maidan, and Rajghat, cheering for a fraud, treacherous Baba with fakeness writ large across his face, who probably knows NOTHING about politics, puts forth stupid, unrealistic demands and winks more than he blinks. And who also by the way jumped off a stage, dressed up as a woman and ran off in the middle of the night, leaving his ‘supporters’ to enjoy the police’s lashings. (On an unrelated note though, he must’ve made one hideous woman!).
At the same time, we also don’t forget to hurl a couple of abuses here and there at the nikammi Congress sarkar, go a little haaye haaye on them, and generally have a nice time booing and jeering.
And all the while, the woman at Rajghat dances on.

On a more serious not though, not once, not ONCE have we tried to figure who these knights in shining armour (and saffron dhotis) are. Who are these crusaders from the other side of the universe? God sent men? Are we to believe these noble fighters are so doodh ka dhula that they can suddenly wake up one morning and begin to sweep a dirty nation clean of all its filth? Like saakshaat Bhagwan Ram out to rid the world of the overpowering evil rakhshasas?
We’re to believe that just because Anna Hazare looks like Gandhi, he’s assumed to be miles away from the very corruption he talks of eradicating? And that Kiran Bedi has never as an IPS officer ordered an unwarranted lathi charge? Or that Ramdev set up a Rs 1100 crore empire through pure mehnat, yog and samaaj sewa?
Sorry, but that’s slightly hard to believe.
But apparently, I stand with the rarer of the crowd, because the public opinion is surprisingly sweeping toward the winking saffron Baba like no less than a Tsunami wave, even as the rest of us cynics shake our heads and watch the drama unfold in the 9 PM News.

And in the middle of all that, the short stout woman at Rajghat dances on, vowing to keep dancing to deshbhakti songs till she breathes her last.

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