INDIA SPECIAL/CORRUPTION IN FOCUS
How to hurt a weak government
Supporters of Baba Ramdev carry his portrait before raising it in the Ramlila grounds in New Delh, June 2 B MATHUR/REU TERS
SANJAY SAWANT
;Page A31
he was hobnobbing with the Congress party through his
friend Subodh Kant Sahai. Both got interested in starting
mega food parks. The Congress party doesn’t have the
political courage to speak about Ramdev’s money-making
endeavors because they are afraid of Hindu sentiments. If
you keep thinking of politics, then it is no surprise that
Babas like him will flourish at your cost.”
Ramdev also got, at a very appropriate time in his career,
the backing of business house Sahara’s powerful senior
executive O P Srivastava. Srivastava gave Ramdev com-
plete management backing to grow. Ramdev’s organization
went on a land-acquisition spree, and that fetched him
huge dividends. Meanwhile, he perfected the potent mix of
yoga and Ayurveda to attract people. Acharya Balakrishna,
Ramdev’s classmate at the Gurukul Kangdi University in
Haridwar, joined hands with him and the two become
inseparable in the adventure of profiting from yoga and
Ayurveda.
When Ramdev expanded out of Haridwar, the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh used his glamour and status to lure
crowds to raise issues of national relevance like corruption,
genetically modified foods, and Hindu causes.
The Congress party and the government’s credibility cri-
sis is worse. When Ramdev talks about black money and
corruption, it strikes a chord with the masses, who are fed
up of politicians and their systemic exploitation.
Most of Ramdev’s demands to the government are bor-
rowed straight from the RSS outfit Swadeshi Jagran
Manch — proponent of the ‘made in India’ model of devel-
opment by boosting rural economy and ecology and by
staunchly opposing liberalization. The demands include
bringing back ‘Rs 400 trillion ($9 trillion) of’ Indian black
money hidden in foreign banks, and imposing Hindi to
minimize use of English in governance. But the idealist list
— that includes some rational, some silly, and some author-
itarian demands — reflects popular emotion. The Congress
party’s top leadership does not speak the people’s language,
literally and metaphorically; Ramdev does..
Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party’s king in waiting, has
often said there are two Indias. One, the India of the rich
who have benefited from 9 percent economic growth; the
other, poor India that has been left behind. Ramdev claims
to represent that neglected India.
“When Baba speaks against corruption, all parties and
organizations are issuing press release in support of him.
When the prime minister announces series of measures
against corruption, they don’t speak a word. What kind of
negative politics is this? How can the prime minister’s
credibility be reduced to such low levels,” asked Rashid
Alvi, a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper House of
India’s Parliament. “Such hunger strikes — even for the
cause of removing corruption — are just not acceptable. It’s
a sureshot way of weakening Indian democracy. You say
Baba Ramdev represents voices of 1.2 billion people, and
the people who are sitting in Parliament after getting mil-
lions of votes don’t represent the people. What kind of
argument is this?”
Truth is, Alvi’s party has to take a large portion of the
blame. Truth is, the common Indian supports most of the
demands made by people like of Hazare. According to a
recent survey by Outlook magazine, three out of every five
Indians support the inclusion of the prime minister under
the ambit of the Lokpal (ombudsman) bill. One of Hazare’s
most important demands was to include the judiciary and
the prime minister post under the authority of the Lokpal.
Truth is, corruption is a serious issue in India’s discourse
now. Truth is, neither the ruling Congress party nor the
opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is articulating it well. So,
the likes of Hazare and Ramdev are acquiring iconic status.
Many of their supporters do not see them merely as a
regional activist or yoga teacher or pro-Hindutva leaders —
as the Congress party would like the people to believe.
After the government’s total failure in handling Baba
Ramdev’s fast, social thinker Pratap Bhanu Mehta put it
excellently: ‘A morally insidious vacuum in government. A
self-proclaimed civil society displaying its own will to
power. A media age where being off-balance gets you visi-
bility. A public whose mood is punitive. An intellectual cli-
mate that peddles the politics of illusion. And all this in a
context where government paralysis is enhancing the two
biggest risks to the well-being of the poor — entrenched
inflation and slowdown in growth. Instead of clamoring for
visibility, we should follow old Baba Ramdev’s advice: Take
a deep breath.’
