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Will Someone Spare Anna Hazare a Copy of “Don Quixote” by Cervantes?
Anna
Hazare is playing ‘Don Quixote’ again without reading the novel. If he will
care to read, perhaps he will realise the futility of his own
actions in his old age.
“Many
critics came to view the work as a tragedy in which Don Quixote's innate
idealism and nobility are viewed by the world as insane, and are defeated and
rendered useless by common reality”
There is none so blind as those
who won’t see and Anna Hazare and his team won’t see that their game of “Don Quixote” is not fair on
1.3 billion Indians!
There are striking resemblances.
For a starter like Alonso Quijano who
adapts the name Don Quixote, Anna who
is 74, must have been reading too many books on chivalry (certainly not “Don
Quixote”) while all that corruption was going on under his nose for all these
years. It is not clear though what has woken him up to the ‘menace’ of
corruption he must save his country from, even if he has to give up his life
for that!
Arvind Kejriwal, who acts as if
he has been secretly offered and aspire to the post of Lokpal of India, fits
very well in to the role of the illiterate and gullible Sancho Panza, the squire of Don
Quixote, who was offered the post of the governor.
Kiran Bedi, the frustrated and
very first woman police officer of the prestigious IPS
cadre of India
There are of course several minor
characters, Rocinante
the skinny horse of Don Quixote and Rucio, the donkey of Sancho Panza included, in the team of
Anna Hazare.
Like Don Quixote, Anna and his team, in their wild dreams pick on
anything they can which don’t retaliate, to blame for the epidemic of
corruption in India while the real causes and reasons lie elsewhere and beyond
the combined intelligence of the whole team.
The very notion that corruption
is the biggest problem the nation is facing and getting rid of it must be the
priority and there is only one way by entrusting a super cop who has the life
and death power over 1.3 billion people to do it, all ideas propped up by Anna
Hazare and his team, show how close Anna’s hallucinations are to those of Don Quixote.
For one thing, ‘corruption’ is in
the vein of Asian culture which is based on spirituality and in pleasing gods by
offerings to get along in life. It is in the blood of Indians. An honestly
conducted survey among 1.3 billion Indians to find someone who has never been
part of a corrupt act in life is likely to draw a blank. But then again honesty
is not easy to find.
In fact corruption in India
Many of these are natural and
unavoidable in a vast nation like India
In reality, while the bribes were
considered an ‘acceptable means’ to make up for the measly income in the public
sector, the recent surge of foreign funds has aggravated the problems in urban
life, exploding the difference between the
haves and have-nots. This is different
from the commercialisation of education, medical and other services. The
corporate corruption involving the government is of different nature as well.
In effect, all these can be
contained by a Lokpal is not logical. The recent actions by the supreme court
sending central ministers to Jail also prove that nothing more than the
existing system is required if the government and everyone empowered is willing
to act conscientiously without interference or intimidation.
What then is the justification of
blaming and picking on a ‘minority’ coalition government, which has tried to
give the cleanest governance India
Kejrival’s naming
of 14 ministers, based on mere media reports, as corrupt and Anna Harare’s
demand that they be sent to jail by August smacks of accusation, trial and
punishment all by mere imagination and shows the dangers of an all powerful
Lokpal which cannot be acceptable in any democracy.
It is interesting that the ‘real’
politicians who have managed to sabotage the Lokpal bill like Mamta Banerjee or
strong men like Mulayam Singh Yadav whose newly elected government has
appointed members with criminal background has not been challenged by the new Don Quixote of Indian politics.
Anyone who has listened to Anna
Harare’s recent speech also can’t miss the lack of sound reasoning and racist
overtones of his backers with a political agenda.
Like Don Quixote, Anna always chooses a nice sunny weekend for his
pursuits. It is not surprising that young girls who like the fragrance of the
candles looking for a chance to light some are always out to watch and applause
the escapades. But it looks like Mumbaikars are busy running their lives and
have no time for such madness!
Article first published as Will
Someone Spare Anna Hazare a Copy of “Don Quixote†by Cervantes? on
Technorati.
Anna Hazare – An Indian Hitler Or Don Quixote?
If Cervantes, the Spanish author who
created Don Quixote four
hundred years ago visits India Germany
Like Don Quixote, Anna Hazare has
been inspired only in his ripe old age to attain glory and a place in history.
Till the recent up surge against “corruption” no one, at least outside India
It took him seventy four years to
see that there is an enemy “corruption” in the Indian society and it is his
call to eradicate it and thereby achieve eternal glory as his role model Mahatma
Gandhi.
There are a lot of interesting
parallels in the saga of Anna Hazare with that of Don Quixote. One can see Don’s stupid horse "Rocinante" in the bizzaare
group of spiritual and materialistic swamis, police officers and business men
supporting his shows. India India India
Most striking comparison though
is in their adventures. Like Don, who saw in a wind mill a giant monster he
needs to defeat, Anna has identified and is relentlessly attacking the “corrupt”
Indian administration as his arch rival he must bring down.
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