A lot , I repeat, a lot has already been said about Baba Ramdev and his fast-unto-death (or party ticket,eh?). From SRK to Salman, Sagarika Ghosh to Arnab Goswami, Facebook to Twitter, people have described it as a mere political gimmick, an act of rare patriotism, Gandhi 3.0  et al. If you do not support his mission, then you are tagged as unpatriotic, cynical, upper-class snobs etc etc. But then this is a cynic’s diary and I don’t give a damn about what people say (except ofcourse your valuable comments. :D)

I, like most Indians, agree in principle with both Anna and Baba Ramdev. The black money stashed in Swiss bank accounts can almost single-handedly solve the problem of poverty in India. Also, there should be more stringent laws to see it to that the money, if ever, brought back from these accounts actually reach the people and do not land back in Swiss Banks, albeit under different account holder names. So far so good.

My problem is with the method. Remember Kirori Singh Bainsla, the Gujjar leader, most famous for blocking railroads for getting reservation for Gujjars for almost every post, from peon to Prime-Minister (for himself). Remember Potti Sri Ramulu, the man behind formation of Andhra ( I am not saying that carving out smaller states based on language etc was a bad idea but the process has continued unterminated….JaganMohan Reddy). Isn’t this fasting-unto-death in presence of media limelight akin to those protests? Holding the state to ransom?

It is all so nice to compare this fasting method to the one adopted by Bapu but there is a basic difference. There was no democracy at that time. But now, we are a fully democratic republic. If Baba Ramdev has a problem and thinks that only he can save this nation, he should contest an election by all means, get elected and then present a bill in the Parliament to bring change. What Anna Hazare (post World Cup) and now Baba Ramdev (post IPL) have done is setting up a bad precedent. You want something, tell media channels that you are fasting-unto-death, go to Jantar Mantar, sit on a Dharna…..etc etc. I am not saying that all people who do so get their demands fulfilled but it is certainly worth a try. Don’t be surprised if tomorrow Mr. Bainsla is seen using a similar ploy, or if some Telangana supporters go on a fast.

I, to some extent supported Anna Hazare’s case but Baba has diluted the seriousness of the issue.

Some of the demands of Baba Ramdeva are ludicrous and some of those are the ones that the government has shrewdly already agreed to.

Engineering and Medical education in Hindi. As an engineer, from self-experience, I can say that it was pretty tough understanding a few concepts even after referencing several books from world-renowned authors. But then, Hindi is our mother tongue and we have a rich collection of Marathi books on Brillouin zone.

Abolishing Rs.1,000 and Rs.500 currency notes. I think this one has more to do with health rather than corruption. People carrying large bundles of money should make them stronger. Nice move.

Replacing the British-inherited system of governance, administration, taxation, education, law and order with a swadeshi alternative. Dear Baba Ramdev, please clearly state what this desi alternative is. Raja, Maharaja and all…..mazaa aayega. Or the swadeshi system where the male is all powerful and the females are mere puppets. Or the Varna system as there was during Ram Rajya.

Ensuring that all citizens declare annually their incomes. Yea, the government doesn’t want to do that cuz otherwise there will be a lot of tax-collection and Income Tax Officers would have a lot of work to do and the government is an ever so considerate employer.There are ways by which this can actually be done but suggest those ways rather than just sitting there and doing Alom-Vilom.

Jiska kaam usi ko saaje

Dooja kare to bandar laage