Reflections: Agitated agitation

Grandma (G) is at it again. She is whole of twenty years older than Anna and so she does not refer to Anna as Anna (elder brother) but as Gandhi thambi (younger brother (Thambi)…Gandhi because of the topi and not fasting….

G: What is this thambi up to again?

I:   Grandma don’t you know!? There are twelve senior ministers in the union cabinet against whom enough proof exists for their indictment in many scams.

G: Oh! I see. Who says so…?

I: Team Anna of course…they have collected various reports of different agencies…..

G: So, Thambi expects the government to dismiss the ministers and file an FIR against them, arrest them, allot their cases special courts to fast track the trials and send them all to Tihar jail, is it?

I:  No Grandma, Annaji is smart…he knows the reality; he just wants special investigating teams to look into the allegations…

G:  So he wants more SITs like the one assembled to look into allegations of complacency of Modi N. in Gujarat riots of 2002 eh? I hope you know we are nowhere near a resolution in that matter, in spite of Ms Teesta Setalwad and Ms Medha Patkar….

I:  But Grandma, look at the efforts of the team fasting and all that….and then support from Ramdevji…..

G:  Son, in any confrontation there are no winners…even in the Dharma Yudh in Kuruskhetra there were elements of deceit in the Pandva’s declared success in the war.

I:   Now grandma, you always come up with the epics like an old hag whenever we discuss such matters…..

G:  Son, that is not because they are Divine such as you youngsters tend to believe….it is just so that everyone seems to know the story line especially after the two magnum opuses on TV during the airtime of whose broadcast, the Nation came to a standstill….

I:  But Grandma…you have no respect for Annaji…

G:  Son, once APJ Kalam met Field Marshal Sam Bahadur Manekshaw on a flight where both were engaged in a conversation…the one piece of conversation which influenced APJ was when Sam said to APJ “Tum to abhi bacchha hain”….respect is mutual and relative…

I:  So should corruption be allowed …..

G:  when we say politics is a business, and not a social service,  it has to have an implied or designed model where inputs are processed to obtain desired outputs. Unfortunately the output ‘desired’ by the politico-business class is profits. Therefore the processes are so manipulated so as to maximize profits…..

I:  Grandma you are talking business now…

G:  Son. Don’t interrupt…

I:  But Grandma you are so boring…come to the point….

G:   There are no instant solutions to anything….even for a good cup of coffee…

I:  What do you mean?

G:   Sending a few people to jail won’t eradicate corruption as there will be new people to take their places with doubled determination to make money….the process will be perpetual and one day the situation will become beyond redemption…

I: So, what do we do?

G:   One way is to shun democracy and install a dictator with sweeping powers…even in the face of opposition to manual scavenging, so to speak….

I:  Come on Grandma, you know better…

G: The other option is to institute an autonomous body on the lines of the Election Commission to monitor poll expenditure from Panchayat to LS elections.

I:   But will the government relent……

G:   Let Thambiji agitate for this one, he may get more crowds and support…..you have surely heard the term “nipping in the bud”

I:  Oh Grandma and they did not make you the President!