Depending on your appetite, Indian politics is getting rather entertaining. Newspapers carry front-page pictures of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani addressing the media after submitting a memorandum to the President of India urging her to convene an emergency session of Parliament to discuss the crisis arising out of the action taken against Baba Ramdev, who was holding a hunger strike against corruption and black money.
Nothing wrong with that except that the same Mr Advani had told reporters a couple of days ago that he was not satisfied with developments in Karnataka, the key south Indian state where the BJP is in power, and that it does not figure in his list of well-run BJP ruled states. This is not a flash in the pan. The reiteration that things are not going well in Karnataka comes from top BJP leader Sushma Swaraj’s remark. She claimed that it was not she but fellow senior leader Arun Jaitley who was instrumental in making iron ore mining barons, the Reddy brothers, ministers and important in politics.
She was seeking to live down the oft- repeated comment that it was she who made the Reddys important as a reward for electoral help rendered earlier. Maybe the pressure is telling on her. Or else, why would she get up and dance with joy before TV cameras at a time when there was gloom over the brutal police action against peaceful followers who had come to attend a yoga discourse by Baba Ramdev?
The fun is not all on one side. There is trouble in the Congress camp too. Kapil Sibal, who handled or mishandled, according to your judgement, the negotiations with Baba Ramdev, is cut short by Sonia Gandhi at a top -level Congress party meeting when he tries to give some background. Her irritation is apparently shared by Rahul Gandhi who laments that there is no focus on so much of work that is being done among the poor. This is apparently too much for Pranab Mukherjee who almost loses his cool over the state of affairs. The argument appears to be: Why bend over backwards to accommodate civil society? Why indeed? Why should Kamal Nath, of all people, join Baba Ramdev’s gathering against corruption when he was touring the minister’s constituency? This is dead serious — Kamal Nath raising his voice against corruption.
And what is all this in aid of? What are the Baba’s demands? Some are practical and doable. For example, introduce a change in the electoral system to directly elect the prime minister, bring income tax details under the Right to Information Act, substantially increase the minimum support price for grains, make wages for different types of labour uniform across the country, change the Land Acquisition Act so that farmers don’t lose out to industry and, last but not the least, promote Hindi and downgrade English.
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But look at the rest. Toughen the Lok Pal Bill to include death penalty for the corrupt, especially corrupt officials (not Babas who get whole islands gifted), immediately retrieve all the black money stashed away in tax havens abroad (the Swiss are presumably just waiting for this say-so), abolish Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes, disable the Indian operations of banks from tax havens (what happens if the foreign branch of an Indian bank is found to be involved in money laundering?) and again, last but not the least, replace all laws inherited from the British with swadeshi laws.
If Baba Ramdev is not fully conversant with what is practical in public affairs then he is hardly the only one to blame. A journalist asks the Congress party spokesman at a press conference in a sarcastic vein: “Aren’t you happy there is no political opposition left in the country?” He then proceeds to brandish a shoe at the spokesman. It is discovered later that the man is no journalist (how can a journalist do such a thing?) but is a teacher at a school in Rajasthan affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It is not only the RSS that is stepping in to fill the gap created by a non-performing Opposition, elements at the fringe of the Sangh Parivar have also come to the fore. Uma Bharti has just met Baba Ramdev; the presence of Sadhvi Ritambhara of Babri Masjid demolition fame seated next to the Baba was widely noticed; and his key deep-rooted adviser is Govindacharya.
Ultimately, it is images that remain in the mind when political disputations are forgotten. My favourite is one of Baba Ramdev seeking to flee the police in a salwar kameez. Being in a hurry, he apparently forgot to shave his beard. If pictures of the Baba exist in that attire they can be passed on to the differently oriented community who may then forgive him for saying that his asanas could cure homosexuality. With the Baba defending himself by saying that he did nothing wrong since every man is born of a woman, the community can get ready to admit him into their fold.
Talking of images, the quality of political caricature has just gone up several fold. Jug Suraiya, Ajit Ninan and Neelabh are running riot on the pages of The Times of India. My favourite is the one of the BJP leadership marching behind the Baba whose drum bears the legend “Baba’s Foo-Faa Band”. But the one that captures the pathos of the moment goes to Keshav’s cartoon in the Hindu. It depicts a dejected Manmohan Singh slowly melting away in the heat. It is so telling that there is no need to add as a caption the prime minister’s own words justifying the police raid — “unfortunate but no alternative”.