In one of his bytes to the news agency, ANI another expose-man YP Singh shared his experience that not very long back, in 2007-08 when Anna Hazare used to call upon a press conference, only 2 reporters used to turn up at the venue. Things have truly changed in the past 3-4 years. And no today I'm not in a lashing out mode, scrutiny doesn't always bode well you see! And in a sense the duo of Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare have emerged as the proselytizers of Indian Politics- the Omerta has been broken, new targets set, new course has been chosen and the entire political arena has been metamorphosed like never before.
It was a byte yet again that took me to the house of a Judge of the Delhi High Court where another interesting incident happened. As we were preparing for the shoot, trying to figure out a perfect shot and so on, one of the servants of the Judge sahib approached us requesting to take his byte too with an explicable wish of his to appear on television. To give weight to his desire, he stated rather emphatically, 'aaj kal Annaji toh hamari baat rakh rhe hai" (Anna is keeping forth our viewpoint) thereby implying that if the saint from Ralegan Siddhi can take care of him what it is that makes us brush aside his views. It is this feeling of pride and self-respect elicited by the year old movement that has made Anna a hero among a certain class.
If the guru had a noble idea of bringing in the Lokpal, his protege has gone a step further than him in taking a vow to change it all by nosediving into active politics. By weekly exposes Arvind Kejriwal has not only dared to point fingers at the high & mighty of the country he has kickstarted a new trend too. This means that perhaps all the leaders shall be careful to have a blemish free track record, their life which constitutes what on e may term as the public domain would have to have the seal of nothing less than safedi woh bhi Tide wali!
Vadra, Ranjan Bhattacharya and Ambani are those surnames the elite prefers to speak about in hushed tones. Kejriwal's recent antics have proven them to be nothing less than slimebag who should be exiled immediately. Delhi's Constitution Club emerged as the akhara from where the Yodha (fighter) challenged brazenly the behemoths known as National Parties, finally a man with an Aam Admi topi if not the aam admi truly that way, has sent tremors across galleries of power. Rules of the game have been changed for sure, the latest player wants complete revamp and nothing else.
At least a debate has been triggered, opposition space has been curbed the media has been compelled to introspect because after all the expose mechanism was something akin to them and not an activist and his army of civil society members.
As I loitered yet again in August this year at Jantar Mantar trying to understand the sociological and psychological impact of such discourse I came to the conclusion that leaders are not necessarily churned out of a 'Lead India' campaign, you stumble upon them and their ideology bumps into your indignation, the consequences of this collision being good or bad depending on the end product. How much dissatisfaction, anger and frustration is building up inside a common man can be gauged through the conversation in this video where discussion from the Lokpal drifts to the problems they face or have faced, the conversation going off the track completely. (on a lighter note just neglect the frame of the shot where public urinals might catch an eyeball or two)
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