Sunday, June 05, 2011

Jhoom Jhoom Jhoom Baba

When a simple old man in white kurta-pyjama and a Gandhi cap stood up against corruption in India, the entire nation stood behind him. Anna Hazare found support from the masses as well as the classes. But when Baba Ramdev stands up to corruption, how come he doesn’t get the type of support that Anna got?

If you really consider the difference between Anna and Baba, Anna is as an affable straight forward honest social reformer who has transformed Ralegaon Siddhi from being a village afflicted by drought, poverty and illicit liquor to a model village where he carried out programs like tree planting, terracing to reduce soil erosion and digging canals to retain rainwater. He has no political aspirations, no religious followers and no hidden agenda. His organization does not even accept donations. His simple Gandhian principles struck a chord with Indians when he took up the crusade to fight against corruption. The educated lot, especially people form the middle class and college students put their hand up in his support, as social network sites went into frenzy. Anna even had support from eminent citizens such as social activist and a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Kiran Bedi, Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Arvind Kejriwal and former Law Minister of India Shanti Bhushan who stood solid behind him.

And then we have Baba Ramdev on the other end. The one eyed bearded Baba runs a multi crore yoga and Ayurveda empire and flies around in a private jet. He has soared to celebrity status on television with crazy ideas and huge ambitions. He has hordes of religious followers and now his empire is expanding to far away locations like Scotland. There was a current news in the papers, where one of his associate claimed that the last balance sheet filed by Baba Ramdev was for more than 1,000 crore Rupees. Not to mention his political aspirations, where he has his own party called Bharat Swabhiman and wants to field candidates in all the 543 Lok Sabha seats.

So it’s not surprising that the educated rational Indian feels that the Baba is a distrustful attention seeker whose crusade against corruption is nothing but a sham to garner more publicity. His campaign appears to be a RSS-BJP backed strategy to corner the government. People do not want him to hijack their mandate for personal gains. I think it’s high time these self proclaimed gurus realise that you can’t take the common man for a ride anymore! Baba Ramdev should stick to his “Jhoom Jhoom Jhoom Baba” routine on Astha channel. Not everyone can be Anna Hazare . . .

5 comments:

  1. Rakesh Pai4:02 PM

    I think you have really hit the nail on the head. Ramdeo needs to understand that not all Indians are as stupid as his followers!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Poonam Gandhi10:16 PM

    I absolutely agree...a thumbs up to ur views which echos the views of several rational people who are aware of the likes of baba ramdev types who just jump the bandwagon for selfish motives...ramdev does not even come anywhere near the shadow of Anna Hazare.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous10:21 PM

    You mean earning Rs.1000 crore is sin ! Baba Ramdeo is already popular in his yogasan business and does not need publicity further. Secondly, he is not a Chalu Baba like SatyaSaibaba, Anirudhha Baba etc., who mesmarise people and fool them to follow them. Baba Ramdeo has rather chosen a national issue like black money and trying to generate public opinion on it. What's wrong with that ? It is easy to seat in A.C. and comment rather than participate in a social cause

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ramdev baba should just Jhoom "BARABAR" jhoom - You're absolutely right and I totally agree with you that Anna Hazare is a social activist - and there's proof for it that he seriously is interested in social reform. As far as Ramdev "Jhoom" baba is concerned, he needs a powerful and the right back up - else he will be lost and the more than anything the purpose of the whole thing will be lost - the media plays it smart to divert attention of the "aam" janta like me & u - to distract from the core purpose of such "political reform" initiatives

    ReplyDelete
  5. Update:
    ..... While Anna Hazare's crusade against corruption and the fight to get the Jan Lokpal Bill passed had the whole country rallying behind him, Baba Ramdev's fast was welcomed by both harsh criticisms as well as wide support of his followers.....

    Read more on: http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Anna_Hazare_Vs_Baba_Ramdev-nid-84577.html?utm_source=Subscriber&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Weekend%20Newsletter

    ReplyDelete

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