Save "Democracy" !

Fast for a cause-Article 19 of the Indian constitution gives its citizens, the right to freedom of expression and speech, the right to go on a hunger strike as a mode of expressing their dissent over unlawful acts or injustice in the country.

India has witnessed numerous incidents protests via fast for, a purpose, achieving democracy and independence pre independence, to stand against various instances of unruly actions of the government since independence.

Recent developments in the country, needless to mention about the shameful acts, like the looting of public funds and vandalizing the hopes of people, have made the people restless and desperate for a change to see a clean society. This gave the social activists fighting for lokpal bill, a bill that is designed to attack anyone who is guilty of corruption irrespective of their wealth/power and other virtues which make the law disabled to bring them to justice, a chance to put forward their movement into limelight in hope to get the long awaited lokpal bill passed-which one the flip side is a bit over reaching than it is supposed to and also undemocratic in some ways  and loosely flawed  which could be corrected to match and benefit a democratic country like ours. In this scenario to start debates for setting up lokpal bill a fast-unto death-protest was under taken by Shri Anna Hazare during early 2011 which was welcomed with huge reception by the Indian crowd including over the internet. The talks began and ended in despair as the two teams, government & social activists, failed to come to a conclusion over the bill.

Now what Anna Hazare has done unknowingly in this process of protesting is that he has sparked off a trend in the society. Trends which like a medicine can turn harmful when taken without a prescription and even poisonous when in overdoses. Immediately after the talks broke for Lokpal raised into limelight the yoga guru of India, Baba Ramdev and sparked a controversy when he narrated his plans to build an army against the Indian state. Then the infamous fast by Tinku urging the government to give him admission into IITs.

The support to fasts by Anna Hazares and Ramdevs may be attributed largely to the lost hopes of people over the government and partly to the media. The media on the same lines can be blamed for being biased, not many people are even aware of the 10 year old -still ongoing- fast by Irom Sharmila fighting for removal of arms act from Manipur or about the 115 day old fast which ended in death of the protester for saving river Ganga,Swami Nigamananda.

Now what I fear from the most is that this phenomenon of picking up fasts for every desire on mind and expecting positive results in return may actually demean the respect protest via fast has earned till date. Even more than this, the wide range of unrest that is created by these fasts have an impact on the life of a common man. As I quote “a common middle class man may afford losing money from his pocket without his knowledge but cannot tolerate losing his daily bread. Even worse the government may rule out protests like these as attempting to committing suicide as mandated under the Indian Penal Code and cease them permanently which is again undemocratic and leads to unrest .

With continued protests and threats like these which results in building unrest amongst the people ,halt the progress of the nation and destabilize the society and may actually lead to downfall of democracy and state which is totally unnecessary for a country like India. Instead I would recommend the protesters for Lokpal to either build a bill that is feasible and ready to adapt to Indian democracy or to contest in the coming elections and lead a party to change the society in a more democratic manner rather than what is happening now. And for the government I urge them to open their eyes to work efficiently and effectively to curb any further corruption. Overall it is a vicious circle.