Anna anna everywhere

There are several sights of this sort that have been plaguing my television screen in the last 10 years or so. Patriotic individuals, especially young and impressionable university students playing truant to classes and leading protest marches, reminded me of images I had so often seen in movies and thought were cliched. It's not that I was, or am not, patriotic.

I'm a skeptic, but aren't we all? If you take one quick look at the content of any leading newspaper daily or rummage through television channels, you'll still see a hint of skepticism, despite the magnanimity that the Anna Hazare protest has gained.

I took my time to form an opinion about the issue. Protests and hunger strikes are not something I'm new to. Being a student of a politically volatile college, I was exposed and hence, immunised to any political drama. I knew that sitting through a couple of episodes of it would prove to be futile, because it was teenage hot-bloodedness that was waiting to vent out its accumulated anger on an issue that was redundant and meaningless to begin with. This is why I treated any protest as an anti-colonial hangover. That we need to find a way to go down into the musty pages of history, and shall grab onto any issue that comes by, like a drowning man would to a straw of hay. The Lokpal bill issue, however, has passed that nascent stage. It is now an issue that has been recognised as one of national importance.

And who giveth the importance it has managed to gain? The opposition party. Of course! They'd bring up any issue to bring down the government that has already been stuttering and shuddering. It is funny to see how a party that is fighting within itself and crumbling with every passing day, is raising fingers to point out the flaws of the ruling party. The BJP is trying a rare feat: to rise from the ashes. We'll see where that goes...

The ruling party's truth will be out in the open any day now. The answer to why it's been so defensive about its corrupt ministers lies in the Indo-Italian home itself. It's an open secret, and that man who, being an ordinary citizen, is let off without security frisking at airports like all VVIPs is waiting to be revealed in the open as the one who's behind all the political drama that's been rocking our country for so long. The media houses fear being wiped out and will not speak about he-who-must-not-be-named. The opposition is waiting for the drama to reach a climax.

And lo and behold, Rahul questions the arrest of Anna Hazare. Bad timing or truth-must-prevail? Time will tell.