Who’s afraid of Baba Ramdev? UPA and the PM

The popular yoga teacher, Baba Ramdev, does not represent any constituency, not even of those people who attend his yoga classes. He experiments with home-made recipes and thinks that much of what he says in criticism of contemporary lifestyle makes sense. But even his ardent followers don’t go along with him when he talks politics, expresses a desire to float a party, and announces that he will select honest candidates to fight elections and go to parliament.

The common Indian, the aam aadmi, takes Baba Ramdev, and many of his ilk, with more than the proverbial pinch of salt when it comes to issues of politics. In the mind of the ordinary Indian, it is absolutely clear that religious folk, especially those who have renounced the world and taken to saffron robes, have no business to interfere in worldly matters. There is not even an iota of doubt in the minds of the people in the division of functions.

Therefore, it comes as more than a surprise when the UPA government bends over backwards to mollify and pacify the agit-prop proclamations of the likes of Baba Ramdev. Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s government surrendered in the same spineless fashion to the fast of social activist and Gandhian Anna Hazare and his so-called civil society agitators, who now appear to be professional protestors, not very different from those that political parties hire time and again.

Singh writes to Ramdev not to go on fast and asks economic think-tanks to assess the extent of black money while cabinet ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Kapil Sibal (human resources development), Pawan Bansal (parliamentary affairs) and Subodh Kant Sahay (food processing and horticulture) go and meet this man of robes who represents no one.

The only inference to be drawn from this is that this UPA government and its prime minister are afraid, really afraid, of Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev and civil society. They are not afraid of the political opposition. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the supposedly main opposition party, looks like it is in shambles.

The leaders of the party are content in expressing their support to Hazare and to Ramdev, raising doubts in the minds of the people whether Hazare and Ramdev are proxy representatives of the defunct political opposition. The Communist Party India-Marxist (CPI-M) and its Left Front partners are licking the wounds of their electoral defeat while the other regional parties are busy with their own foibles and troubles. It looks like that the government is keen to engage with some kind of an opposition, even if it is a shadow opposition like that of the self-appointed civil society guardians of the polity.

Unfortunately, and in a way predictable, the government seems to believe that it is being responsive to the demands of the polity and that it is only too willing to fight corruption and the concomitant black money issue. The Congress and other UPA leaders believe that they are being pro-active and positive, and notching up some political brownie points. This is a dangerous illusion because the government is joining hands with unrepresentative individuals – Hazare and Ramdev are as unrepresentative as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on the one hand, and the Jamiat ul-Ulema-e-Hind and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board  on the other hand, are unrepresentative of their respective communities.

The UPA government and the Congress party are literally undermining the political sphere under the false belief that this is the best way of marginalising the elected opposition parties in parliament and in state assemblies.

The Congress and UPA seem to feel that it is playing a smart game by dealing with the civil society voices because it is easier to lead them by the nose, and at the same appear to be addressing the issues that pose a challenge to the country. It may believe in this gambit but it does not serve the interests of the country.

There is a need to get back to Parliament and discuss issues that are of national concern. If Hazare and Ramdev want to speak up for the people, they must find their way into Parliament. Until then, Singh and his colleagues will be betraying the people’s mandate, howsoever qualified, that they got in the May 2009 Lok Sabha elections.