The big humdrum in the country caused by this can't ignore, dhoti-kurta-and-nehru-topi clad phenomenon of 73.. has clearly taken over the mind space (& therefore the news space) of an average Indian citizen and how..
Almost everything about Anna works for him.. a non-agenda person, the gandhi-giri tactic or strategy (whatever you wanna call it) .. his forthrightness, his jasba, his desh prem... and well.. his campaign that parallels the do or die.. you do it or i die that is!
Is that enough to be shit scared of, if I were the govt.? Yes, not of the certain Hazare but the mobs he has created and that are out on the streets, esply Dilli, uff! Darn it! But they have spent millions of INR on Rahul Gandhi till date to make a small scale phenomenon out of him.. but people still don't care a shit for him! Maybe they should have added the Nehru topi. Yet this old man's sort-of-satyagraha is costing them! And since they have never really enjoyed the perks of such-a-huge popularity themselves, they just don't know how to handle it..
And what if I were the Indian aam-aadmi? Well, I have suddenly found the perfect reason for coming out with my suppressed desh-bhakt gene in me! You see our struggle for independence was very recent.. and we have many a times, throughout our years of education, wondered about the historic crusade, yet have never had a chance to openly speak about it, nor a reason to. I watch every movie made on Bhagat Singh and shed tears each time Rajguru embraces death! And feel that if I were there in that time and era.. I would have... ... ... And suddenly, one fine morning, people are marching the streets again! I am damn curious to begin with, I switch on the news, every news anchor is crying his lungs out...confused, rubbing my eyes, I wonder why this man wants to die? another daharna??...why?...Oh the issue is closer home... he asks me if i have paid any bribe recently? OF COURSE I HAVE! That's that. I, the aam-aadmi, have found my reason, my icon! Annaji is yester-years' Gandhiji! Must have been friends with him! One died for the country, and the other is wanting to. A freedom fighter is born again! The cool desh-bhakt of today! With the Sarfaroshi ki tamanna.. tune humming inside my head.. I go out and gladly join that march! After all, he's fighting to make MY rusted-with-corruption life-in-the-country better! How can I stay out of it anyway?
But this is not why I am writing this blog for! I don't support the Govt's decision to detain Anna nor the make-believe act of - Oh! Rahul Gandhi's heart beats for the nation and sought Anna's release... the PR strategy! Forget it! I am not falling for it!
Nor I mean to be over-ridden by the Gandhi-giri phenomenon. But on that, I shall reserve my opinion for later.
I write for .. Apart From Anna..
I write for a certain woman, who till yesterday morning, was working on her laptop, just like I am doing at the moment.. concerned about her country...working hard to protect its working, in her own lil' way, within her own lil' strength.. and who was shot dead before afternoon!
Shehla Masood.
An RTI activist. While the whole country is bustling at the moment to walk in the footsteps of Anna.. she is the woman whom I might have wanted to follow. Kinda my icon. I knew nothing about her but nevertheless, would stood for what she stood for...to bring out the truth and untiringly so. Unfortunately, I noticed her only after the news of her death.
I was first puzzled, rather shocked. They have begun shooting Anna's campaigners? NO, like Anna, she never made it there in the first place. Oh! Apparently she was already under threat for life... Oh...
But still, it doesn't fit.
Puzzled still the next morning, I tried imagining her, rewind to what she would have been like, alive and throbbing.. and I imagine this kurti & denim clad young woman, working away furiously at a laptop, saving files of RTIs replies, writing to the police for protection... dipping a piece of roti in her chai alongside and hurrying it all up to make it to the Anna campaign on time..
And a few hours later, Shot dead.
It takes a few minutes before I can think or write anything else.
News articles say - five teams to investigate this murder (or death-made-sound-important bec its an RTI activist) but no more leads yet and the news channel don't have too much time to delve into it for Annaji is keeping them busy still. I don't blame them. Shehla's muder case hasn't developed any further yet. There IS nothing new to report about it.
I checked her out on google. It has some pics of this simple looking girl, campaigning for various issues. Linkedin tells me she was an event manager to begin with. Someone who did and made a living out of similar stuff that a lot of my friends do. I wonder when did this young thing grow in her heart, the need to benefit more than one life, that was her own.
I checked her out on facebook. Already there are tribute pages up...and miss u messages. But the real person, is really gone. And in some way, I feel a void.
A void of a young, active life. Someone who chose to make it her business to fight for the truth. To work for her country. To a point of fault, as it now seems. For someone was scared enough, to want to end it. Just like our govt. at the moment.
I wonder then, for one, what must be running on the minds of our powers that be. If only they could smash this Anna movement? Just like someone did smash the life out of Masood..?
For two, I wonder.. what did Shehla Masood get wrong in the whole deal anyway? What really did cost her, her life?
Is Anna untouchable in that sense today, just because he has become the public himself? And on the other hand, Shehla got killed because she sought for the same integrity, but as an individual? Because Shehla did not wait for an Anna movement to become a follower? Because she behaved like an empowered citizen of the country to begin with? That she was able to realize, much before most of us did, that people's rights are important and if they are compromised, then someday one must stand up to fight for them? And that a country NEVER has the option of going to dogs really? Because it isn't made up some statistical numbers but real people? And the way to go, is always way ahead. So if the systems rusts or rots, it's got be cleaned up. Because Shehla decided to take up that difficult task? Did she not have that right as an individual and as a citizen of this country? I want to know, if this was why Shehla was shot dead.
They say RIP for a dead soul. I won't. I'd rather these questions burn...and hot.
