“Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today” -  Mahatma Gandhi

There is a lot to understand about the inherent mentality of the Indian at large from a recently issued statement by Former Union Home Secretary G K Pillai.

According to Mr. Pillai, Anna Hazare had a “high moral ground” and that the Lokpal issue was being resolved in the “spirit of democracy”.

Mr. Pillai expressed this statement while drawing comparisons between Mr. Anna Hazare crusade against corruption and Ms. Irom Sharmila 11 year old fast against Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

“It is a question of how you reach out to people. AFSPA is applicable only inJammu and Kashmirand in the northeastern states. Corruption is pricking people everywhere and that’s why Anna Hazare had a high moral ground,” Pillai told IANS Monday.

Shades of step-motherly treatment

It is easy for intellectuals and policy makers like Mr. Pillai to advise activists to reach out to the people across the country.

Yes, corruption is rampant across India whereas the AFSPA is applicable only to J&K and the north-east. Sure, the effects of the draconian acts are felt only in certain parts and not the entire country.

But does this warrant certain sections of the intelligentsia claiming Anna’s crusade against corruption transcends higher grounds because it addresses a pan-Indian issue.

Isn’t this a kind of step-motherly treatment meted out to certain parts of the country? Isn’t this a prime manifestation of the attitude of the administrators in ‘mainland’ which people in  J&K and north-east have taken an issue in a most violent form (and thus providing undue justification for applying acts like AFPSA).

Mr. Pillai’s statement confirms that he truly believes Ms. Sharmila has never attempted to do something on those lines.

In fact, some time ago, she did employ the same tactic Anna tried this time – trying to take her fast to where she could be heard: New Delhi. Like Mr. Hazare, she too was refused and evicted by the tools of administration.

The question that begs answering is exactly where was the media and the ‘India’ that supposedly forms the backbone of Mr. Hazare’s movement when all this was taking place.

We Indians cannot hide behind the oft-repeated lame excuse that all this happened in a faraway land, from where news is difficult to get hold of. This thing happened right in the capital of our nation.

Why then did we not come out in support of Ms. Sharmila as we did for Ms. Hazare. What were we doing when she was been evicted from the site of her fast and told she did not have permission to fast, just like we rushed when the same was being done to Mr. Hazare.

A curse of indifference

The ‘India’ that is now pledging support to Mr. Hazare’s crusade in millions did not even feel a shred of sympathy towards Ms. Sharmila and her cause. The reason: because unlike corruption, whatever she was protesting against did not affect us.

And Media did not feel the need to bother because an obscure woman from an obscure part of the country protesting against some obscure law doesn’t really translate into TRPs.

The truth is, it is not just the intelligentsia and the administration of the country that stand accused of step-motherly treatment towards J&K and the north-east. We Indians as a population must take equal blame for this prime atrocity.

There is no point in us coming out of streets in throes for something most of us do not understand anyway. We need to first shun our double standards and stand up against the atrocities being committed on our fellow countrymen.

We need to abandon the mentality of not-bothered-about-what-does-not-affect-us. Because, what may not harm us today does not necessarily have to be harmless tomorrow.

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