I\u2019ve been up since 4am, woken by hearing Arundhati Roy interviewed on the BBC world service \u2013 they seemed to cut her critique of Anna\u2019s failure to critique corporate roots of corruption \u2013 & connivance of the media in promoting him \u2013 rather short!<\/p>\n
Opinions differ wildly about Anna\u2019s integrity. Like her, I see him as authoritarian & narrow-minded. While he\u2019s bringing into much-needed focus the enormity of corruption, he\u2019s focusing on the main bribe-takers \u2013 i.e. the politicians \u2013 rather than the main bribe-givers \u2013 the corporations and banks, and is as rigidly insisting on rapid implementation of his own deeply flawed & authoritarian version of the Lokpal bill as the govt\u2019s pushing its own ludicrously flawed version. Rapid implementation can be extremely dangerous if it sets up a flawed structure that will \u201ctake over the government\u201d with even less accountability.<\/p>\n
What we see in the Anna phenomenon is a reduction of Gandhi\u2019s fasting technique to a ridiculous extreme, superbly manipulated by the media. I can\u2019t agree that the essence of Gandhi was in this fasting trick though, or that a public threat to fast to death is necessarily \u201cviolent violence\u201d. It can be sometimes I\u2019d say \u201cnon-violent violence\u201d. E.g. when he used it in West Bengal, when he did actually succeed in stopping massive-scale Hindu-Muslim violence through a fast-to-death that came extremely near completion, I\u2019d say this was in a sense a homeopathic use of violence against one\u2019s body to stop massive outer violence. Yes there was a manipulation of public opinion, but in the sense of exercising a \u201ccorrect control\u201d, bringing a mood of extreme public violence under control.<\/p>\n
Understanding the difference between what Gandhi did & what Anna\u2019s doing is important & instructive. Arundhati\u2019s recent article is the first time she has used \u201cGandhian\u201d in a positive sense, to make clear the difference between the two.
\nBut the idea that Gandhi was manipulative, and did become an adept user of media-power, is also part of why Arundhati dislikes Gandhi.<\/p>\n
On the use of public fasting, do see the Lepchas. Their fast, which has gone on in relay for 4 years, has made very little impact, probably because they are so remote, in northern Sikkim, and as Buddhists, seen as very marginal in India \u2013 unlike Anna, who taps into the mainstream Hindu aesthetic. Also marginalised because the vested interests in big dams by construction, energy & mining companies are so extreme \u2013 at the centre of the whole issue of \u201cecocide\u201d that Anna\u2019s not addressing at all.<\/p>\n
This video [& article], better than any other I\u2019ve seen, reveals the full horrendousness of what is actually happening to all the rivers coming down from the Himalayas.<\/p>\n
www.hindu.com\/fline\/fl2512\/<\/a>stories\/20080620251209500.htm<\/a> In West India, the Ganga & Yamuna descending from the glaciers have become or are becoming rivers no more, but a series of tubes chiselled through rock, leaving devastating waste and decaying ecosystems. In northeast India, 300 new big dams are being constructed on Brahmaputra tributaries in Arunachal alone \u2013 mostly already under construction to sabotage widespread protests. The Teesta is the major river in Sikkim, running north-south. This video shows the one big dam already completed with appalling impacts \u2013 27 more are planned\/under construction. It shows the Lepchas fast, and I\u2019d say it\u2019s an appropriate use of fasting, and deserves far more publicity.<\/p>\n When I tuned into the BBC world service just now at 3.45am just as Arundhati was being interviewed on Anna. What she said opened my eyes more to the heinous nature of the Anna charade. My brother had questioned \u201cwhat does she mean comparing Anna with the Maoists as trying to overthrow the government?\u201d I\u2019d replied that partly, it\u2019s because he\u2019s being used by the BJP to overthrow the Congress leadership of the present government. This answer\u2019s inadequate, partly because he\u2019s made a public display of humiliating BJP politicians whenever they come to support him (though this doesn\u2019t stop them coming).<\/p>\n She spelt out this aspect more precisely \u2013 he\u2019s attacking the government full-on \u2013 but not the corporations or banks at all! Attacking the bribe-takers \u2013 among whom politicians are pre-eminent! But not the bribe-givers: every \u201cAAM ADMI\u201d [ordinary man] in India is a bribe-giver by definition \u2013 just to get routine bureaucratic work done, one has to give a bribe, so his solution is to focus on penalising the bribe-takers rather than the bribe-givers.<\/p>\n However the main bribe-givers are in effect, structurally, the corporations and banks \u2013 sometimes (with the latter) doing this illegally in massive bribes, but also doing this in \u201clegal\u201d ways, through revolving doors, corporate \u201clargesse\u201d and use of banking power. By not saying a word about the corruption stemming from the big companies, the World Bank & other banks (who also largely control the media) \u2013 it becomes clear who his real backers are, & why the media are highlighting him so assiduously.<\/p>\n In this sense, he\u2019s truly attacking the role of government, even more than the Maoists do, but in the same way that Naomi Klein outlines in \u201cShock Doctrine\u201d. In other words, what he\u2019s really promoting seems to be the corporate state & a privatizing of government.<\/p>\n I\u2019m examining these aspects more closely from now on. Attaching a document I\u2019ve just made, highlighting statements by the 2 Anna-supporters I personally respect most, but also the confusion over details that Anna is promoting (highlighted by Arundhati on the BBC) at the same time as demanding an immediate implementation of the Lokpal bill. It\u2019s interesting in this light that videos I\u2019m looking at of Anna don\u2019t seem to translate him\u2026\u2026.. The Tehelka articles by Shoma are very revealing*, but I don\u2019t agree with her final comments that Anna himself has complete integrity or that his intransigence on changing his own version is only a slight fault\u2026.<\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bqKTIhs4E_Y<\/a><\/p>\n