Wednesday, August 31, 2011

A piece that shows up Hazare

for what he is! A sanctimonious man who thinks he know what everybody else needs. And, please he is no Gandhi! Sali Tripathi in his piece clearly demonstrates how the people who have followed him made a mistake. 

Some excerpts.

The litany of complaints against voting is familiar. The presence of criminals on ballot paper, the powerlessness of a single vote, the persistence of vote banks, the power of money. But if all parties seem alike, nothing stops the citizen from canvassing for individuals, joining or forming parties, and even standing for elections, as an independent, if necessary. Gandhi was clear: be the change you wish to be. 

 That is hard work; requiring more effort than participating in candle vigils or wearing Gandhi caps. Politicians thumping desks and civil society thumping chests don’t make a revolution. Waiting for a hero is not the way. When Andrea lamented to Galileo in Bertolt Brecht’s eponymous play that there were no heroes, Galileo said: pity the nation in need of a hero.

And pity, too, the nation that can’t tell apart a real hero from a false one.

 

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