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An open letter to our Prime Minister


Dear Honourable Prime Minister,
Firstly, even as I type these words and address you as our Honourable Prime Minister, there is a conflict of thought or must I say confusion in all four of the words that I have used. Neither are you ‘dear’ to me, neither do I have full conviction in the usage of the term ‘honourable’, neither do I believe you are at your ‘prime’ and finally, neither do I believe you have been ‘minister’ing anyone.  I use the words because I have no choice. Whether I like it or not you are the Prime Minister, even if you have been appointed via the back doors and for not having won a Lok Sabha seat or for not receiving the popular vote, protocol demands it and so be it.
Having said all this, I am not mocking at all your credentials. I still believe you are a great Economist and as an Economist is what you should have always remained as. The country has undoubtedly benefitted prodigiously with the vision you had two decades ago. Today, I cannot say the same thing. You are termed to be popular amongst other leaders. This is certainly not as important as being popular amongst your own people and more substantially not as important as being a ‘leader’ amongst your own people. I must hastily clarify that I do not see you as ‘dishonourable’ per say. I still believe you are a man of integrity and honour who is leading a pack of dishonourable wolves and naturally, dishonour like a surging wave always rises to the top, all the way above your crest, to the crown, where ultimate dishonour firmly resides. And the icing to the iceberg of dishonour has been your ‘deemed’ approval to the proceedings a night ago.
India has relived Tiananmen at Ramlila a night ago, a pro democracy movement that too ended on the 4th of June in 1989. New Delhi, eerily reminded me of the great Forbidden City and Ramlila grounds that of the Tiananmen gate to the Imperial palace. Your Government must bear moral responsibility for it’s atrocious actions against peaceful demonstrators. More than anyone, you and your ‘leader’ must do so. It is irrelevant who was staging the peaceful demonstrations for a just cause, anybody has the right to do so, even if it is a saffron clad yogi or a pseudo intellect or an intellect or grazing cattle or monkeys swinging on trees. The fact of the matter is nobody at Ramlila had any intent of being in violation of section 144 or for being in unlawful assembly. It was your government that has deprived us the freedom of assembly or association, a civil liberty that has been snatched in a rather tyrannical fashion when there were no apprehensions of threat or danger.
The action taken by your Government a few hours back was swift and calculated and it now puts your Government completely at risk of contesting a losing election. This you have successfully done so at the expense of snatching away the basic rights of the civil society, but you cannot snatch away our right to vote. It had taken considerable time on your Government’s part to take any action against a corrupt Raja or Kalmadi, but how swift were you in preying on harmless citizens like a swooping vulture? And how is it that this Baba is suddenly perceived to be a threat when your Ministers were seen prostrating before him when he arrived in New Delhi? For your Government, this Baba is the black sheep albeit he is not the one who is carrying his three bags full, your Ministry is and provenly so.
The silver lining I see to the despicable and aggressive actions have been the unification of the split camps of both Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev. The government should now be prepared to deal with a force, which is likely to bring it to its knees (and I sincerely hope it does). To hear one from your party call Ramdev a ‘fraud’ is asinine to say the least and coming from the mouth of one who had addressed Osama as Osama’ji’ is ludicrous. It highlights two things very clearly. One is, your party has created it’s own definition for ‘fraud’, ‘corruption’, ‘megalomania’ and so forth (it is of course very different to public perception). Second, your party respects terrorists but treats harmless citizens who have probably never heard a gun shot in their lives scurry like headless chicken.
Do not think that like all events that were meant to be significant and have passed into insignificance, so will this. This event will be long remembered. I had once written that “ All roads in India lead to Rome”, well, it appears I was slightly off the mark. All roads in India still lead to Rome but now after a detour through Beijing.
Warm Regards from a harmless citizen who has the right to demonstrate in collective assembly.

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