Thank you, Tunisia; thank you, Egypt!

I rubbed my eyes a number of times when watching the visuals on TV channels showing four Union Cabinet Ministers (Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.K. Bansal and Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay), with anxiety writ large on their countenances, hurriedly entering the New Delhi Indira Gandhi Airport in the forenoon of June 1.

I myself became a little concerned wondering whether there was something seriously amiss to have dragooned Ministers who normally claim to be too busy to be disturbed so far away from their secure, sound-proof, climate-proof perches out into the wide open spaces at such an inconvenient hour.

And when it was given out that they have rushed to have parleys for as long as two hours at the airport itself with Baba Ramdev who was arriving from Ujjain, my astonishment knew no bounds.

Panic button

How come almighty Ministers could bring themselves to dismount from their high horses and shuffle along the corridors of the airport in such a state of agitation? What has reduced them to this miserable plight of having to wait on someone whom they would not even have deigned to look at, say, a year ago?

Ah, that gives me a clue! Is it possible that the people's revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt sweeping the tyrants off their pedestals, and the news of the stern punishments they are getting, have had the effect of making what T.S.Eliot called “hollow and stuffed men” of our political big shots? The thought of what the tsunami of a roused people can do to dictators who were armed to the teeth and looked unshakeable and invincible barely 10 months ago seems to be keeping in jitters our own rulers thanks to whose arrogance of power the aam aadmi had never felt that he was living in a democracy.

The confabulations of the four Minister-level emissaries with the Baba must have been motivated by another consideration as well: The politicians' dread of numbers. They never feel any compunction brushing aside those whose servants they are if they approach them singly or even in two's or three's.

But a following of lakhs — well, that's something that politicians can never afford to ignore. It is apt to send shivers down their spine, as a possible source of the fragrance of the Egyptian jasmine, remembering the groundswell at the time of the fast of Anna Hazare who did not have a fraction of Baba Ramadev's captive national audience.

Judged from the way the Government has pressed the panic button, it is conceivable that the Intelligence Bureau has sounded a warning about a likely upheaval high on the Richter scale.

That is what explains the Prime Minister's abject personal appeal; the hurly-burly of meetings of Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs; the frenetic fielding of the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes to mollify the Baba; and holding up the blandishment of a committee to unearth black money.

Crony capitalism

Even now it is doubtful whether the politicians and political parties fully realise the people's pent-up anger against them for the loot and plunder coming to light on a daily basis. Enough evidence is surfacing to conclude that politicians and business tycoons have become natural bedfellows.

The rampant crony capitalism has made the people lose their faith in the Government's promises.

On my constitutional the other evening, I overheard some educated youngsters abusing Maoists for going after petty constables and hapless villagers, overlooking the high level crooks and scoundrels who were taking the country down the abyss.

India's rulers must understand that it is not going to be easy for them to dupe the people any more. Nor should they lull themselves into a false sense of security thinking that only dictatorships fertilise jasmine; even a fake democracy equally can, reducing them (to quote Eliot once again) to “Shape without form, shade without colour, paralysed force, gesture without motion.”

COMMENT NOW