If plump ripe birds ready for
roasting can destroy pig fortresses, why can’t Anna Hazare? In a technology
driven world which has been overtaken by the ‘Angry Birds’ revolution, Hazare
must not be left behind and Geek Mentors
Studio is making sure of that. A Noida
based start-up company, the developers of ‘Angry Anna’ made sure that they tap into the Indian gaming youth with this
Anna Hazare based Angry Birds version as an online game, the only difference is
that the pigs protecting the fortresses have been replaced by politicians atop
money towers.
The recent addition to the online
world is only one of the many indicators which reveal how far reaching the
influence of Hazare has been on the youth and more specifically youth that has
easy access to the internet. The anti-corruption drive, initiated by Hazare’s
indefinite hunger strike in April 2011 owed a major part of its success to the
awareness that was spread by Twitter and Facebook activity. However, the
question still remains, how angry has Anna truthfully made the Indian youth? In
as large a country as India, a few thousand people Tweeting online and a few
thousands more joining a monthly procession do not justly account for the lakhs
of others who remain inactive.
Surely, one reads on the front
page of the well-to-do young corporate suit who took a day off without-pay and
joined Hazare on one of his hunger strikes, or sees a group of college students
skipping classes, in white caps marching and waving placards. How
all-encompassing is the reverberation though? The youth joining hands,
literally, and trooping together in candle light vigils have increased such in
numbers, that one cannot help but wonder
if this is not just the latest trend of the generation. When Radhika Tanwar, a
Delhi University student was shot dead by Ram Singh as revenge for an insult,
or when the CBI submitted its report on the closure of the Aarushi Talwar
murder case because of lack of evidence and the time when Binayak Sen was
sentenced to life imprisonment by a Chhattisgarh sessions court; all had a
common factor- a candle light vigil, as did Anna Hazare’s fasts against corruption.
Are these processions therefore truly Samaritan calls to support fellow
citizens or are they simply a civilised enactment of herd
mentality?
The irony with the above can simply
be answered with a word – “busy”. The youth is busy, and they are busy the very
day after they attend a demonstration. It is safe to say that such mass
processions could in reality be highly effective if they are consistent and can
duly be supported and followed up. But a singular, lone march in a month might
not have the desired effects.
The purpose and vision is
rightful, the cause has most definitely gained visibility but the pervasive effects
that Anna Hazare had perhaps expected have yet to be achieved with speed. The
mission had begun with a very bright spark, being covered by news channels, the
internet being abuzz with it, but has this modern-day Gandhi been
able to mobilize his troops to their full potential yet? Only six decades ago,
Gandhi and his team of leaders initiated a nationwide youth struggle that
gained independence for our country; however as is evident, freedom is not
enough. As the late pianist and human rights activist Hephzibah Menuhin once put
it “Freedom means choosing your burden”, our
country seems to have chosen a system that is diseased by corruption. Hazare
and his team, whether purposely or not have been able to affect a percentage of
youth in the country, admittedly. One
would only have to wait and watch however, whether they can essentially change
this free nation’s self-afflicted burden, or will the only towers of
political-dirty money that come crashing down be on high resolution smartphone
touchscreens.
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