The Rise of Alter Leaders

In a time where the govt. and the opposition has been miraculously and consistently able to rape India of whatever image of honesty it had, a new hope has risen for the citizens, one which they have latched on to with full gusto and the grip is only tightening.

The recent turn of events (Anna Hazare and Ramdev) have been quite interesting, to say the least. While our govt. leaders were busy covering up the mess from the CWG and 2G scam, a tsunami of public awakening hit them, this was only imminent but its not expected for our leaders to have a disaster plan in place before hand, so over night a no-one called Anna Hazare became the new synonym for Gandhianism, literally. But our govt. did what it best does, giving false hope so that they can continue molesting the tax payers while they continue to make an example out of India's GDP growth, which by the way is more to with the people than the govt. To digress here for a minute, I wonder why the govt. is so boisterous about about India's growth because all they did was take the power from their hands and give them over to the people of India (de-licensing).

To give the govt. some credit, they did learn a lesson from the Anna Hazare episode and played a a clever stroke in preempting another uproar in the shape of Baba Ramdev, which was only to be louder, given his eloquence and followership. But this too is coming off as a political sham (which it is but was not ought to shown) and not a 'legal' route piggy backing on Supreme Court's order.

But this is just the drama, the plot of the story is - corrupt govt., ineffective PM, doubtful and shady opposition (who have their own ghosts from past) and frustrated citizens. With the grim picture, let's be honest there is not much of an option for the people during elections. A choice between a ditch and a drain, on one hand is a fundamentalist party with a lustrous leader in the past but no bench strength and on the other hand a pseudo monarch party with lots to look forward to but also the one which has consistently managed to be of questionable integrity for almost 35 years now.

So who is the knight in the shining armor for the people, practically anyone who is willing to fast for them and has enough follower-ship to have media's attention. They are neo-leader of India who have taken the govt. by their throats and they are now visibly choking and panting. But, its not just them, its also the corporate leaders like Narayanmurthy and Ratan Tata who have won people's confidence (with a few blots) by doing what they do and giving what is needed, not money, but hope, a hope that a decent man can continue bringing bred to his home without having to rob some one.

These alter-leaders, like the alter-ego, have been always there but have recently started rising from slumber. Will the rise be of any avail ? Will any good come out of it ? Will it be squashed by the conniving bastards at the helm ? Or is this just rise of a new face of corruption and abuse of public trust ? This remains to be seen, but the signs look promising.

"UNITED WE STAND"

"Increadible India", "India Means Business"...etc etc..those were the words echoing everywhere, yes 'were the words'..come this 26/11 and the headlines went topsy turvy, the news flashes now show pictures of despair, grim faces have replced the effervescent smiles. I won't go into the details and numbers of terrorrist attacks, nor dive into history of terror attacks we have endured, but the sheer audacity of these attacks is apalling to say the least.

I faced this strange paradox myself. I was in Frankfurt at the time of attacks, there whenever the word 'India' came up, it was always associated to growth, properity, oppurtunities, culture, diversity and every thing that made me a proud and confident 'Indian'. But the after the news of attacks broke out, the mood changed rapidly, I couldn't hide my diffidence in admitting that these attacks are not a rarity in India, and that the number of people dieing is actually less than the historical numbers. It happens in such situation, you are a kind of ambassador of your country and answerable for everything happening out there. Hundereds dying and getting injured won't be the headlines that an Indian will be seeing for the first time, more so in the last couple of years. Like the previous (sucessful) attempts by the terrorrists, they managed to hit the nerve centers of India this time as well. Now I'm not at all lauding the terrosists whose inhumane activities bring shame to their country and religion. But there incessant strikes have definitly dented the confidence of any average citizen of India. To be honest, I am afraid to go into a crowded place these days, I do get suspicious about people with beards and carrying black bags, even more so when I see any deserted bag anywhere.

But the effects of these attacks in particular, are far worse physcologically if not physically. We, its so depressing to say, are used of seeing people die, which have seldom directly affected our daily lives. But what we are not used to see (unlike the people of pakistan), is foreigners being targeted (so now the headlines would read for eg, 6 foreigners die amongst the total toll of 101), cricketing nations deffering and canceling their trips, companies (like mine) asking its employees to cancel their trips to Mumbai specifically. But I won't blame them, I mean how many of us would be eager to go to Somalia, Iraq or may be even Pakistan. Well, if you think its exxageration to compare India and Iraq, you better check the numbers India is next to only Iraq when it comes to the number of people dying in terror attacks.

All said and done, what is our responsibility as 'Indians'..?? Ofcourse no one expects us to storm into the hotels and bring the terrorists to their knees. What we as a regular citizen can do is, to 'defeat their purpose' if not them as such. If we unite ourselves and say to the world that, the terrorists may have the gunpower which may take our lives, but they definitly can not kill the spirt of Indians..that however 'organised' their attacks might be, we will not loose our track, we will get up the next morning and head to our offices, schools etc. with even more zeal to 'defeat their purpose' and to take India to greater heights.

I won't be wrong in saying that terrorists are themselves a 'terrified' lot, they fear of India becoming a economic power, they hate India being acknowldged as the epicenter of Southern Asia, and if we could just smile to thier faces and say 'dude no matter what you do, I won't stop untill I have reached my destination (which by the way is not just overtaking US)'.
Here is a middle finger to all the terrorists..!!