A GANDHIAN ANNA SAYS " IF NOTHING WORKS SLAP"

Gandhian Anna says if nothing works, slap, whereas Gandhi proposed to offer his other cheek when confronted with violence. The statement came after he watched a Bollywood movie, and has justified people accusing the overt-Gandhian of being an extremist.


People who had always maintained that Bollywood Masala movies have been radicalising the minds, here is something that will justify them. After watching the screening of a Bollywood movie on corruption, ‘Gali gali choir hai’, pseudo-Gandhian and anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare expressed his heart out. According to newspaper reports, Hazare told the reporters that slapping a person when your power of tolerance of corruption runs out is justified. "When a man's power of tolerance runs out, then whoever is in front of you, if a slap is given, then the brain is put back in place. That is the only road open now,” reported The Times of India.



This is for the second time that Hazare has revealed his faith in physical rather than Gandhian ways of dealing with issues. Earlier he had approved of the slapping of Union Minister Sharad Pawar by a Delhi man though he had later condemned the attack but not before asking ‘only one-slap’. The former army driver psyche has always been doubted and it is generally believed that inside him is an extremist who dons the Gandhian cap to pull crowds. A special screening of the move was held in Hazare’s hometown Ralegan Siddhi in the presence of the whole film crew.


The anti-corruption movement that started with an 11-day fast by little known activist Anna Hazare in August last year, drew thousands of people with Hazare becoming a household name across the country. But five months down the line, people have started to get annoyed at even the mention of the Hazare movement and his team. Middle-class people had recognised with the movement the most, as they are worst hit by graft issues but have now lost hope that corruption would be tackled in the country.


Posing as a Gandhian but doing or proposing contrary to the actions of Gandhi seems to have been a major cause why people have started to distance themselves from his agenda, well-intioned as it may be. While Gandhi had proposed to offer another cheek, if somebody slapped you once on the cheek, Hazare goes miles ahead and proposes to slap if your tolerance runs out. In a perfect case of getting fed up with his utterances, black-mailing and the programmes, only a few thousand people turned up at his protest demonstration in Mumbai last year in the last week of December. He was even forced to call off the protest before schedule. The Jan Lokpal Bill that he along with his team has demanded all through is still to be passed by the Parliament.
All the brouhaha created for months in the public platforms, TV channels and newspapers about the bill and the anti-corruption movement seems to have washed down the drain. This has only been reduced to a part of the memory now.