Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Calling Team Anna anti-national is to circle back to the same debased discourse they started
Union minister V. Narayanasamy certainly didnt advance his own cause by declaring Team Anna anti-national. It is not anti-national to agitate against the government or to flag public corruption. It is one thing to debate Team Annas shallow certainties and contempt for representative institutions and constitutional offices and entirely another to call it propped up by foreign forces. Narayanasamys blustery accusations are no different from Anna Hazare carving the world into traitors and patriots,or Kiran Bedis crude comedy with the scarf,accusing the government of masks and multiple standards.
Narayanasamy should have resisted the temptation to speak,after that letter. Instead,his remarks gave opposition parties further ammunition,and brought back the same degraded discourse that Team Anna specialises in. Anna Hazare and his comrades are insurgents without ideas their technique is to throw a lot of mud,and declare various individuals compromised,without any attempt to marshal evidence,or to rationally persuade. The government does not have to make its case to Team Anna but it doesnt have to resort to the same childish taunts either.
