Opinion Decisions and indecisions

While the prime minister spoke for more than three minutes during his Independence Day speech on his government’s efforts to tackle the issue,his government and party didn’t have a clue how to wrestle with Anna Hazare. In the span of 48 hours,it made decisions and revisions that a moment reversed (thanks T.S. Eliot). It was nerve-wracking to watch. At no stage did the plot have a logical narrative: first he was allowed to hold a conditional fast,then he was arrested before he began to fast; first,he was detained,then he was imprisoned; first,he was to be released and flown out to a destination unknown,then he refused both kind offers. By Wednesday morning he was allowed to fast again,unconditionally.

On Monday night,we had thought Hazare would reach JP Park on Tuesday morning and be arrested amongst the birds,the bees and the trees. But by the time we had joined him,Tuesday on live TV,he’d already been arrested and detained somewhere in Civil Lines,Delhi. This seesaw stuff was dizzying and extremely exhausting: keeping up with Anna’s followers shouting and dancing as they followed him from Mayur Vihar to Tihar Jail or enjoyed a stopover at Chhatrasal stadium,was hard work. Honestly.

In addition,TV reporters were practising rapid speech therapy and screaming simultaneously as they described his detention and his followers’ march. Your heart beat faster — wish they had been rounded up instead of Hazare or his followers. Hazare’s sudden disappearance from our lives after more than four months was most unsettling although we had replays of him waving from his car and he had thoughtfully left behind a recorded message. Meanwhile,the government and the opposition tried to occupy the void left by his absence on TV by holding lengthy press conferences. P. Chidambaram matched action to words,looking visibly “pained” as he spoke of Hazare’s arrest while Kapil Sibal was uncommonly soft-spoken and smiling through gritted teeth as if to say,“I can do this,I can do this”.

Next up,seriously annoyed-looking BJP leaders,alongside news flashes about Hazare’s whereabouts or thereabouts,and then,at last,some genuine breaking news — Anna at Tihar Jail. When news told us Hazare would be locked up for seven days we stopped the futile exercise,switched channels only to learn a few hours later that the government would release him at 9 pm. Everyone on TV started to celebrate with wild dances and so did we at home because we support the fight against corruption as much as anyone else. But we were stopped in our tracks: for the next four hours we watched Tihar Jail as the “will-he-won’t-he” emerge from within played out. We lost a few kilos in anticipation. By midnight,although you admired his spirit,you wanted to say,“have a heart,old chap and give us a break”.

Which brings us back to the commercial break during KBC and how unusual it was for a TV show to continue for more than half an hour without one.

shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com