Opinion Fast approaching fast fatigue

Then there’s the iron-willed Irom Sharmila,on a fast for over ten years now demanding the government withdraw the Armed Forces Act from Manipur. An iconic figure in the north-east,her fast is perhaps the longest political protest of its kind in history in any part of the world. She has not eaten anything or drunk a single drop of water since November,2000. She is been forcibly kept alive in an Imphal hospital room. For all those years,no one from mainstream political parties or the Centre has paid her much attention. Finally,in Mumbai,we have the rather incongruous sight of journalists who report on fasts,going on one themselves,to demand action against the killing of one of their colleagues. No one’s paying them much attention either.

What it does signify is that fasting as a political weapon is back in fashion after many decades of,well,abstinence. Just as times have changed,so too has the act and its potency. Over the past century,periodic political fasts had lost the initial Gandhian feature of being directed inward,and ceased to be a spiritual dialogue. Instead,the hunger strike became the weapon of last resort,to be used when all else had failed. And,in today’s context,tragically,they have come to represent the end of the possibility of dialogue. The Lokpal bill meetings are now reduced to farce; the might of the state will eventually prevail. Instead,what we have is the emergence of a moral dilemma,both for participants and for the government the fast is directed against. In attempting to undermine the political resolve of the state,the fast has instead raised moral issues that are more ambiguous to resolve and even debate.

In a parliamentary democracy governed by a federal system,the question of whether civil society and yoga gurus are entitled to determine serious constitutional issues that circumvent the natural process of law-making and even Parliament is entering a very grey,very debatable area. The “tyranny of the unelected” may be going a bit overboard — but the key issue is that the credibility of the political classes and the government itself has fallen to a new low,hence such acts of fasting for a cause acquire a greater legitimacy than they normally would.

On the other hand,by reducing mass action to solitary actions of self-denial,the hunger strike does seem incompatible with mass,democratic politics. When Ramdev boasts that 90 per cent of India is behind his crusade,it makes a mockery of his purpose,considering the fact that apart from his concerns about black money — ones that a majority of citizens would share — nearly all his other demands can be dismissed as illogical,impractical and unconstitutional.

A fast unto death is easily the most potent weapon of peaceful protest devised by man,and yet constitutes a very opaque area of politics. No one,certainly not any government,would want to be seen as being responsible for the death of an individual,yet,in many cases,it is essentially a form of blackmail. However,if the demands are legitimate,as is Anna’s crusade against corruption — shorn of the issue of the Lokpal’s jurisdiction — it becomes even more contentious. And more so when the government in question is presiding over what looks like the biggest loot of public money since the East India Company set up shop in Calcutta. That poses another dangerous dilemma for the crusaders,as well as those who choose to follow them: the danger of an anti-corruption movement turning into an anti-government movement,an entirely different political ball game.

During Mahatma Gandhi’s many fasts,Dr Ambedkar,the father of our Constitution,reportedly said that he considered Gandhi’s use of this method/weapon unreasonable but because of his stature and the need of the hour,he went along. After the Ramdev fiasco,it is becoming clear that fasts have lost their high moral standing and even diluted much of what Anna Hazare is attempting to achieve. Tushar Gandhi,the great-grandson of the original fast master,has said that Hazare and Ramdev were poor imitators. “These are not Gandhian fasts,they are finger-pointing exercises,” was his verdict.

That may contain some element of truth but what he fails to recognise is that there is a new elephant in the room: live,24/7,TV news. Knowing your every gesture and word is going out live to a national audience adds immeasurably to their immediacy and power. Hundreds of ordinary citizens being interviewed,live,on being harassed for bribes at every level of existence cannot but attract sympathy,however debatable the method. That,however,was before Ramdev decided to join the fast bandwagon and diluted the campaign. It could prove the game-changer.

Anna Hazare,having failed to convince the government representatives on the legitimacy of his demands,has now threatened another fast to protest. It will also be an occasion to assess whether there is such a thing as fast-fatigue. Gandhi’s fasts always carried an element of self-examination. Self examination is quite removed from self-denial.