Opinion What matters

Not all fasts are effective or even morally correct.

June 26, 2011 03:05 AM IST First published on: Jun 26, 2011 at 03:05 AM IST

Not all fasts are effective or even morally correct. Gandhiji went on a fast when the British announced that there were to be separate electorates for the Untouchables (as they were then called). He opposed the separation of the Untouchables from the Hindus. Dr Ambedkar,who had won this concession,was furious. He knew he was being blackmailed.

Gandhiji won,of course,and there were reserved seats but not separate electorates for the Untouchables. The net result was that the candidates who won in the Reserved Seats had to be those approved by the orthodox Hindus and not those radicals who wanted the emancipation of their fellow Untouchables. It took a further fifty years before the Dalits found their own voice and their own winning party. Dr Ambedkars reputation has grown since then while at least among Dalits,Gandhijis status is questioned.

Anna Hazares threat to fast yet again shows that he has by now dissipated whatever moral authority he had. This is a pity. Having raised the issue,he does not show the patience nor the understanding of the questions he has raised. Corruption is a many-headed hydra and needs more than just one Bill to tackle. Election financing has to be dealt with,as must the myriads of restrictions and permits which the bureaucracy controls which give them scope for corruption. Tax evasion and tax avoidance lead to black money which is another issue as is the problem of overseas accounts. It is no good saying that he would go on a fast unto death if one Bill is not dealt with by August 16.

But what surprises me is that in a nation where millions starve because they cannot get the food they need,people make virtue of the fact that they have the food but will not eat it. Are they not just showing off that they are better off than the starving millions. Why insult the starving?

Typically,women fast as a private religious act often to secure the health of their husbands or children. In many ways,women bear the burden of righting the wrongs suffered by their men. Rare is the man who would go on a fast for his wife. There is no equivalent of karwa chauth for men. Indeed from birth onwards,women in India spend a life in deprivation and hurt. This is why India emerges as one of the worst countries for women to live in.

The gender ratio is appalling and has got worse as India has got more prosperous. There is veritably a full scale holocaust every ten years if you count the number of women not born or killed at birth. Yet no one has gone on fast for this appalling stigma India bears. Indeed,even a modest attempt to right the wrong by passing Womens Reservation Bill is being thwarted daily by the champions of secular Indiathe Great Yadav leaders Mulayam Singh and Lalu Yadav. They have no doubt progressive words to mask their misogyny,but Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are traditional fields of foeticide and malnutrition and neglect of girls. Nothing,I can assure you,will be done by these champions of the OBCs and Muslims to lift a finger in defence of women.

Corruption and the Lokpal Bill are more glamorous than female foeticide. The starvation of children and the poor does not rate a fast from the civil society leaders. The reason is simple. You can always think of corruption as something done by someone else. To admit that female foeticide is a problem may bring it much too close to home. To admit that India has had a development model which has fattened the middle classes (many of them twittering on about Anna Hazare and corruption) is to admit that for sixty years plus,women and the poor have been ignored by the Great Indian Democracy.

In the end,nothing much will change. The leaders will have their moments in the sun and millions of words will be spoken. It is unlikely India will tackle corruption. But in the unlikely case that it does,women will still be killed fifty years from now and no one will fast for them.