When I logged on this morning I found that my opinion on the Lok Pal Bill and Anna Hazare's fast unto death, and the furious debate over the last few days among the Indian intelligentsia, had already been articulated in my friend Raj Jayaram's blog post -- and that too with a degree of precision that is astonishing, if not scary. With me in Mumbai and him sitting far away in Singapore, without us exchanging a word on this subject, it seemed as though we were both reading each other's thoughts. It wouldn't have worked better if I had hired an amanuensis. And this is really strange because rarely have Raj and I agreed on something so wholeheartedly, in the many interesting debates we've had on many interesting topics. In fact, more often than not, we end up "agreeing to disagree", and switch to less controversial topics of mutual interest.
So, instead of repeating all that here (per my resolve last night to write out a blog post on Saturday morning regarding this whole business), all I will do here, other than point you to Raj's post, is to reproduce some of my own tweets on the subject. Since I have not mastered the craft of extracting relevant tweets from my twitter timeline and pasting them here, I am reproducing them verbatim in plain text, with links to the originals. A couple of facebook status messages also appear, though without links, since my privacy settings would not permit all to view them.
So, instead of repeating all that here (per my resolve last night to write out a blog post on Saturday morning regarding this whole business), all I will do here, other than point you to Raj's post, is to reproduce some of my own tweets on the subject. Since I have not mastered the craft of extracting relevant tweets from my twitter timeline and pasting them here, I am reproducing them verbatim in plain text, with links to the originals. A couple of facebook status messages also appear, though without links, since my privacy settings would not permit all to view them.
Expanded on facebook: It is most heartening to see vindicated the fact that supreme sovereignty in a democratic republic lies with the people, not the parliament or the constitution - these are mechanisms and tools the people set up to enable governance. And they can change. They will change, over time. It is inevitable.
And the last one, on facebook:
Coercion subversion diversion conversion - pick your version. But I am amazed that a 72 y.o. can fast for so long and still be cool. Me? I turn into a beast if I miss breakfast. You rock, Anna!
