Jinx of June....Or is it Ides of March

(Reuters) - Police broke up a mass fast against graft led by India's most famous yoga guru on Sunday, risking more political headaches for the scandal-tainted government.

A senior ruling party figure said the saffron-robed swami Ramdev had used the anti-corruption event to incite people.

Police detained the guru and flew him to Haridwar, the centre of his $40 million-a-year global yoga and Health Empire.

Did the government get itself onto "Riding on the back of a tiger and now finding it hard to get off"?

This is June of  2011......Differing  forces ...people with dissimilar  agenda’s were  at work  crafting  a larger-than-life persona of the yoga  guru  Swami Ramdev....they  include the Manmohan Singh government, the BJP and the RSS and some corporate houses. ....

Communism vs Corruption...Is this all we have?

Ramdev began his high-profile anti-corruption fast with fanfare followed by high drama midnight swoop ...masquerade ...detention and finally deportation. It is a common belief that the government was a propping a  hype around Swami Ramdev to drive a wedge between Mr Anna Hazare and Yoga Guru and kill the Lokpal Bill in the process. ... 





No one seems to comprehend that they may have created a monstrous issue in the bargain ....much beyond their ability to control ...once this dragon of corruption starts breathing fire if they can garner support and imagination of the man of the street...the Proverbial ‘aam admi’.

The politicos and the corporate honchos were simply   playing the familiar game of divide and rule.

If the Gandhian and the yoga exponent come together, the impact could be phenomenally disastrous for the government as both are agitating against corruption and have garnered staggering mass support.

It is more or less clear now that all that mandarins and wise heads wanted was that the Lokpal Bill be buried in quagmire.... 

This is still early days how it will end is anyone’s guess.

Anna Hazare had already publicly warned Ramdev not to be misled by the government’s assurances citing his own experiences with regard to the drafting of the Lokpal Bill.

Today Anna Hazare is forced to make common cause with Swami Ramdev. But how long they will remain together is anyone’s guess....with intrigue and conspiracy  snapping at their heels.....And the Lokpal  Bill still needs coordinated attention.

We are familiar with the Roman emperor Julius Caesar’s.... "Beware the Ides of March,".....It has forever imbued that date with a sense of foreboding .It came as an improbable warning from a soothsayer's to Julius Ceasar.  Again as today intrigue conspiracy and double dealing was rife in the sanctum of Roman power.

In 44 BC, at the celebration of the Lupercalia, Julius Caesar, seated in a gilded chair at the front of the Rostra....He publicly refused the circlet of kingship presented to him by Antony. He already exercised the power of dictator, and many regarded the gesture as nothing more than pretence. Indeed, for Appian the historian, "the difference it made was only of a word since in reality the dictator is exactly like a king."

 A month later, on the Ides of March.....15^th of March....The would-be king was dead......Killed..

Why was Julius Ceasar killed? What happened in Rome that March, 40 and more centuries before Christ was born?

 Already, there were suspicions of conspiracy, floating around in realm of Roman Empire  ...and in retrospect it became clear that it had ominous portents. The night before he died, Caesar had dinner with Lepidus, the Master of Horse. As they drank, the conversation turned to.... as to what was the best sort of death for a man.... Caesar replied....”Ahhh!!That which was sudden and unexpected”. 

Later that night, incongruously his wife Calpurnia dreamed of his body with rivulets of blood flowing..... The priests found the omens to be inauspicious and tried to prevent him from leaving the house. Caesar did  hesitate, but was persuaded by one of the conspirators to attend the senate meeting .

On the Ides of March, the senate was to meet in the Curia Pompeii, an annex of the colonnaded Porticus adjacent to the stage of the Theatre of Pompeii, which had been built by Pompeius  just a decade or so before....

 Caesar was late.

Brutus and Cassius anxiously waited for him to arrive, one of the senators confided that his prayers were with them. "May your plan succeed," relates Plutarch, "but whatever you do, make haste. Everyone is talking about it by now." But there was nothing the conspirators could do except grasp their daggers and prepare to use them on themselves, if need be.

Suetonius relates that a soothsayer had warned Caesar that he was in grave danger, which would not pass until the Ides had ended. Entering the building, Caesar now chided the soothsayer that the day had arrived. "Yes," he replied, "but they have not yet gone."

As Caesar took his seat, the conspirators gathered around him on the pretext of presenting a petition. One then took hold of his purple toga and ripped it away from his neck. A dagger was thrust at Caesar's throat but missed and only wounded him. Another assassin then drove a dagger into his chest as he twisted away from the first assailant. Brutus struck Caesar in the groin a forceful blow...... perhaps given the fact that his mother, Servilia, once had been Caesar's mistress. Hemmed in, "Caesar kept turning," writes Appian, "from one to another of them with furious cries like a wild beast." When he saw that Brutus, too, had drawn his dagger, Plutarch relates that Caesar simply covered his head with his toga and sank to the ground.

 Although Suetonius records that Caesar died "uttering not a word," some, he says, had written that Brutus was reproached in Greek with the words "You, too, my child?"...Et tu Brutus !!

Even after he had fallen, the conspirators continued to strike; at times cutting one another with their own daggers, until them, too, were covered in blood. Slumped against the pedestal of Pompey's statue, Caesar died, having been stabbed twenty-three times. "The pedestal was drenched with blood," writes Plutarch, "so that one might have thought that Pompey himself was presiding over this act of vengeance against his enemy, who lay there at his feet struggling convulsively under so many wounds."

It was to be as Appian foretold: "Caesar had to suffer Caesar's fate."

If the conspirators had killed in the name of Republican libertas, they had acted for the liberty of the Optimates themselves....... There was to be no popular support for the deed.

This is a lesson which should be borne in mind and enshrined in their hearts by Swami Ramdev and Sh Anna Hazare.

Are we caught in the JINX of JUNE.  ...Some of the most disgraceful happenings in the polity of modern India are placed in June.....

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1.The Emergency, June 1975-March 1977: It effectively bestowed on Indira Gandhi the power to rule by decree, suspending elections as well as civil liberties, such as the right to free press.

2.Operation Bluestar, June 1984: It was a political disaster and an unprecedented act in Indian history. Its aftermath and the increased tensions led to assaults on the Sikh community in India.

The Emergency of 25th June 1975–21st March 1977 was a 21-month period, when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon advice by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a State of Emergency in India under Article 352 of the Constitution of India, effectively bestowing on her the power to rule by decree, suspending elections and civil liberties. It is one of the most controversial periods in the history of independent India.

It all began with the Allahabad High Court pronouncing its order disqualifying MP post of late Smt Indira Gandhi. In order to save her PM post , she declared emergency . Excerpt Declaration of Emergency In  early1975, the Opposition parties joined by local groups and NGOs staged regular demonstrations in almost all the states of the country protesting against the rising inflation and unchecked corruption in the government. The intensity of protest was increasing day by day. The government failed to pacify them and contain the movement. At the same time, Allahabad High Court, hearing a petition against Indira Gandhi ruled that she had used illegal practices during the election. The Court also ordered her to vacate the seat, immediately. The ruling helped in adding fuel to the ongoing political fire. The agitation and anger of the people amplified. Realizing the consequences, Indira Gandhi, on 26 June, 1975, declared “a state of emergency, due to the turbulent political situation in the country”. Now, the political baton came into the hands of Indira Gandhi, which she used very tactfully. All her political rivals were imprisoned, constitutional rights of the citizens were abrogated, and the press placed under strict censorship. It was reported that the leaders of the Opposition parties were beaten and assaulted in the jail. Taking advantage of the situation, her younger son, Sanjay Gandhi, began to run the country as a dictator. He ordered the removal of slum dwellings, and in an attempt to curb India's growing population, initiated a highly resented program of forced sterilization.  In 1977, Indira Gandhi called for elections .It is not  authenticated but some reports say   that the call for an election was taken after she apprehended a threat of military coup Post Emergency Period In the next elections, Indira Gandhi was completely defeated by the Janata Dal, led by Sh Morarji Desai and Sh Jai Prakash Narayan. Congress managed to win only 153 Lok Sabha seats, as compared to 350 seats it grabbed in the previous Lok Sabha. During the electoral campaign, Janata Dal leaders urged the people to choose between “democracy and dictatorship”. Though the Janata Dal emerged victorious by a huge margin it could not keep the coalition intact for longer. The allies were concentrated more on the self-development. They would fight almost on all the issue and every ally threatened to quit it their interest is not served. The internal strife became evident within months of taking charge. To divert the attention of the people from their failure the Janata Dal ordered to arrest Indira Gandhi. However, the strategy crashed disastrously and gained Indira Gandhi, a great sympathy. Indira Gandhi started giving out speeches and highlighted the wrong policies of the Janata government. In the next elections held in January 1980, Congress returned to power with a landslide majority.  Political experts viewed the victory of the Congress as a result of inefficient and ineffective “Janata Dal”. Operation Blue Star and Her Assassination Two events of the Indian political history that tarnished the image of Indira Gandhi were declaration of emergency in 1975 and launching of Operation Blue Star in Punjab. In September 1981, a Sikh militant group led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale demanded a separate state of Khalistan. They started motivating people in Punjab and organized several outfits to carry out their plans. In June, they entered into the premises of the Golden Temple, Amritsar to take shelter. Indira Gandhi asked Lieutenant General S.K. Sinha, then Vice Chief of Indian Army to prepare a position paper for assault on the Golden Temple. Sinha advised her against any such move suggested to adopt an alternative solution. But Indira Gandhi sticked to her idea and on the night of June 5 the Indian Army stormed the Golden Temple led by Major General Kuldip Singh Brar. The security forces had managed to kill Bhindranwale along with other separatists but a large number of followers and innocent civilians were also killed in the exchange of fire inside the holy shrine. The act was viewed as an unparalleled tragedy in the Indian political history. The impact of the onslaught increased the communal tensions in the country as many Sikhs resigned from the armed and civil administrative office and also returned their government awards. On 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi’s bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, as avengers of the Golden Temple assault, assassinated the Prime Minister at her Safdarjung Road residence.

She had given the nod for Operation Blue Star but late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi later regretted the decision which eventually led to her assassination 25 years ago.

The country's only woman prime minister, who died on October 31, 1984, equally regretted her another controversial decision -- imposition of Emergency -- that had shaken the country, say her close aides.

JINX of JUNE.... Does it stand before us again..............  ?

Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit.". Abbie Hoffman...

 Despite this similarity of spirit, the dichotomy in feedback of social media users towards the leaders of these movements is apparent......

Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev, despite having a common cause have witnessed a completely different reaction, more divided than what is being projected by the popular media. 

Perhaps this polarity  of base may benefit the common cause....But the moot point is that they move in sync  for the cause...Personalities be set aside.

The government on its part reacted in panic   and needs to be criticised for taking a violent and forceful approach to this peaceful revolution........., the crackdown of Delhi Police on Baba Ramdev... "The midnight drama" ...Was this the only action that government had?

Ironically another similarity comes to fore   with this crackdown....It  happened on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square.