Good luck Swami Agnivesh, hope you return from Bigg Boss uncorrupted

Swami Agnivesh is in Bigg Boss’s house. Why? Blame it on Baba Ramdev. Yes, he is the guy who wanted all the black money stashed abroad, brought back to the country before he said ‘kapal bharati’. He also wanted the government to rid the country of all its ills overnight. Normally not a very elegant sight when not dressed in full, he went on to become the rock star among the babas. He raved and ranted with increasing intensity for days as television cameras captured all his moves and beamed those into our living rooms and consciousness. The country, for some confused time, believed he could deliver the impossible. What happened to him on the Ramlila ground subsequently and the way he was found dressed in a woman’s clothing are off the point and tad embarrassing to discuss. But here was a man, perhaps the first among yoga gurus, who understood the potential of the television and took advantage of it to the full. It was a brilliant mix of yoga, public spiritedness, entertainment, technology and what not. After a point he, as some harsh critics would put it, ’lost it’. What they meant probably is he lost sight of his goal. Towards the end, he was unabashedly playing to the gallery and the television cameras. Instant popularity brought by the flashing bulbs does strange things to men. [caption id=“attachment_127085” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Swami Agnivesh feels the inmates are far better than parliamentarians. AFP”] [/caption]There were good lessons in the Ramdev episode, the first being instant popularity is okay, but one must know where to stop; the second is television is a fickle medium – it could demolish you as fast as it creates you. Team Anna, obviously, did not bother much about these. Riding on the reach of the television and the appeal of its leader, Anna Hazare, it went on to become the biggest mass movement of independent India. Rich in its cause and full of good intention, it attracted pan-Indian adulation. But soon we had Arvind Kejriwal’s non-stop daily rant, Kiran Bedi’s distasteful skit act, and actor Om Puri’s diatribe, apparently booze-induced, against politicians. The venerable Anna, too, was soon finding it difficult to resist making quotable quotes for the media consumption every now and then. They have not stopped but the media interest in them has waned. At present there are serious questions on their motive and claim of incorruptibility. After a point, all of them get reduced to playing to the gallery and playing cheap. Popularity, as they say, is a difficult beast to handle. Once it goes to one’s head, one loses all sense of balance. The swift fall follows soon. Now we have Swami Agnivesh, the saffron-clad social activist, getting desperate for some public attention. Surely, after being thrown out of Team Anna for allegedly playing double games and throwing some muck on the team members in retaliation, the Swami needs some platform to rebuild his image. But why Bigg Boss? It is not a nice place for any Swami. The inmates are cantankerous, ill-behaved, at least with each other, and are paid to undercut others by indulging in nasty little games all the time. They fight at the drop of a hat, scream at the slightest provocation and use colourful language which could be unpalatable to someone like Agnivesh who is accustomed to more sanitised ambiance. Bad that screen baddie Shakti Kapoor is out of the house now. Both would have made an interesting pair amid all that the foul-mouthing around. But the Swami is confident. He feels the inmates are far better than parliamentarians. “If you have watched a Parliament session on TV with Lok Sabha members, you will never call the inmates fighter cocks. They are better than parliamentarians, some of whom are charge-sheeted criminals…These kids are better,” he told the media. Swami Agnivesh wants to divert the attention of the inmates from petty matters inside the house to bigger issues of public interest. Best of luck Swamiji but this lot looks incorrigible. Hope you don’t come back polluted. But it is possible that after the stint in the house he would be confident enough to take on Kejriwal – rant for rant, word for word and abuse for abuse. He won’t look meek while facing questions from pompous and aggressive television anchors. He would be a changed man. Probably, what he is looking for is a short-term course in aggression. But is that what he really wants? The answer is a clear no. He wants to manipulate the television to enhance his appeal. You are nobody if you are not on television, social work be damned. “If Baba Ramdev can, why cannot I?” could be his line of thinking. Like we said in the beginning, blame Baba Ramdev for it.