Sharjeel Imam to Rakesh Tikait to wrestlers: Why 'manufacturers' of movements fail

Why do some mass movements make a Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Vladimir Lenin, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela or Aung San Suu Kyi, while some others produce passing, swiftly forgotten or discredited spectres? Why do some street protests produce leaders who make a political impact like Jayprakash Narayan, Mamata Banerjee or Arvind Kejriwal, while others hog screen time, create flashes and disappear? These questions are moot at a time when a fresh wave of street politics is rolling out, chiefly on three or four wrestlers’ allegation that BJP leader and Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has sexually harassed hundreds of athletes. But so far, the accounts of the accusers do not add up. They had alleged that Brij Bhushan molested them at overseas sports events. An inquiry committee set up by the sports ministry with India’s boxing superstar Mary Kom heading it found that Brij Bhushan had not been in either Turkey or Mongolia where the wrestlers said he sexually harassed the athletes. None of the other girls have come forward. It is now coming to light that the so-called minor athlete, based on whose charge Brij Bhushan has been booked under POCSO, has two birth certificates two years apart! She may not have been a minor at the time of the alleged incident and the second certificate could have been forged just to put POCSO charges on him. And that could be the first and most important reason why wrestler protesters Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat or Sakshi Malik may never become an enduring icon or a successful political leader, an ambition which many say is driving them to go to great lengths to keep the street show alive and not trust even the courts. It is the absence of a genuine cause. Manufactured movements seldom produce great leaders. Gandhi, whether we agree with his entire politics or not, became an important face of the non-violent Indian freedom movement. Mandela, the face of resistance against South African apartheid. Kejriwal formed a successful political startup and went on to become a two-term chief minister by spearheading a movement against corruption under the Congress, a malice the public had got fed up with. Banerjee dislodged the iron rule and arrogance of the CPM, irrespective of the disastrous path she thereafter put Bengal on. Each of them championed a genuine cause, not movements manufactured for the political benefit of a few. But the leaders of the anti-CAA violence and Shaheen Bagh pretence — Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Safoora Zargar — are now only recalled as inciters of riots and puppets doing the bidding for Islamists and other anti-India powers. From JNU rabble-rouser Kanhaiya Kumar to Gujarat disrupter Jignesh Mewani and Hardik Patel have remained political minnows. The anti-CAA stir was not for a just cause. In fact, it opposed relief to minorities persecuted in Muslim-majority Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The JNU protesters lionised terrorist and Parliament attacker Afzal Guru, and like the anti-CAA protests, had strong Islamist undertones. Second, nobody takes a rent-an-activist like Yogendra Yadav or Rakesh Tikait seriously. They descend on every anti-government agitation, trying to make capital from it. While the anti-farm laws stir got the Narendra Modi government to roll back implementation even though only one state, Punjab, was affected by it, some of the agitating farmers themselves now want the provisions back again. It is a matter of time that the farm laws will be reintroduced, possibly by the discretion of the states. The BJP sweep in Uttar Pradesh elections proved that Tikait held no sway over the masses. The lack of conviction and the opportunism of the activists prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to mockingly coin the term ‘andolanjeevis’. Drummed up causes will never have a fraction of the power of a genuine cause. And history will never reserve respect for activists on rent. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.