Looking at the headline of this article, very difficult to understand the relationship between these terms unless you happened to be living in Delhi on Monday 13th august, 2012.
The day must have started for delhiites on a usual note.
Office goers got up & ready as early as possible to beat the traffic, especially the one in central delhi. Kids got up crying unwilling to go to school when they know wednesday is another holiday for them(independence day). All so eager to come back home by evening, have a decent cuppa of tea and chill in the relatively better monsoons this year.
As it is the roads of delhi are congested, filled with choking traffic almost 24 h a day. Office commuters have started leaving earlier than ever before in the hope of beating the morning rush. School timings have been revised to optimize the time when buses & ricks plying kids do not get stuck in traffic.
Housewives have been advised not to step out for shopping unless urgent, especially in morning and evenings. The foodies have resorted to letting go of their favourite golgappas, street food so they don’t have to face the hassle of parking. Increasingly people are opting to catch a metro rather a cab.
Still the problems of traffic is multi-fold and has not been solved completely with no defintie solution in the horizon either.
Still everyday, people pray, updates statuses on social media, cry out in frustration as they get caught in traffic. If you escaped a jam in the morning, you are lucky. If you escaped in the evening too! well you might as well buy a lottery ticket that day!!!!
Every evening, when people leave their offices in Connaught Place, Bureucrats leaving the parliamne tareas, hospitl nurses & doctors leaving after a hard day at work; they all pray for less traffic. just that!
Enter Baba Ramdev!!!
Now he has claimed to make indians healthy via his yoga & ayurveda. He is also claiming to be the 1st guru to fight corruption.
He has lofty ideals and loftier ambitions. however, he does not have a common sense of even a gutter rat. Throughout the monday morning, he kept on dithering on his earlier promise to end his fast and kept the media, police & government in dark.
The goverment machinery is anyways slow to react, and Baba Ramdev did not let them prepare for any eventuality at all. At around 13:15, he unfurled the tricolor at ramlila maidan just about when the police was trying to lead him & his 50000 supporters to outside the city limits.
Let us start the march to Parliament. Our march is not to gherao Parliament. But to agitate. None of our volunteers should indulge in violence,” he told his supporters before beginning his march.
In a few minutes, mob frenzy kicked in and instead of going out of the city, the whole mob started marching towards the parliament. The delhi police has been reprimanded severely by SC over his hard ball tactics the last time Ramdev tried a stunt. So their orders were clear: try to get the baba out peacefully without endangering the peaceful atmosphere.
The police had to finally stop the mob at Ranjit Singh flyover as they did not have permission to walk towards the parliament. Once Ramdev was taken into preventive detention, his supporters – thousands of them swarmed the flyover area and JLN marg in central delhi.
As per Times Of India report :
“The closure of Ranjit Singh flyover and restricted vehicular movement from Delhi Gate to Ajmeri Gate had a ripple effect on Minto Road, Connaught Place and ITO, causing a gridlock in a 10-km radius. Intermittent spells of rain in the evening and peak hour traffic only added to the chaos, resulting in commuters being stuck in jams that lasted till 7pm. Those travelling to New Delhi Railway Station and hospitals like LNJP and GTB, were hit hard, along with office-goers heading home. “
Yes those very people who woke up early morning, left their homes to work so they can earn daily bread & butter and not protest. Those very people who also don’t support corruption at any level, still are affected by it as much as those in the protest march.
Bet none of them own a scottish castle in the isles like Baba Ramdev! Their ”karmabhoomi” & ”janmabhoomi” has been dilli and will remain so for thousands of years . These innocent people were stuck in traffic jams cos one yoga imposter by the name of baba ramdev decided to hold the city ransom for hours. His supportes literally made half a city to a virtual stop. Ambulances tried hard to navigate through the gridlock with very less success.
Poor commuters who hardly manage to scrape through a monthly income for them & their family had to bear another brunt from fate. They had to again put up with imposters & stupid jobless people protesting against systematic corruption in the most systematically stupid way!
How do we stop Baba Ramdev ?
The bigger question is how? and not why. He has to be stopped. Either politically, financially, personally or physically.
1. Political means: What happened in Delhi was a part of politics. So Unless baba ramdev decides to stand up for elections, or floats his own party ; it would be very difficult to destroy his standing among his devotees. He has to be caught in a corruption scandal such as Income Tax fraud or violation of FERA. Questions must be asked on how he managed to buy not just a castle but the whole island in Scotland.
If any loose end could be found, he could be left out to dry by using sensible media outlets such as NDTV and socially active actors Aamir Khan.
2. Financial means: Destroy his financial empire of TV yoga & Ayurveda medicines. It shouldn’t be too hard as TV channels such as Aastha TV / Sanskar TV can be coerced to not broadcast his shows anymore. The pretext could be that he is not teaching the right brand of yoga. Get BS Iyengar to disapprove his yoga rpactices,get all the freaking yoga experts to bunk his methods. Build up a media initiative showcasing the adverse effects of his yoga teachings on elderly & children. Let the masses form a negative opinion over him.
Also his Ayurveda empire should be looked into so that there is no tax fraud or unethical business practices involved. If there are then it is a straightforward case of bringing them to public.
However, in an off chance that he is really very careful with his business dealings, the government could make his Ayurveda license become invalid in foreign countries(albeit behind closed doors). His international sales should be impacted first as his major earnings are coming from dollars & pounds. With his business now operating in so many countries, it should not be too tough to find that one sub clause of that one law in one province of any single country - which his business breaks.
Personal means: The best way to destroy a man in public is to destroy his personality. Raise questions about his character. Rather give people so much circumstantial evidence that his character is never restored. Rakhi Sawant once showed surprise that baba ramdev was a bachelor & was sad that he has never been touched by a woman. Perhaps this is the moment when she could be asked to seduce him, make a video tape of it and release it to aaj tak or india tv. rest assured baba ramdev would never be able to teach or touch anyone again.
Physical means: This last option is the most radical approach and is generally used by gangsters. However, in baba’s case this could be an option. Of course anything like this can’t be carried out in India. however, baba is known to be fond of traveling abroad and that also in business class. Should not be too hard to place a cabin crew with explicit instructions to mix thallium in his tea. The best effects of such poisons is that they would not be visible to common eye any sooner and mostly even the seasoned Medicos are fooled by the common symptoms shown by the victim that of dizziness and heart failure.
By the time baba finishes his intercontinental flight from delhi to scotland and reaches his castle, he would be dizzy, short of breath and complaining of chest pains. The local hospitals would admit him, run a few tests for some more hours but with no visible improvement in his health. by that time his vision would be impaired, paralysis would have attacked his body. Only after such severe symptoms the local doctors might administer a test to check for any allergies. Nothing! Then they would administer some more tests. During this time, the news would have reached india and the ruling party members along with P.M would rush to be by his bedside to ensure his speedy recovery. Alas, after the media circus is over, baba would either die of internal organ failure or be discharged with major effects to hos body. In any event, he would not be able to stage a protest any sooner.
Afterthought:
The ideal scenario would be to mount the above mentioned 4 pronged attack at the same time. So by the time baba ramdev returns from scotland having spent enough time in a hospital – a crazed fan of his would be at the airport exit with a suppressor. By the time baba surrounded by his own supporters and lulled into a sense of security realizes he has been shot fatally, the game would be over for him.
By the time that crazed fan is recognized, he would have ran away and would not be caught for the next few days. The people so confused with the incident would come onto the roads for sure, however, this time there would be no baba to incite their hatred towards government. Indeed the Delhi state police would organize a candlelight march at parliament in baba ramdev’s short but remembered life.
Of course the daily commuters would be thankful that there would no longer be any jams. The patients/doctors would be thanking their stars too. Those bored housewives would be free to step out in the day and shop. Those crazed corporate types would not tear their hair out in frustration as their would not be baba’s supporters blocking the road.
Baba Ramdev claims he can die for the betterment of the country. Well if he dies just for the traffic, that would be enough!
