Marketing a protest

By Anuradha Dutt
Till a year ago, few outside Maharashtra had heard of Anna Hazare. Some knew him as a well-intentioned social crusader — one among many — prone to confronting errant politicians in the State on some contentious issue, but never quite managing to trigger a mass awakening. Then, a set of aides – Ms Kiran Bedi, Mr Arvind Kejriwal, Mr Manoj Sidodia, some others — materialised, and the process of creating a national anti-corruption icon began.
The attempt early this year was aborted by the Government, soon after the disruption of Swami Ramdev’s campaign to bring back black money from foreign banks. The recent stir, however, played out to the script, with Anna striding the stage like a colossus. Cynics, however, remain unconvinced, blaming his aides and the mass media — television news channels and sensation-hungry newspapers — for vesting the activist with an eminence that may be hard to sustain in future.
Brand-building is an art, perfected by advertisers, media managers and corporates. In American showbiz and politics, individuals are hyped and sold just as cars, clothes and other things are marketed. Building a brand name or image is the key to hard-selling. The late American journalist Vance Packard exposed the tricks and psychological techniques of media manipulation in his 1957 classic, The Hidden Persuaders. Whether products were being hyped or politicians, hard-selling was the name of the game. The New Yorker observed in its review of this book:
“A brisk, authoritative and frightening report on how manufacturers, fundraisers and politicians are attempting to turn the American mind into a kind of catatonic dough that will buy, give or vote at their command”.
Anna Hazare’s commodification has just begun. NDTV’s website has this to say about him:
“The story goes that one day at the New Delhi Railway Station, he chanced upon a book on Swami Vivekananda. Drawn by Vivekananda’s photograph, he is quoted as saying that he read the book and found his answer — that the motive of his life lay in service to his fellow humans. Today, Anna Hazare is the face of India’s fight against corruption. He has taken that fight to the corridors of power and challenged the Government at the highest level. People, the common man and well-known personalities alike, are supporting him in the hundreds swelling to the thousands”.
The writer chooses to overlook the fact that Swami Ramdev, who commands a far bigger following here and abroad, also challenged the powers that be, except that he and his supporters were unceremoniously evicted from the protest site by the Delhi police. The ferocity of the attack on them, and that, too, in a clandestine manner under the cover of darkness, suggests that the threat he posed was greater and more genuine. That may be because, technically, he is neither a career civil rights activist, nor receives largesse or awards from the numerous endowments, set up by global corporations to prop up dissent and influence people. He also lacks the certificate of approval, bestowed by liberal interest groups.
While it is edifying to know that Swami Vivekananda triggered the change in Anna Hazare, it is important to point out that the Swami is an iconic figure because he defied heart-wrenching poverty and solitariness to travel to America and propagate Vedanta among an alien people. His greatness lies in his adherence to his Indic heritage. A man of tremendous dignity, he would never have played to the gallery.
In the present instance, lavish funds were amply in display, with the protest at the Ramlila Maidan turning into a festive affair, with Brand Anna being peddled by vendors of protest merchandise as well as television channels. To underline the point that it was essentially a carnival, food and beverages were in abundance. Some could be had freely and some purchased. The vulgarity and crassness, implicit in the exercise, served to trivialise the whole fight against corruption even if the organisers claimed victory.
Then, the manner in which Anna Hazare was whisked off to Gurgaon’s up-market Medanta, the Medicity, by one of its key promoters, Dr Naresh Trehan, who had monitored his health during the extended fast, was quite at variance with his image as a man of the masses. He should ideally have been taken to a modest state-run hospital for check up and medical care after breaking his fast. It was all too well-orchestrated not to have been planned in advance till the last detail.
But if the effort was geared to placing him at par with, say, Mahatma Gandhi, and thereby giving legitimacy to the campaign, it is too little, too late. For, Anna, throughout his years as a social activist, has been confined to a corner in his home state, more precisely, Ralegan Siddhi, his village that he helped develop. Gandhi’s civil rights movement began in South Africa, making him an international figure. He then returned to India to steer the satyagraha against colonial rule, emerging as the most renowned proponent of non-violent struggle in the last century. There can only be one Bapu.
Another selfless satyagrahi, Acharya Vinobha Bhave, who campaigned to get grants of land for the landless and struggled for a ban on cow slaughter throughout his life, initiated a ceaseless satyagraha against the Deonar slaughter house, which, almost 30 years after his death, still continues. To draw another parallel, the late Nanaji Deshmukh, who died virtually unnoticed last February by the elitist TV channels and English print media, developed model villages in Chitrakoot district by deploying traditional farming methods, and promoting water harvesting, cottage industries and indigenous knowledge. His lessons in sustainable development were ignored by the strident secular brigade because of his Hindutva background.
Against this backdrop, the present hullabaloo makes little sense.
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