Ashish Kothari
Hindustan Times
June 16, 2011
The starkly disproportionate response of the government, media and the public to the two babas on fast over the last few days is symptomatic of a deep malaise in our democratic set-up. Capturing the headlines was Baba Ramdev, fasting on the issues of black money and corruption; completely sidelined was Swami Nigamanand, fasting on the issue of mining and stone crushing along the Ganga. The former was ‘persuaded’ to break his fast even though the government had not met his demands; the latter, refusing to break his fast till the mining was stopped, perished for the cause. [more]
