New Delhi: Baba Ramdev's fast to protest against graft stands in contrast to the one of activist Anna Hazare not just in terms of the lavishness of arrangements but also the fast itself.
While Hazare was on a fast unto death till he decided to break it on the fourth day after 90 hours, Baba Ramdev has himself said that he would fast from 7 am to 9 pm starting on June 4. In other words, Baba would break his fast after 9 pm on June 4.
In that sense, Baba's fast will be somewhat similar to the practice of Roja of Muslims who fast from dawn to twilight during the month of Ramzan.
Gandhi, who taught the world the power of non-violence, also used fasts to put pressure on the then British Indian government. His longest fast unto death agitation lasted for 21 days once in 1933 and on another occasion in 1943.
On May 20, 2011, National Alliance of People's Movements leader Medha Patkar, seeking amendment to the Maharashtra Slum Areas Act, sat on an indefinite hunger strike in Mumbai. She ended it on the eighth day on May 27 after the Maharashtra government declared setting up of two joint committees comprising members of the civil society to look into irregularities in slum development projects.
From dissidents in Turkish jail to terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, fasting has been used as a powerful tool to exact concessions. Most governments now do not take a risk with people on indefinite hunger strike and use forced feeding as the last option in case the subject refuses to break his or her fast.
Irom Sharmila has been on indefinite hunger strike since November 2, 2000 in demand of a repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. She was arrested three days into her fast. She has been periodically released every year and arrested soon after. She is force-fed by using nasogastric intubation.
Ramdev, courtesy his 14-hour fast, is obviously not going to cause that much concern to the authorities. His fast, for now, only concerns the political class.
Comments
0 comment