An India Day parade, but at what cost.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: Two years ago, at the India Day parade in New York, there were dozens of Indians lined up on the sidewalks of Manhattan, wearing a “Anna cap,” shouting slogans, carrying placards, to end corruption in India, emulating and supporting a movement which started in New Delhi, in April of that year.
The man who started that truncated public revolution in India to root out corruption, Anna Hazare — termed as a modern-day Gandhi at the height of his agitation — will be present at the India Day parade here next month, on August 18th, say the organizers of the parade, The Federation of Indian Associations, Tristate area (FIA).
The President of the FIA, Sanjay Amin, said in an interview that he has received confirmation from Hazare, 76, that he will attend the parade, as a “Guest of Honor.” Hazare will also attend a dinner hosted by the FIA in New Jersey, the day after the parade. At both venues, he will render a speech.
“He’s not coming here as a political personality,” says Amin, when asked the reason to invite Hazare. Over the years, the norm has been to invite Bollywood stars, music and sports personalities to the parade, stretching for less than a mile on Madison Avenue in Manhattan.
Last year, according to the New York Police Department, more than 100,000 people witnessed the parade. Saif Ali Khan was the Grand Marshal; cricketer Anil Kumble a “Guest of Honor.” The Grand Marshal this year is actress Vidya Balan, and accompanying her will be Hazare. While Balan’s name and photo is up on the website of the FIA as the Grand Marshal of the parade, Hazare’s name is not there, as yet.
“I have always admired Anna Hazare, his activism. This year since the theme of our parade is ‘March for lasting peace,’ we decided to invite him,” says Amin. When asked to define the theme, he added: “it means to march for global peace, to end terrorism.”
Since Hazare’s agitation two years ago, the course of public debate in India and US has changed. In India, despite a spate of corruption scandals periodically, focus has also shifted to issues like gang rapes, the rupee’s slide, fear of a slump in the economy, the horrible case of more than two dozen children dying after eating pesticide-laden food at a school in Bihar.
In the US, there has been intense speculation over the state of the economy, jobs numbers, housing prices, immigration issues, political logjams, the Trayvon Martin trial, even the storms that batter the East Coast every year. Corruption is a minor issue, left for Third World countries to deal with.
Anna Hazare was relevant two years ago, not anymore, especially so here. Most people may remember who he is. Some may even dig out the Anna caps from two years ago to attend the parade. But, passion for his cause has been replaced with a shake of the head. A feeling that rampant corruption will dig deeper roots in India, despite Hazare’s ongoing fight.
It is likely more people will cheer for Balan at the parade as she holds the tricolor flag. Hazare will be seen as the old man who took on an unsuccessful cause, at least till now.
Hazare’s stature too has been diminished after leaders who started the anti-corruption movement with him split from the cause, including Arvind Kejriwal, who started the Aam Aadmi Party. Hazare is at odds with him.
The Congress party and its allies would be, however, hoping that Hazare does visit the parade, notwithstanding the fact that his visit is likely to happen within a month of BJP President Rajnath Singh’s lobbying here.
For one, it would break Hazare’s current “Jantantra Yatra,” visiting states in India to apprise them of the government’s failures. Secondly, for a man like Hazare, who shuns money and property, stories and photos of him hobnobbing with rich NRIs, film stars, in New York and New Jersey, would only sow more seeds of doubt in the youth and middle class of India, about his motives to visit New York.
In the past, Hazare has been accused of being sympathetic to the RSS and to the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Photos of him, if they appear with known Modi sympathizers in the Tristate area, will only sully his image. The visit to the parade in New York for patriotic reasons is not likely to boost Hazare’s image; it may only damage it.
It might also be heart-breaking and humiliating for Hazare to see the stark commercialism of the India Day parade, the entertainment factor that makes it churn, all in the name of celebrating an epic, solemn moment in India’s history. In effect, for most who visit it, it’s a day out with the family, to grab some fun on a summer weekend, to eat and drink, get a glimpse of some film stars.
Like last year, 100,000 people may show up this year too at the parade. But if Hazare thinks it’s going to be like the Ramlila grounds in Delhi when he speaks, that an ocean of listeners would be present, he’s in for a shock. When he speaks from the podium on Madison Ave., only a few hundred people would be there to hear it, as that is all the space which is there every year for people to gather at a particular street, along with vendors selling food and merchandise.
The second and third generation crowd, the youth, the Indo-Caribbean crowd, those who don’t know him, might actually hoot for Hazare to leave the stage, to make way for film stars to come up. It’s happened before to other speakers at previous meets, it could happen again. A cruel New York moment.
Hazare’s visit is also going to pose a few problems for government officials in the Tristate area. For some time, Hazare has had top level security, after a plot to murder him came to light. Security issues apart, it’s been a time-tested tradition for the Consul General of India in New York to participate in the parade, beginning with the first parade held in 1980, when the then Consul General, Placido D’Souza, marched along with the Grand Marshal, Zubin Mehta. However, it remains to be seen if that tradition is going to be broken this year or not, if Hazare does indeed show up.
Calls seeking a comment from the Consul General in New York, Ambassador Dnyaneshwar Mulay, were not returned.
To contact the author, email to sujeetrajan@americanbazaaronline.com