These past few days have been marked by an absolute disinterest in me to write about anything, especially about the topics that I particularly relish in ranting about, such as politics, global affairs and economic relations. As much as I would like to separate my blog from my personal life, I suppose my personal life has been so emotionally taxing lately that I have to force myself to think about anything else, more so about my blog, and eventually my personal thoughts spill into my blog.

Its been raining incessantly in Mumbai for the past two days, and they being the weekend, i've been at home, unable to do much. Fortunately, I did make them worthwhile by visiting Haji Ali Dargah, Siddhivinayak Temple and attend a Bharatnatyam performance at NCPA Jamshed Babha Theatre. Being fully clothed and being wet is not a nice feeling most of the time, and that was the case for me this weekend.

When I am not writing and slaving through my days, I look around me and start taking mental notes of the things I plan to write in my next post, and then when the time to write comes, I forget most of the good points I had thought of in my head earlier. I believe a lot of writers solve this problem by always keeping some sort of a recorder handy so they can record their thoughts clearly. Some write them down, which I have tried too, but I end up jotting my thoughts down as bullet points, and when I look at them again, I am unable to expand them in the same way as I had thought of them earlier. I wish i'd take my writing more seriously.

There were two things I wanted to write about mainly, or rather, had identified as two issues I would write about in my next blog. Once was the fact that Moammar Gaddafi has run away from Libya because he's been run over by the Libyan rebels. Yes, his fight is finally over as Libyans take a look at the former dictator's spectacular wealth. The rebels are very much there, and I am very surprised by the inconspicuous absence of any central leadership among the rebels. Or is it just my lack of awareness? Yes, its just me and my ignorance, because there is a transition government in place in Libya which is holding parlays with Gaddafi's loyal team as he tries to negotiate for some transitional government with his family involved.

Ah yes, I was way too ignorant on this issue. The Libyan Interim National Council was formed in February/March 2011 to represent the unified face of the Libyan revolution against Moammar Gaddafi. This Council, readily recognized by the developed nations fighting under NATO and many others, is actually not looked at favourably by the African Union, who say that the next Libyan government should be representative of all people, including the supporters of Gaddafi. Things get mixed up more because the Arab League, of which Libya is a member as well, recognizes the Council. I sincerely hope that whatever in store for Libya does not become a puppet of the Americans and its allies, and we find out later that the big oil majors are moving into Libya to suck out the oil for themselves. That would be just sad.

The other issue is of Anna Hazare, who, has I just found out since I haven't been following the news at all lately, broke his fast on today, Sunday. A majority of the discussion among the armchair politicians has been the utter disarray that the CONgress party displayed over the past few weeks, most notably after the absence of Sonia Gandhi who is somewhere in the United States recuperating after a major surgery. Such a lack of leadership and coherence within the CONgress only proves what many believe already - its a hollow party only held together by the fraud Gandhi family.

Somebody raised a very relevant comment on a forum - this CONgress led government, and particularly the Gandhi family, has always believed that they do not need to explain themselves to the people and the country. That opacity and arrogance was severely shattered by Anna Hazare, and the way the people joined him, I do not doubt for one second that a lot of their anger was also directed at this government's attitude towards governance and the people.

The media has gone to town in support of Anna Hazare, of course, not without a few low blows against Hazare and also Ramdev and an effort to communalize the issue, but considering that the majority of the country's population seemed to be on the side of Hazare, the media thought it best to be on Mr. Hazare's side as well, notwithstanding the CONgress's extremely effective and powerful propaganda machinery, which enlists such media leaders as the Tabloid of India and NDTV. Amazingly, the media has picked up Anna supporters from all across the country, including a Sikkim farmer losing over 10 kilos after fasting in Hazare's support, people from Udupi, Assam, Manipur, Kashmir, Orissa, you name it, and the support was there!

Foreign news sources say its the rise of the Indian middle class as a political entity, and the BJP thinks so too. According to a journalist writing in Reuters, and sourced from The China Post, Taiwan, very basic explanations of whats been going on....

Hazare has tapped a groundswell of public anger against endemic corruption, uniting the country's bulging middle-class against a hapless political class and underlining voter anger at Singh and the ruling Congress party.

Tens of thousands of mostly urban and wired voters across India celebrated the achievement of an unprecedented movement that may usher in a new force in Indian politics and damage the ruling Congress party in crucial state elections next year.

While protests in India are not uncommon, the sight of many well-off young professionals using Twitter and Facebook taking to the streets of Asia's third-largest economy suggest an awakening of a previously politically-ambivalent middle-class.

Mukherjee announced parliament's support for Hazare's demands after over nine hours of fervent debate in both chambers of parliament that highlighted just how much the activist's campaign had rocked India's political establishment.

Deep-seated change has been underway for years in India as its once-statist economy globalises, bolstered by a widely used freedom of information act, aggressive private media and the election of state politicians who have rejected traditional caste-support bases to win on governance issues. After a botched arrest as part of a hardline approach to Hazare, a government U-turn saw ministers praise the activist, suggesting a leadership deficit in Congress without party head Sonia Gandhi, who is recovering after surgery for an undisclosed condition.

So the focus of a large part of the media has been on how this "revolution", though I don't believe that its been anything of that sort, is led by the more affluent, modern, tech savvy middle class. So with Sonia Gandhi missing and the rest of her party running around like a headless chicken and the Prime Minister still claiming innocence and Rahul Gandhi merely acting as an interjection here and there, a popular media exercise has been the critique of the Government (well, that has been on for a while now), but more so of the CONgress party.

Once influential magazine India Today does a cover on the party with the title "Gone With The Wind." The first point that was obvious to anybody watching the show was the flipflop by the Government. From terming Anna Hazare and his team as anti-national to terming them great patriots, politicians from the ruling party have called him everything. This article is a good read in the sense that its a very comprehensive look at the way ministers and other party leaders were acting as islands in their statements and actions. Rahul Gandhi, it says, has done his best to distance himself from his mother's government which is facing the flak.

The Congress had projected the trinity of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh as its leadership in the general elections of 2009. That leadership was given an impressive mandate by the people of India, the best for the Congress in two decades. Two years on, all the goodwill and hope has disappeared only to be replaced by public anger at what is perceived as a Government without credibility. Yet, none of the three top leaders is speaking to the people of India, ceding the mainstream discourse almost completely to Team Anna.

The article makes a good point - the UPA rode to power projecting three strong leaders - Dr. Singh, Mrs. Gandhi, and Master Gandhi, and all three of them have been the quietest in facing the ire of the nation. The next few days will be important because this is when the euphoria of the actual fast itself should be replaced by the hard work of bringing together a worthy bill that all sides fought for. That work can't be done by the flag waving crowds across the country, but has to be done by learned men and women who will sit behind closed doors hammering out something not as toothless as the Government's earlier version and perhaps without some of the points included in the Jan Lokpal Bill. It will do our entire society more good if we take some time out and perform the intellectual activity of actually reading the bill or at least trying to find out what the bill actually is. While the middle class and the youth seem to have shown some sparks of political activism, no doubt, it'll do the country more good if they take it to the next level by being more politically aware and not simply retreating into their lives after this battle's won.