I, no other than the youth of this country that sparked a series of protests at India Gate recently, am outraged!! In last five years we have witnessed two major occasions when the ordinary citizen had to stand up and vent his anger on streets of Delhi to make this incompetent Government act on some of the basic & important issues that touch our lives. I will put my points on the impact that these two events had on the young minds of this country.
First came the Protests against corruption & the demand for a Jan Lokpal that can keep a watch on the misdeeds of the Ministers (after the irresponsible behaviour shown by the UPA ministry in last 9 years). Lead by a former soldier and Gandhi-an socialist Anna Hazare people protested strongly against an evil that is eating up their hard-earned money from decades. Result?? Government seen running for cover, putting together an illogical Lokpal Bill in hustle with clauses that ultimately bring a greater control of Government on the civil society groups. Media, unable to evaluate the new trend of this outrageous society and failing to differentiate it from the usual political rallies they are used to cover, started assessing the success of protests by the number of people turning up on streets. Not even one of the media houses now concentrates on the fact that slowly & swiftly the Government has been successful in maintaining a status quo like the last 50 years in case of Lokpal bill & investigation of corruption cases. No wonder this is a confidence booster for the corrupts in power to continue with their loot.
Second, the real shocker, is the recent outrage of the people across the country in wake of brutal Delhi gang-rape. The whole course of event had nothing new in it for a city like Delhi. Rapes, kidnappings & other crimes are flourishing in the city in last 5-6 years at full pace. This horrific incident just brought together every section of society, with their patience running out, on the deteriorating conditions of the City. Peaceful marches, protests to India Gate & then to North Block were a symbol that we believe in our country's democracy and pay homage to our martyrs but at the same time we have woken up to the incompetency and careless attitude of UPA towards the security of citizens. Enough is Enough was the call.
The second series of protests met with the same fate & saw a drastic drying up of crowds. However, media was much more sensitive and critical of the government this time, concentrating & debating on the right points. But the question still remains "will the anger be converted to actions any soon?". I think the question lies in the following analysis.
What both the issues had in common is the involvement of the masses. Not only the protests but also the root of the problem in both the cases involve a closer look of the same public that was on road venting anger after the incident. In simple words if I had to summarise the root causes of above two incidents I would choose to say that "our society has disintegrated & rotten up by constant incompetent & lethargic governance in last four decades (barring a few years which ill explain in my other posts) and we continue to degenerate constantly unless we do something about it as a mature citizen of this great Nation by using the right to vote sensibly".
Nothing in a social scenario changes overnight. The illogical vote bank governance of going soft on influential people and instead punishing the police over the years has demoralised and shaped authorities with a mentality of not acting responsibly. Similarly, the same behaviour has made people go berserk with any form of violence on streets because they have confidence in the incompetency instilled into the policing by the Government.
My readers from Delhi will agree to me if I say that in the capital city there have been numerous cases when traffic policemen have landed themselves in trouble by simply carrying out their duty on some influential people in the city. Such incidents demotivate the police personnel and they surely wont react responsibly the next time they see a law being broken on the streets in front of their eyes. As a continuation to this chain reaction a whole new generation in our society has grown up seeing police doing nothing against the wrong-doers and that has, sadly, become a new normal for them.
Its a horrifying analysis but the truth is that this is where a visionless & incompetent governance has taken our society in last decade. I'll put forward one examples out of many others to support the above analysis.
On 4th August 1982 Deputy Commissioner of Police (traffic) Kiran Bedi ordered a challan of PM Indira Gandhi's Car for wrong parking. Result? She was transferred to Goa for carrying out her duty. Now imagine what would have been the tragic impact on the morale of the police force as a whole when their Commissioner gets punished for doing the right thing. This incident, may be a small incident in eyes of few, according to me was a big jolt to the police organisation that completely shaped its actions in every aspect after that day.
There are lot of such cases description of whom will make this internet space look smaller. But here is the point. We never came on streets when we saw our system being played with by incompetent, leaderless Government. We did not care when incidents such as above were made into only small stories on some inside page in the newspapers. We never understood the gravity of such events, taking place all across the country, which unfortunately are the main causes of our candle marches & protests these days. History tells us clearly that the majority of Governments since independence have taken advantage of this ignorance of ours. And the result is as we see today - outrage pouring on streets.
I have always believed that the youth of India today is energetic, has vision & capabilities to create wonders across the globe. We do not deserve to be lead by some sycophants, visionless people who are incapable of leading. I AM OUTRAGED of being on streets again & again. I AM OUTRAGED on the incompetencies that have been infused into almost all the Government organisations by a visionless government in the past decade. Let us take a vow to change this in future.
LOOK AT THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM & NOT ONLY THE REMEDIES.
First came the Protests against corruption & the demand for a Jan Lokpal that can keep a watch on the misdeeds of the Ministers (after the irresponsible behaviour shown by the UPA ministry in last 9 years). Lead by a former soldier and Gandhi-an socialist Anna Hazare people protested strongly against an evil that is eating up their hard-earned money from decades. Result?? Government seen running for cover, putting together an illogical Lokpal Bill in hustle with clauses that ultimately bring a greater control of Government on the civil society groups. Media, unable to evaluate the new trend of this outrageous society and failing to differentiate it from the usual political rallies they are used to cover, started assessing the success of protests by the number of people turning up on streets. Not even one of the media houses now concentrates on the fact that slowly & swiftly the Government has been successful in maintaining a status quo like the last 50 years in case of Lokpal bill & investigation of corruption cases. No wonder this is a confidence booster for the corrupts in power to continue with their loot.
Second, the real shocker, is the recent outrage of the people across the country in wake of brutal Delhi gang-rape. The whole course of event had nothing new in it for a city like Delhi. Rapes, kidnappings & other crimes are flourishing in the city in last 5-6 years at full pace. This horrific incident just brought together every section of society, with their patience running out, on the deteriorating conditions of the City. Peaceful marches, protests to India Gate & then to North Block were a symbol that we believe in our country's democracy and pay homage to our martyrs but at the same time we have woken up to the incompetency and careless attitude of UPA towards the security of citizens. Enough is Enough was the call.
The second series of protests met with the same fate & saw a drastic drying up of crowds. However, media was much more sensitive and critical of the government this time, concentrating & debating on the right points. But the question still remains "will the anger be converted to actions any soon?". I think the question lies in the following analysis.
What both the issues had in common is the involvement of the masses. Not only the protests but also the root of the problem in both the cases involve a closer look of the same public that was on road venting anger after the incident. In simple words if I had to summarise the root causes of above two incidents I would choose to say that "our society has disintegrated & rotten up by constant incompetent & lethargic governance in last four decades (barring a few years which ill explain in my other posts) and we continue to degenerate constantly unless we do something about it as a mature citizen of this great Nation by using the right to vote sensibly".
Nothing in a social scenario changes overnight. The illogical vote bank governance of going soft on influential people and instead punishing the police over the years has demoralised and shaped authorities with a mentality of not acting responsibly. Similarly, the same behaviour has made people go berserk with any form of violence on streets because they have confidence in the incompetency instilled into the policing by the Government.
My readers from Delhi will agree to me if I say that in the capital city there have been numerous cases when traffic policemen have landed themselves in trouble by simply carrying out their duty on some influential people in the city. Such incidents demotivate the police personnel and they surely wont react responsibly the next time they see a law being broken on the streets in front of their eyes. As a continuation to this chain reaction a whole new generation in our society has grown up seeing police doing nothing against the wrong-doers and that has, sadly, become a new normal for them.
Its a horrifying analysis but the truth is that this is where a visionless & incompetent governance has taken our society in last decade. I'll put forward one examples out of many others to support the above analysis.
On 4th August 1982 Deputy Commissioner of Police (traffic) Kiran Bedi ordered a challan of PM Indira Gandhi's Car for wrong parking. Result? She was transferred to Goa for carrying out her duty. Now imagine what would have been the tragic impact on the morale of the police force as a whole when their Commissioner gets punished for doing the right thing. This incident, may be a small incident in eyes of few, according to me was a big jolt to the police organisation that completely shaped its actions in every aspect after that day.
There are lot of such cases description of whom will make this internet space look smaller. But here is the point. We never came on streets when we saw our system being played with by incompetent, leaderless Government. We did not care when incidents such as above were made into only small stories on some inside page in the newspapers. We never understood the gravity of such events, taking place all across the country, which unfortunately are the main causes of our candle marches & protests these days. History tells us clearly that the majority of Governments since independence have taken advantage of this ignorance of ours. And the result is as we see today - outrage pouring on streets.
I have always believed that the youth of India today is energetic, has vision & capabilities to create wonders across the globe. We do not deserve to be lead by some sycophants, visionless people who are incapable of leading. I AM OUTRAGED of being on streets again & again. I AM OUTRAGED on the incompetencies that have been infused into almost all the Government organisations by a visionless government in the past decade. Let us take a vow to change this in future.
LOOK AT THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM & NOT ONLY THE REMEDIES.
Yeah, unfortunately that is really hard for young people to make their country a better place. Especially when the Government act in a foolish way and prevent them to do it. I wish it was different.
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