Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Urban India: Moving towards Political Anathema - 1

The Big Fight on NDTV on the Gujjar Protests which had speakers like Swapan Dasgupta, Prof Ashish Nandy, Sachin Pilot etc battling it out was truly a showcase of the Urban Indian's take on yet another socio - political drama. It is in all respects similar to an arm chair sociologist's views on the mores and taboos of a culture they have had no gateway to.

It was indeed heartening to see a young MP like Sachin Pilot rise above the politics of parties and speak for closure and peaceful resolution of the burning issue. India sure could do with more such leaders. The Big Fight had its share of controversies and the unspoken knowledge of havoc the nation is facing due to laws such as the Reservation Bill. The uncomfortable pauses and silences around its approach and implementation, the unwillingness to take responsibility for decisions and the blase attitude toward arriving at a solution played out 'Live' on national television for the entire nation to see.

As rightly pointed out by Swapan the protest has clearly 'departed' from being a social movement. It has loud and clear political overtones. The vicious evil of vote bank politics is rising its ugly hood again. And we as 'urban, educated bystanders' simply wait for the next set of news items to pour in. But its the same game over and over again. Simple but very effective. It wrecks every iota of sanity that people are struggling to hold on to.

The argument is as old as the problem. The more we analyse it the more despondent we become. The picture gets murkier as each day passes by. Media will drop this one too for another set of headlines, and time shall pass. We the People of this nation shall forget. As we have forgotten the many more atrocities that we inflict on our fellow countrymen.

The Phoenix has fallen. Will it rise from the Ashes to a brighter, better India or an India battered by Communal Vote Bank based Politics. We have stretched our democratic license to the limit of no return. the basic principles of the game have been forsaken and the chase is on purely for the POWER, POSITION and MONEY that ride on it.

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