Yesterday night, a disturbing thing crossed my mind. This revolution (if we can call it) that has taken such momentum, is this just a result of people’s anger over repeated anger or is there something more to it? Why did this not happen earlier? Ever since 1947, over 4100 terrorist attacks have taken place all over India. Why hav they never got so much importance as this attack is getting? In a way, I am glad that this revolution is taking place, but on the other hand, the underlying reasons that I see are also a bit disturbing.
If we look at the terrorist attacks in the past, blasts in trains, busses, in a taxi, at railway stations, these were places the common man visits every day. They are killed, many are left disabled and yet they resume the next day to their respective jobs. The glitterati and the industrialists called it resilience. I believe it is just that if they did not go to work, they would not know where they would pay their next month’s bills, the milkman, electricity, telephone bill, grocery bills, school fees, college fees, and so on… They had no choice. Yesterday, a radio station played an interview with an American who was amazed to see how the people of Mumbai were back on their jobs just three days after the siege ended. In New York after 9/11, people were scared to get out of their homes for a week. I would say, if the US citizens are paid a minimum wage by the government to the unemployed, they would rather sit secure in the houses than venture out. If it was the same case in India, people would have preferred the same. We are no different human beings, but we do know that our Government does nothing for us and hence we have to fend for ourselves. If we had the time and money to take care of our families we would have fought the government, stood up for our needs, but the daily necessity to feed our hunger makes us ignore all this and get back to work.
So what is different now from the past? Why will this revolution sustain, if it sustains?
This time the target was The Taj and The Oberoi. How many of the common man might have ever entered the Taj. The exterior photos are the only things a common man can relate to. They don’t have any reason to go to the Taj. The food is expensive. Only the high class (exponentially rich) can afford this kind of luxury. Why is the peace march around the Taj and Oberoi and not at CST or Vile Parle, which were also targets of the terrorists? The reasons are quite obvious. The rich and the powerful, don’t frequent busses or trains. They sit in the luxurious confines of their car to go wherever they have to go. Every time a calamity strikes the city, they are the least affected while the poor homeless person on the street is affected the most. Why is it that everyone is asking Raj Thackeray, where he is? Why didn’t the same people strike back when he and his goondas ran rampant the city? Again, the reason is quite simple. The affluent class were relatively unaffected. It was the poor and the average middle class who bore the brunt of the carnage, the blasts, and the attacks. This was happening when the affluent class were talking about the resilience of Mumbai sipping fine wine and dining at the Taj and the Oberoi. Now after these attacks, they know what the common man has felt for a long time. They now fear their own lives and thus they have come out in huge numbers.
But all said and done, as I have reiterated in my earlier posts of America coming together for one reason, I think India has a reason of its own now. For whatever reasons, it is time to stand for one common goal.
Independence.
Independence in the true sense. Independence from terror, from corruption, from poverty, from political leadership to true leadership. The midnight of August 15th 1947 bought in freedom of India from the British, but there is still a long way to go till each citizen of India gets his/her freedom.
1 comment:
Amen !!
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