Siege of New Delhi

Shutting down the roads in New Delhi and suspending the metro service may be warranted as a security measure by the government but it shows how much highhandedness the administration and the police can resort to when faced with a popular agitation.

Just think, if they can do this to the people of the national capital in the full glare of national and international media then what they are capable of or they are actually doing in the remote villages where the common people are being branded as Maoists. What we are experiencing is a spontaneous outburst of people, especially the youth against the breakdown of administration. This is a rejection of the belief that the government is for the people, of the people.

Whenever the administration and the politicians become the ruling class and detach themselves from the people they are supposed to serve and use force as oppressors, they have never been successful in the long term. By using coercive measures, the government may have won the battle for the day but they have already lost the war. Nobody will now believe the government or its ability and capacity to do anything constructive for the people or the nation. Those who were so much euphoric about the passing of FDI may ask themselves the question – Who will invest in this country if this type of helpless and indecisive administration prevails. Does anybody expect quality resources to be deployed on the mercy of these blundering buffoons who pass muster as our elected representatives?

When a healing touch was required, the government has taken firstly an unconcerned attitude, then a defensive attitude and thereafter the highhanded approach. Now they are blaming the people for violence and trying to save their face. No sense of accountability and ownership is evident from their knee-jerk reactions. What more can you expect from a heartless and brain dead administration which has run its course by faltering from one blunder to another.

The leaders could not rise above their political compulsions and become statesman. No politician worth his salt from any of the political party has tried to identify him (her) self with the anguished psyche of the people. The matter is not only of the rape of a young girl. The malaise is deep rooted. It is about the rape of the society as a whole by these self seeking politicians as they have reduced the administration to a non performing heartless juggernaut.

It is surprising that the President of the country has not even issued a statement when the action is happening at his doorstep. It would have been a good gesture if he had come out of his safe environs with a statement to assuage the hurt feeling of the nation and restore normalcy. But then it is expecting too much from a political apparatchik. By keeping silence he is only following the footsteps of many of his predecessors, all appointed at the discretion of the Congress party, or rather the Gandhi family.

I am not in favour of anarchy. Neither do I support riots or destruction of lives and property. But salute the energy and the anguish of the youth which has crystallised into the agitation at the capital city. However cynical we may be, the youth deserves to be praised for standing up. They have proved that in spite of the onslaught of commercialism and material values, there is still that spark of rebellion in them. They need the support of all well meaning people all over the country.