The birth of something new

Folks, I was at the rally on 3rd Dec 2008 at the Gateway of India. At first when I was invited , I refused saying that it would in the end boil down to to the same old bunch of Mahesh Bhatt, Gerson Dcunha, Madhur Bhandarkar on stage kind of sideshow that we Indians seem to prefer.

One of my readers managed to persuade me otherwise saying that it was a rally to try and feel the sentiment of the public wherein the new generation of politicians would be chosen from an educated class instead of the current bunch who do not know what a budget for bullet proof vests means except the commission that is promised to them on it. ( Theleka in case we forgot about it was about just one such sting)

The reason they do not know or understand this and other mission critical issues is that a large majority of them simply cannot read so its "kala Aakshar bhaise barabar" [ Illiterates might as well look at a buffalo as a book since both mean the same to them]

I therefore decided to give it a look see. I was pleasantly surprised. What I saw there was a pure expression of the citizens frustration. The citizens gathered there had no particular agenda but what stood out was the sheer numbers of them. In a city like Mumbai, where people don't have time to smile at each other the time taken by sheer collection of people at a single location was overwhelming.

Amid the repeated chants of Vande Matram, two threads which ran common to  the whole gathering were, the disgust at politicians and the rants against Pakistan. I looked around and found that most of the chants against politicians were from young fresh faces wearing casual clothes and funnily enough it was  the average joe shopkeeper types who were the most vociferous when it came to the anti Pakistan shouts. 

What made my trip worthwhile was the odd image like a group of well dressed people standing in a  semi circle quietly singing "Jana Ganna Manna" or a handicapped man on crutches fighting the crowd to try and reach the center of the melee with a beatific smile on his face.

When so many people collect like this, normally I would have expected some kind of mela or tamashaa, some cheap stunts by someone or the other.  But this was different. The mood was different. The politicians remained conspicuous with their absence, the whole crowd had only a few policemen around ( the only real presence I saw of them was around the state police headquarters which was slap bang in the middle of the march route) and there was a very bad need for crowd control but no one seemed to mind.

It reminded me of some pictures I had seen earlier. The struggle for Indian Independence.

The similarities are obvious for people who wish to see it.

A freedom struggle starts from a collection of groups, (Nehru's, Jinnah's, Subash Chandra Bose's, Bhagat Singh's ) etc till the time as a leader like Gandhi emerges from the chaos and unites them under a single banner.

India today too is looking for a charismatic leader. India today is running headless with a ragtag group of individuals all trying to do something but no one knowing what to do. Each group is trying its own thing be it similar to Nehru's mediation with the British or Subash Chandra Bose's militancy or Bhatgat Singhs anarchy. We are no one to say which methord is right and which is wrong, its the end result which counts.

To all those people , who tell me that this whole anger will die within a few days & people will forget and go back to their own lives, I remind them that even in the struggle for independence, a lot of people reverted to their daily lives, a lot of groups fell by the wayside out of sheer frustration but the ones that lasted made a difference. India is India today thanks to those few who had the vision and the perseverance to last the mile.

With the advent of the 3rd December meeting we have seen the birth of something new. It sould go down in the annals of history. My mailbox is flooded with emails even from people who I would least except to respond to this tragedy. The medium has changed but from what I can see the sentiment has not. The communication is faster than the old days of flyers but the ideas flying around is still the same. The whole meeting of the 3rd of Dec was started from a facebook entry and pushed by emails and SMSs.

From the emails and SMSs I gather There are a few movements around which talk of making a difference by symbolic things such as a human chain from Gateway to Virar, by collecting funds for the families of the martyrs, or by not bribing anyone anymore.

There are others which talk of things like getting together and fielding a new set of literate candidates from within the educated classes or even by bringing transparency into the current political scenario. ( the two ideas which I think have maximum chance of succeeding in the long haul).

Whatever the modus, the one thing we should in a very twisted way be thankful about is that this attack woke us from our apathy. The coast guard stopped looking the other way for a few rupees, the havaldar started looking at each persons rucksack more carefully, the home ministry finally passed the budget for the new bullet proof vests. (that tender was lying in a pile of others for 4 years gathering dust, In any developed country the relatives of the dead would have found out which babus ignored the files and then slapped a personal law suit of manslaughter on them so large their next 2 generations would end up paying the damages)

(I wonder why no one is talking about the OTHER FILES IN THAT INFAMOUS PILE of pending tenders )

As someone said with the way our official machinery handled it, it could easily have been 10 dingys and 100 men. If only 10 men did so much damage, 100 would have really had Mumbai burning and the tragedy would have been much much worse.

What worries me is that all the people who wish to change the system really do not have their own systems in place. The anger is there, the fire is there but from what I see there's no clear thought pattern. Without the clear thought pattern the checks and balances will never come into play and without the checks and balances the 10 dingys may one day still be a reality.

Lets just hope the leader the people are looking for appears long before the dingys do.