I had watched Rang De Basanti (now more popularly known as RDB) in the latter half of my ILP in Bhubaneswar. And though I had loved the movie I had maintained a strong opinion that almost complete second half of the movie was superficial and director and writers had taken too much creative freedom. No police force, under no matter how much political pressure, can just march up and mercilessly beat up silent protestors, no matter how much publicity they are garnering. This was what I thought. Till 13th May ofcourse!
On this day, young medical students protesting against increased reservation for backward classes in premier higher educational institutes, were beaten by Mumbai Police using batons, lathis and water cannons!
Since then the protests have engulfed almost whole country. Today (20th May) Delhi is hosting a massive rally in which people from all walks of life are participating (The striking students and doctors had the Delhi police by surprise when they ended their rally by singing the national anthem, forcing them to join in themselves.) Tomorrow such a protest march is scheduled in Pune. Candle Protest Marches, silent dharnas, hunger-strikes. Nation is facing everything!
And something that almost everyone, including the protestors, the media and the fence-sitters, are talking about is the 'RDB Effect'! A news report talked about many protests in the recent past against issues like injustice in Jessica Lal murder case or police inactivity in Meher Bhargav murder case taking the RDB route. And now these anti-quota protests too seem to take a cue from the movie and its aggressive spirit acting as eye-openers.
But will WE (yes please count me also as one of those who support equality in opportunity) really succeed? Will the greedy politicians like Arjun Singh (read a very good article by Sheela Bhatt in rediff.com) respect the will of the nation or keep on harping the tune of caste politics in the name of 'social equality'? Will the Prime Minister make the mockery of National Knowledge Commission set up by himself or act what the country hoped he will when they voted him to power? Only time will tell.
3 comments:
Wht seemd to me is....end will be wht government wants :(
27%reservation n sum increase in seats for general
but why?????????
But i hv one more concern.....
we ppl(general class) rarely votes ...just sit at home n enjoy holiday on tht day.....others(SC/ST/OBC) they go n vote
so if they(politicians) r thinkin to increase there votin area to be inpower ...then wht is they doin wrong
Everyone is selffish 2day n so r they...whts wrong????
Isha,
You are saying what most people may think. What is wrong if Government is pacifying its votebank? Apart from the obvious reasons, keep in mind a very important thing: With great power comes great responsibility.
Government has power, they should not forget their responsibility towards the country.
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