Rang de Public Protests

I have, in the past too, been impressed by the all-consuming social influence of some of our cine superstars. Although each of them has left their characteristic mark on the social behaviour and outlook of the people of India, none has been as significant as that of actor Amir Khan. Amir Khan has almost always picked roles that define the way lives should be lead; idealistic and difficult lives. Through the role of the tough cop in Sarfarosh to that of sepoy Mangal Pandey, he has always conveyed strong messages to the people.

All ‘standard’ movies showed corruption, defilement, rape and a billion other vices. Then the hero came and single handedly took out the motley bad crowd. Amir Khan’s Rang de Basanti changed all that. True, it had its own share of controversies – prime being the use of violence to weed out social evil – but it impacted the youth like never before. For the first time a matinee idol was able to convince the nation that when evil threatens to take over your country, your hands should not be in your pocket. The candle light march held for the fallen pilot in the movie then became the avant-garde of the neo-enlightened public protests.

“Sarfaroshi ki tamana ab hamare dil main hai
Dekhna hai zor kitna bazu-e-qatil main hai
Karta nahi kyon dusara kuch bat-chit
Dekhata hun main jise vo chup teri mahfil main hai
Ai shahid-e-mulk-o-millat main tere upar nisar
Ab teri himat ka charcha gair ki mahfil main hai
Vaqt ane de bata denge tujhe ai asman
Ham abhi se kya batayen kya hamare dil main hai
Khinch kar lai hain sab ko qatl hone ki ummid
Ashiqon ka aj jamghat kucha-e-qatil main hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamana ab hamare dil main hai
Dekhna hai zor kitna bazu-e-qatil main hai”

Jessica Lall, Meher Bhargava, Priyadarshini Matoo, Meerut fire…the modus operandi of lodging protests remains the same. As soon as the facts are tabled before the people, they decide and their verdict is then out on the streets. In fact the intensity of such popular public protests is such that for the first time since India got independence, the incumbent authorities are being forced to sit up and take good notice. The highly inflammable but mute public has finally found its voice. The authorities will do well to understand that protesting by way of expressing public solidarity with the victimized is not sporadic, platonic or toothless. It has now become the oppressed common man’s way of saying “My country, my people – I care!”

My Reservations

Fifty nine years ago a few good men decided that the great caste divide deserved to be erased. While at it, they thought that the great communal divide also should go. All held in good faith, it should have yielded fabulous results. The problem is just that today, so many years later, the wise men seem to have lost the plot.
Fifty nine years is not a small amount of time by any means. Why is it that after all these years reservations for various castes and communities (minorities) are still holding this country’s future hostage? Which civilized country can afford to say that their best brains are in some other country because they could not give them enough attention or encouragement? Why should it be that the mediocre go to the best schools at the expense of the rest? Fifty years should be more than enough for a surgical removal of the “downtrodden caste” bug. Any more than that and you are bound to believe that some people just don’t want to come out the crap-hole they are in. An objective view of the whole situation convinces us that no backward community was actually encouraged to do well for themselves. The people from minority classes/creeds who did well for themselves were self motivated people. What reservation did Dr. B.R. Ambedkar get? The entire focus in the past fifty nine years had been to completely cripple minority communities (caste/creed …actually I am ashamed of using the caste word so many times) in a fashion that they would never be independent of the politicians - Hence the security of the vote bank.
The worst insult you can heap on a people is labeling them “Backward” as part of OBC. It is the biggest failure of the quota/reservation scheme that 59 years post independence the concept of backward classes still exists. The very existence of a political party based on class lines belies any progress in the direction of an uplifted tomorrow. What has any government done to ensure that “backward” classes get better basic schooling? Why is it, then, suddenly their business to ensure that people from a certain community went to the best colleges in the country? What is this if not political melodrama?
And what the hell do they mean by the word “General”? Who is general? Generally speaking would that be a Malayalee Christian or a Gujrati Brahmin? Would that be a Bengali Muslim or a Ladhaki Buddhist? Is it our fault that some of our forefathers broke the chains of the caste system and made education the foundation stone of our lives? Do we have to suffer because our forefathers foresaw progress fifty years ago? For most of these questions our esteemed leaders won’t have answers or they will supply us with some punitive underdeveloped argument. Either way, in the wake of passionate arguments for and against reservations I hope our national leaders see sense and build the nation with the best available human resources and not shallow dreams and empty promises.