DELHI GANGRAPE PROTESTS: INCREASING PUBLIC VOICE AGAINST THE STATUS-QUO IS THE NEED OF THE DAY

She is no more but she is just not a name now. She is the symbol to fight for dignity. She is the light inspiring people from every section, irrespective of the caste and community affiliations, to rise and act.

And yes, people have taken up the call. Whosoever the protesters are, they are fighting for cause with high emotional quotient. The horror of the Delhi gangrape - if there had to be any message, it was the call to fight, and people are there, taking up to the roads, to demand the system to modify, to act.

Yes, the protests are mostly urban in nature but cannot and should not be dismissed for this reason only.

The spontaneous protests against the Delhi gangrape and in solidarity with the departed soul, the victim, are the best possible response to happen to the Indian democracy in the recent history after the massive and spontaneous support to the anti-corruption movement launched by Anna Hazare in 2011.

The major reason for failure of Anna Hazare’s movement was not its urban nature as told by many, but was that the movement was derailed soon after getting the initial breakthrough and so lost the scope to percolate further.

The similar thing might happen here but the high emotional quotient and a leaderless character would always be the high points to inspire further.

We can say Anna Hazare’s movement showed us the way to come forward and raise voice against the system. India needs change and increasing public voice against the status-quo is the need of the day. That is the only way forward given the widespread gloom at the political level of policymaking and implementation.  

And so here, it is not about the debate of being urban or restricted in nature. This movement is more about:

1. Being such a massive and spontaneous movement so soon after the public uprising of 2011, an encouraging sign;

2. Being more about a leaderless movement that was self-evolved and learnt to organize soon in the process - remember major movements of the Arab Spring were leaderless and self-evolved;

3. Being high on the emotional quotient – when emotions run high, the support to the cause is ethically rooted, and that makes it inspiring to similar other chain events – in Tunisia, it all started with a self-immolation video of a commoner, Mohamed Bouazizi, going viral on the Facebook – in Egypt, the ‘6 April Committee’ of the youth activists was one of the major factors snowballing in a full-scale revolution;

4. Being made up of more of rational and committed minds than of mob elements – every massive public protest has many mob elements. They are something can’t be done away with. Yes, the greater share of the rational elements effectively suppress them – the high point the Delhi gangrape protests is the rational minds simply outdid the mob elements during the two weeks of the protests and the protests are still going strong – without any leader

The gloom of the Indian democracy needs consistent, massive and spontaneous public protests. It’s a process that will take time.

Anna Hazare’s movement was one such attempt on the path to make India a responsible democracy. The Delhi gangrape protests are the next in the step. We can see it as a scaled-up movement because it is sustaining for a long period without any leader.

Like the anti-corruption movement, the Delhi gangrape protests, too, might not get much from the cunning politicians on the policy-change front, but, we, as a society, are learning, and learning fast to raise voice effectively.

Sure, there would be more scaled-up movements in the days ahead. Are the politicians ready? 

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/