First Failure

Bangalore Mirror thoroughly disappointed me yesterday. Apart from bringing us news as significant as the “who-is-who” of Bangalore, Bangalore Mirror also features news as insignificant as the “who-slept-with-whom” kind. But yesterday’s edition had no mention of the protest rally that took place at the Vidhan Soudha on December 8th, 2008 against terrorism. It was extremely important to cover this rally for the set of demands that were supposed to be presented before the Chief Minister of Karnataka. The demands were very interesting and the approach the organizers proposed to achieve this was unique; calling for a boycott on taxes.

I wonder whether there was a rally at all and if there was none, I am tempted to consider this as the first among the many failures our struggles will face in the future. I am not interested in stock market, but my trust on this particular rally was very bearish from the outset. The call came via emails and there was no organization/individual who took responsibility for the call. It was from a FELLOW CITIZEN. Protest rallies are like babies and they need a parent to bring them up. Otherwise they will be as pathetic as one of those orphaned street children about whom every fellow citizen thinks, but no one owns up. The ‘call’ was neatly written on a three page document, a well presented case and I saw some of those put up on public notice boards across Bangalore. But who has the time to standby and read an essay? Demands, approach and the protest date and time would have sufficed.

This protest was deemed to be a failure for its choice of date and time. I think the originator of the idea expected that people will pour on streets at 12 Noon on a Monday. It was ridiculous on the part of the FELLOW CITIZEN to expect that the people of the nation are still mourning. We are already geared up for the India-England test series. There are deliveries to meet, sensex to follow, night life to be revived and festivals to be celebrated. Life has moved on. Every single head that adds to the gathering will add strength to a rally. Hence it was important to decide on a date and time on which many could attend, even at the cost of looking like a weekend-free-time protest. Every failure such as this is like spraying water over fire and some water is sprayed now from across the border too.

All of a sudden, Pakistan has started to crack its whip on LeT, a terrorist group that has been causing considerable damage to Pakistan along with the Taliban. It is very surprising that the Pakistan government never thought of taking a stern action against LeT during blasts in their own country, but finds it very urgent to act because of the Mumbai massacre and to add to that they have already arrested the LeT masterminds and the JUD chief in no time. Come on; people of the world need a break. It is encouraging to know that US is still not buying news from Pakistan. Unless we are shown video footages of these barbarians taken into custody we will not believe a word that Pakistan has to say. And what was that? Trial will be as per the law of Pakistan? Terrorists are enemies of the world, they must be judged as per the law of the world, of mankind and not of any country. Whatever it means!