The rumblings are gathering decibels. Digvijay Singh and Mani Shanker Aiyar have expressed themselves in public. They are thinking people. Sonia Gandhi has urged caution. PC is intransigent. Is the Naxalite problem a law and order one or is it one where years of socio-economic inequities have spiralled into creating a problem that urges a sensitively studied solution? Is the environment being compromised by the privileged that can open the purse strings for profit or should the environment be the domain for those who can derive sustenance from it and protect it?
We need answers quickly and get people at the helm of affairs who can deal with these with an eye on sustainability, equity and non-violence. The greens need protection. If we don't, we shall regret it at our peril.
Let us stop the violence and the bloodshed.
We are all Indians and human beings after all.
This is the real picture of a postcolonial nation like ours: just demands and needs of a certain section of the population gets them a treatment that is meant for 'enemies' of the State! When will the State realize that unless there is development at the grass root level, there will be gaps and citizens will be treated as 'enemies of the state'?
ReplyDeleteI am all for greens, and very soon we aren't going to get any if the greenhorns on the green- hunt [who are actually hunting reds and leaving PC redfaced] while we all turn a sickly shade of green, not just because of the lack of shade or the radioactivity, are allowed to lay waste to natural wealth and the people who rightfully own it.
ReplyDeleteI heard this in a cafe in Athens a few years ago that the biggest enemies of the state are its elected representatives and officials. Recently I heard the same thing spoken by someone chomping a Mac Extra large burger in Delhi. Of course this kind of thing is common conversation at roadside tea stalls. When we hear it, we have the maturity to keep it to ourselves, but its not good that our students pick up this kind of oral graffiti. Isn't it?
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