'THE REVOLT OF 2012' as I would call it, or as it would probably go down the lanes of history. I am not present there physically in Delhi while the change is happening (which does make this less of a narrative and more of a POV), but have read, felt, underwent each and every intrinsic detail.
One distinguishing thing about this revolt is: it's against people who are one of us! And it hurts to fight our own. But, what hurts even more is: they are unaffected. For them, there are two INDIAs: Political India and non-political India. Political India is their own - their family. They may be competing against each other, fighting with each other, but at the end of the day they are a family and always make up. No matter how much they fight internally with each other, in the times of distress they are ALL together! Non-political India, they are not concerned about!
The funny thing is: Non-Political India, formed by the mango people of the country, is the one the nation belongs to. We are much more in strength. We are the ones who feed them. But, still we don't matter! I do concur that we have been sidelined by the higher strata of society, the people in power. But, is it only their fault? I mean, it always takes two to clap! They were not even supposed to BE the power in the first place. We were the power. We ARE the power!
The government, for one, definitely misunderstood our power - the power of youth. This is evident from the fact that we mutely accepted a '42-year old' man as our youth icon, who didn't even bothered to care to speak to the nation about the current rage going on in the country. Why is our youth icon not with the youth? Having said that, yes a person is not youth from age, youth comes from heart! It's in the personality. Youth is a wave that when given proper direction can take down anything that comes in its way. It represents fearless aggression. We represent a generation, a mob, an individual inspired and motivated to take risks! The 'Ab to panga le liya! Ab peeche nai hat sakte. Jo hoga dekhenge!' generation! We don't wait for somebody to tell us what to do! Sadly, I do not see any one of this in our 'most-eligible-PM' today! The government today has aggravated this "youth force"!
The revolution that we have all been seeing in the past couple of days just did not happen on 16 December, 2012. The volcano was getting ready for decades! Until now, we all had anger in us, but neither had the courage to bring it out, nor the collective outlet. The aggression was not directed! As a nation, yes we were lost! We all used to get angry when a traffic cop caught us on the way to office/college and asked for a bribe! It did boil us inside when none in a govt office paid heed to us until they get a note inside the file! 'Pay 100 bucks and get it done! Who wants to get into rough with these people?' How many of us were strong enough to retaliate when we saw a person eve-teasing on the road in broad daylight? Almost none! And that is the reason, it has come down to this. A heinous crime happens - the criminals are not punished - the country shouts for justice - innocent people are beaten up instead - the whole police force stands up against them. Wish, had they stood up so together against the criminals, this whole episode would have taken a different turn! India has become a State where crime is allowed on streets and criminals manage to get away with it, but peaceful protestors are put in jail and framed with sections and charges. Wish, had the police force been so proactive in framing the actual criminals, this whole episode would have taken a different turn!
But, you never know what just hits. In a country where high inflation, rapes, murders, scams are almost a daily sight, just yet another one flamed the spark to kindle the fire in all of us! It's probably the timing of the time that awakened the whole nation at once. The series of events, starting from Anna ji's Andolan to Arvind Kejriwal's expose and protests to the formation of Aam Aadmi Party to media attention - everything made just the perfect ingredient!
Old (read: the government) may be gold, but new is new and has the potential to be anything it can be! It is just now that we are coming to terms with the "we-can-be-anything" potential of ours! I am a very instinctive person, and trust my word when I say that whenever I see any scam/mishap happening in the country because of government's negligence, the first thought that comes to me is: "Don't worry, hang on! It's all going to be over very soon!"
Too positive too soon? I don't know! But, one thing I know is: December 2012 was being supposed to represent the end! I, for one, just didn't know what. Now I know, it is this 'gunda-raj' of the government! Time to uproot the hooligans from our place. This is the beginning of the end!
However, I do fear as has happened in the past too, is this spark going to fizz out too soon? And we carry on with our lives and manage to leave all this behind us? Are we all out on roads just because it has the media attention (no offends to media!)? If it were not for media, will there be nothing else to bind us all together in one single thread again? Or, will this be a revolution for each and every one of us? Will we see an inner transformation, too? Will we take the control in our hands and be our own media, our own journos? We, the youth, have two different worlds in front us - one is the print and electronic media and the other is the social media - our media! Where we don't need any journalist to talk for us. We all talk, and everybody listens. This is one such example where the youth drove media and prevented one stooped down effort by the government to put an end to the protest!
This country has started something which will be hard to retreat back from sure, but how far it takes us is something I would love to see. This one incident awakened us in a way that a country that is divided by castes, religions, rich and poor is together to fight injustice. WE ALL ARE OUT AND TOGETHER TO RE-CLAIM OUR COUNTRY BACK! However, this sure is also the time to do a cold reality check! Is our country really that great that we talk? Is our country that women-respecting that we claim it to be? No candle march, no protest, revolt can bring Damini back, but a change of perception can prevent another Damini. It's time we stop praying for the change and BE the change!
