Shut up! This is my opinion

3 questions arise after witnessing the events that transpired these last few weeks: How dare the government neglect the needs of the citizens? How dare the public protest in such a disorderly and reckless manner? And how dare the media highlight this case alone and neglect the others.

Hello everyone. I’m Abhishek, your average middle class Indian. I live in a big house and have a 4mbs internet connection which gives me access to face book. I've ‘liked’ plenty of posts and photos which echoed my sentiments towards the Delhi Rape incident and even took the pain and effort to incessantly type out 500 word comments airing my lucid views on what needs to be done to turn this country into Utopia. I refused to go out into the streets to protest because my thought process was and still is a tad different from the ones out there holding banners... well at least most of them. My argument was/is this: All these people gathered at Jantar Mantar... what on earth do they expect? Instantaneous gratification? I've been watching these interviews with random protesters and they all had an air of misplaced patriotism about them.

“We want the government to create a strong law against rape” one said. I’m sorry (not sarcasm) but that simply cannot happen at the push of a button. “We want death penalty for rape” said another. What will this serve to achieve? Instead, as Ram Jethmalani succinctly put it, it would only give the rapists motive to murder the victim once she/he has been assaulted. So yes, I still stand by what I said earlier. I will not protest because I personally don’t believe that the slogans are completely justified. But hey, *insert ‘entitled to my opinion’ rhetoric here*

Anyway, I digress.

Let us look at the other team of players in this battlefield - Our honourable politicians. You guys do have your flaws. Be it Mamata Bannerjee (woman mind you) insinuating that rape is caused due to men and women interacting freely or Abhijit Mukherjee’s audacious remarks (I’m embarrassed to even quote them). It doesn’t stop there. As much as I personally believe that the problem isn’t solved by striking fear into the hearts of potential rapists, you guys with your medieval principles and tainted paycheques have done close to nothing to make this country any better in the last decade or so. I’m not talking about just rape here. So yeah, stand up and be accountable.

Ahh... and the media... always playing the role of the mediator. Cunningly poking both the citizens and the government when they’re not looking and shouting, “They did it!!!” You guys are no saints either.

Phew... I’m glad I got all that cynicism out of my system. Now let’s go over what just happened. The people are at fault for being “hypocrites” and mindlessly protesting for a slogan they don’t know the meaning of. The government is at fault for being pathetically inefficient. And ofcourse, the media is at fault for relaying distorted information and then shouting, “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger”.

So where does that leave us? Seems like all roads lead to the same destination – Nowhere. Well that’s true to a certain extent and unfortunately inevitable. Will we get the justice we fight for? The government will definitely turn but what will it be – a new leaf or the other cheek? These are questions that only time has the answers to. Ok, so here’s where I stop stating the obvious and come to the real point.

I’ve been in Delhi for 4 years now and I’ve already witnessed 3 large scale protests at the very grounds which have been barricaded by the police today. The people are obviously agitated. I’ve also witnessed more and more politicians (mostly of the younger generation) stepping out of their comfort zones and admitting that the system needs to undergo radical changes. What most of us aren’t fully aware (or should I say conscious) of is that beneath the crumbling walls of a failing bureaucracy, beneath the daily mundane pettiness of the common man, beneath all the insignificant and nugatory armchair arguments, a storm is brewing. Some might say, the people are finally waking up. Some even say the constitution is changing. But all in all, what IS no doubt happening is that this country is moving forward. The government cannot survive without its people and the people cannot survive without governance. As for the media... hey, you need both of us. We all have our flaws as I elucidated at the start and individually there is very little we can do to fix them... but when we live together(I did not say work) we can overcome them. How? Let’s use Damini’s struggle for justice as an example. The flaws of our government have made us question the reasons behind the series of brutal attacks on women. It has served to amplify the voice of the feminists. It has even led some of to question our own culture and tradition, the same patriarchal society we’ve been raised in. In a population of 1.2 billion people, I think it’s safe to say atleast one orthodox conservative husband will go back home and apologise to his wife who he has been mercilessly abusing for the last few years. He will also probably sit down with his son and tell him that what he did was wrong and that women are not meant to be treated as objects.

Damini did not die in vain. She did what no Indian could ever do - Unite this nation. I’ve been a disbeliever of humanity for most of my life because my horizon ended with the scrutiny of mankind’s many flaws. What I did not realise is that this is precisely where the solution lies.

I’m writing this not out of any bold cry for justice or expression of sentiment but for the people (once like me) who are starting to lose hope on change. Most of curse ourselves for being prisoners of birth I write this to reassure you that all hope is not lost. Have faith in the people... but more importantly, have faith in yourself.