Beyond candles: Towards Real Awakening

The Google India homepage, as I saw it this morning, carried a little candle lit in the memory of the Delhi brave heart. I hovered the cursor over it hoping for a hyperlink, as happens with most Google displays. But the candle didn’t lead you anywhere. Similar is the case with the massive angry protests on. Yes the rapists deserve severe punishments.

I’m no patriarch. And there’s nothing wrong with paying tribute. But the very next morning, as I sit looking at the headlines there has been a consistency in the news I’m informed of. One, the protest are still on in delhi, says the reporter and I’m glad that no one’s forgotten the case but then there’s another bit of news, the channel informs me of new rape cases across the country .

Dainik Bhaskar’s headline on the 30^th of December read something like “Beti So gayi, Desh ko Jaga gayi” (Daughter has slept, but the nation has awakened). Has the nation really awakened? While the protests are still on; these rape, molestation cases also continue to occur as ever. Why?, my inside screams, WHY?

The answer perhaps lies in something I read the other day. “The current wave of protest in Delhi, like almost every public dialogue in India, has a tendency to invariably degenerate into a clash of personalities that usurps centerstage and relegates the issue at hand to the backburner.”

Yes hanging the rapists or cutting off there rape organs would help, but won't really bring a solution to the problem. You could go ahead and categorize me as cynical, but that's the dark reality. A solution only appears when people like these who still suggest the girls 'when they should not go out' or 'what they should wear' change. This precisely needs to end. 

What’s currently happening can be articulated in a tweet I borrow from @rameshsrivats

Protestors: Govt down down
Govt: Police down down
Media: Twitter down down
Twitter: Media down down
Rapists: Er... what about us?

In Vivek Gumaste’s words “this is polemics at its worst; a rhetorical high decibel vituperative that makes for sensational television cameos and screams to be splashed across the front page of newspapers, but one that does precious little to provide a lasting solution to an intractable problem.”

You get the drift? There’s an urgent need to rightly channel the anger and thriving for change, else the passion and the protests would be used and reduced to media reality shows.

On how to rightly channel things? Here is Vivek's full column for rediff and this one's a must read as well.