NO VIOLENT PROTESTS...PLEASE

Abhishek Pandey

People are angry in India. They are fuming not only in New Delhi but almost in every part of the country. People in Kanpur and Mumbai are up in arms against the arrest of cartoonist Assem Trivedi. He is facing a charge of sedition for making a cartoon on national symbol. Congressmen are infuriated in Odisha against Biju Janta Dal (BJD) for doing nothing for the development of the state despite being at the helm of affairs for the last 12 years. One woman constable was allegedly pulled by her hair, molested and beaten up badly by the out-of-control mob.

People are on Jal Satyagraha in Madhya Pradesh against the BJP government for their demand to bring down the water level in Onkareswar Dam so that they need not to leave their land and settle elsewhere. Farmers are protesting in Uttar Pradesh against the State government; they are vandalizing public property to push their demand for increase in compensation given against their land.  In Tamil Nadu people are protesting against Kudankulam nuclear plant and a 44-year old farmer had lost his life in police firing. Muslims are coming on streets in almost all parts of the country in solidarity with Muslim brethren against the violence against Muslim in Assam and other parts of world. Many policemen including pedestrians were injured; public property was destroyed. 

Is India a country of intolerant people? Or it is just we have not learnt how to use our constitutional right to free speech and expression. India is a democratic nation and everyone has a right to express their opinions in words or in pictures or for that matter in cartoons too. But no one gives us a right to throw stones at police or public. Are these protests solving any of these problems? They may not be solving.

This is our constitutional right. We have right to protest what we don’t like but it is our duty not to disrupt public life. It is our duty not to give anyone a reason to protest. Many of protesters are inspired by Mahatma Gandhi but they have not learnt being responsible like him. Someone had rightly said, “my freedom to move my fist ends where your nose begins.”

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