Senior state leaders continue their petty politics when they should ideally be discussing/ensuring better security to protect the masses. But people too have made the two-minutes of silence and candlelight vigils tokens of activism, not once questioning the leaders they elected.
Jayaprakash Narayan has been extremely busy over the last week. What has kept him occupied are diverse things: the Babli row, the Yellampalli irrigation scandal, his own party’s organisational elections, problems regarding sarpanches, Prajarajyam party’s Shobha Nagi Reddy’s utterances and other such minor issues. In whatever time has been left, the president of Loksatta has held forth on the Mumbai hold up. This in a way summarises the reaction of the political class of Andhra Pradesh to the attack on Mumbai. “Loksatta is supposed to be practising new style politics. If this is how they react or don’t react when such a major event is happening, you can well imagine what the priorities of other political parties can be,” points out an utterly disgusted Satish Reddy, a bank manager.
Other political groups, in fact, have been more nonchalant. Even as the Mumbai siege was on and the entire nation was on tenterhooks, newspapers carried pictures of Prajarajyam’s Chiranjeevi dancing with Lambada women dressed in their colourful finery on the occasion of Jyotibha Phule’s anniversary. Needlessly to add, both the main players in the state: Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and N Chandrababu Naidu were scarcely upto anything better.
But what takes the cake is the discourse the two resorted in the assembly on Thursday. Ostensibly the discussion was on the terror situation and the proposed strengthening of the Octopus, but the discussion degenerated with Naidu alleging that his bete noire YSR had been behind riots in the old city in 1989 that took 300 lives and he did all this just to make it untenable for then Congress chief minister Channa Reddy to continue in office. Naidu also said that the ultras who made an attempt on his life in Alipiri in 2003 had been supplied a cell phone by a person whose brother was being promoted by YSR. On his part, the chief minister also lampooned the former chief minister and pointed out how he had not made a big issue of the shooting incident at the house of Balakrishna, the brother-in-law of Naidu and who has now been inducted into the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The hidden threat: a big issue can still be made.
“Whatever may be their claims to fame, the mindsets of all these netas is that of mofussil politicians. Neither do they have any understanding of national issues nor do they have any interest. Look at the level of their discourse. Probably they should have found their vocation in the entertainment sector,” said an angry Kiron Shankar, a college student. Little wonder that the following sms was furiously doing the rounds in the city last week: “All the scoundrels of Asia are present in Hyderabad. We are here to keep an eye on them, said Winston Churchill when he was posted in Secunderabad as a British soldier. But who is going to keep a watch on our present day politicians ?”
“Though I initially felt a little upset at the High Court ban on road yatras by political parties interpreting it as some sort of curbing of democratic rights, now in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks I feel that the court passed a great order,” says Anil Namboodiri, a teacher. His argument: why should political parties be allowed to disrupt traffic on main roads and collect crowds when all they talk about are irrelevant issues. “ I hope somebody moves court for a ban on these rallies as well - which are aimed at collecting crowds all with the purpose of demonstration of strength,” Namboodiri adds.
Netas, as a class, have very little to commend themselves to the masses. But random conversations with a cross section of people reveals that in the wake of the Mumbai attack, the politicians have lost whatever credibility they might have had before. Comments like “line all of them and shoot them down,” and “ transport them all together to some kaalapani” were heard during the course of conversations. “ There is no iota of doubt in my mind that these attacks have happened due to lapses of politicians whose rank have been infiltrated by criminals. These politicians have a nexus with corrupt officials who look the other way and allow ultras and extremists -tacitly- to plan their operations,” says K Shyambabu, a retired official.
An interesting observation made by many who spoke to TOI is the perception that politics is becoming more “caste oriented” in Andhra Pradesh. “The role of caste in Andhra Pradesh politics cannot be overemphasised. But even then this time caste politics is at its zenith. It is a Reddy vs Kamma vs Kapu fight. With such a caste orientation can you real expect the neta class to focus on real issues?” asked Sundara Kumara, a student.
WE THE PEOPLE, STILL MUTE
Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Jaipur. Mumbai. A wailing Moshe and about 200 deaths. The horrifying story of terror strikes repeating with impunity every few months, this time unfolding for 60 hours keeping the nation’s attention riveted to the commercial capital. And then candle light vigils across the country. Two wax dripping rallies in Hyderabad. At both, citizens condole the terror deaths. No demands for better security or making politicians accountable are made.
Are citizens as indifferent as the government representing them? The answer is perhaps a resounding yes. Ask the organisers of these two rallies and they lament the poor turnout, how despite the press presence not one participant agreed to come on camera to make a demand of the government, to voice a constitutional right— right to life. After all, it wasn’t a fight they were waging against their poor salaries or about their land being usurped for a government project. Deaths in far off Mumbai or in last year’s blasts in Mecca Masjid, Gokul Chat and Lumbini park weren’t perhaps viewed as personal issues they wanted to fight against. So they simply condoled.
Both organisers and the non-participants of these morchas are forced to think what good would come out of burning a few hundred candles. In many anguished discussions, people express the need to bring about change. But how would it come about if no voices are raised? “Why didn’t any citizen demand the implementation of right to life in its true letter and spirit. Why didn’t any citizen file a case against local authorities making them responsible for compromising on their security due to poor governance,’’ asks businessman Mohan Sidhwani, who incidentally refused to attend the war memorial rally on Wednesday saying he did not believe in such “knee jerk patriotism’’ that too being played out so half-heartedly. He himself is yet to cement his plan of action which he says he is unsure of.
“The turnout at People’s Plaza rally was very poor. I think people are becoming emotional in talking about things but are not questioning the political will or holding them accountable for the security of the city,’’ says a senior citizen activist who did not wish to be identified. “People were even cynical and did not wish to come but eventually some did turn up. They said it was a great tragedy but did not promise any action from their side,’’ says Indira Lingam, a key organiser of the rally held at the War Memorial in Secunderabad. A promise from the government that such strikes are not repeated wasn’t even sought at this rally. “It is time to take candle light vigils forward,’’ Lingam says.
Cynics wonder what can be expected of citizens who themselves bribe officials or readily pull strings to get their work done, inadvertently fuelling corruption. But most citizens this newspaper spoke to for their inaction said they needed a leader to guide them, an organisation to set the agenda and then they would follow. The independence struggle, they said, was a massive citizens’ movement largely because young people were following visionary leaders.
But this is perhaps not entirely true. A small example of a citizens’ initiative was the cause of protecting the city’s green cover a few months ago which took the form of a movement entirely because citizens who cared for the environment put pressure on the government to stop chopping trees. “If scores of citizens put their heads together, would it not be possible to make our political leaders ashamed of how shoddily they treat the masses and make them responsible,’’ a netizen questions on his blog.
“But we are not asking the government for this or that. We are, as of now, consolidating voices of people and forming a movement, the voice of which will be heard at a later stage,’’ says Ali Azgar of Roshan Vikas, who started a chain email calling for people’s voices on the terror issue. “We are providing people with a platform to raise their voice. From here we will see, how to take this forward,’’ he says.
“I can understand the anguish among people on such candle light vigils but these are symbolic and are needed,” says Mazhar Hussein of COVA, one of the organisers of the People’s Plaza rally, who organised another rally at Charminar. He noted that the organisation was also inculcating values of peace among the people it works with.
Meanwhile, some citizens have taken to armchair activism in the form of blogs and angry comments on news websites. But nobody is saying what he or she can do. A citizen’s leader is yet to take birth. Aamir (urdu for commander/leader), anyone?
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