Whose money is it, anyway?

Arson on private property warrants subjective reaction. On public property you have any number of mute spectators watching the tamasha. What they don’t understand is that each calamity hits their pockets in the long run.

Bus fares have been hiked again. Consequently, prices of all commodities soar as also anything and everything that requires wheels to move. The commonest of common man will be hit more. It is unfortunate, cruel, but surely an avoidable calamity with what is happening around us.

Some 45 years back, I wrote a playlet called “Neelayyagari Deyyam’’ in which a young college student boasts to his uncle about the innate capacity of the youth. He says: “What do you know? We have a youth force of 60 who can burn buses for any and every reason at any place. We have a select group of 25 to go on strike, hartal, gherao or relay fast for any reason at any time. We have contractors ready to supply vehicles at any given moment to mobilise forces. We have financiers who can supply petrol at any given point at any time. And, importantly, we have a vast country at our disposal to bear the brunt. What else do you need in this free world?’’. A forecast of what has been fortified and specialized ever since?

We have a penchant for burning buses at the slightest provocation, be it a political agitation, ‘Nirbhaya’ tragedy, postponement of examinations, onion prices, transfer of an officer, vandalizing a statue, you name it. A lively photo appeared in a daily the other day. A party protesting the hike has people drawing a bus with ropes. It certainly reflects the heartburn of the common man. But the question is: Did any party, at any time in the history of this State, protest against burning of the buses at the slightest provocation? Did anybody try to make the common man aware of his responsibility in protecting public property and the price for the vandalism he has to incur in the long run? It is like the legendary tribal Kalidas (who later became a great poet) cutting the very branch of the tree on which he sits.

Vandalism in India is a self-inflicting malaise, a neurosis that hits the common man while he is gripped by mass frenzy. The pain manifests itself when it is too late. That is when political opportunism sets in to play to the galleries, to translate societal gloom into electoral triumph.

We had RTC employees strike for several weeks recently for political reasons. The agitation may have had its own valid reasons. But the common man was put to utmost travails and the auto-rickshaws had a field day exploiting the situation. Somebody lamented, “Why are these people torturing their own ilk for no fault of theirs while people opposing their cause were in relative comfort?’’ The State went without transport, without administration and without even power for a while. The 60-day strike cost a whopping 160 crore in Northern Andhra alone with 2,849 buses going off the roads. Are these leaders not aware that they are inflicting injury on themselves eventually?

Arson on private property warrants subjective reaction. On public property you have any number of mute spectators watching the tamasha. What they don’t understand is that each calamity hits their pockets in the long run. Mob frenzy is a weird thing. The collective ‘sensitivity’ of the mob at any given point will be at its lowest ebb. It draws inspiration not from collective wisdom but from collective madness. The sensitivity of an individual is driven not by individual finesse but by cumulative boorishness.

It was Mahatma Gandhi who inflicted a death blow on the alien British rulers, bringing their administrative machinery to an instant paralysis by sheer inaction. They were aghast and clueless. The British establishment was forced to come to the discussion table. But not in Independent India. You stop the trains, stop buses, stop even power supply. The establishment in Delhi chooses to close its eyes to the sentiments of the people in the State. It became thick-skinned by choice. It is virtual political paralysis and cruel apathy of the leaders at Delhi. They should immediately address the problems or at least assuage the feelings of the people.

In Japan, the aggrieved express their dissent not by striking work, not by absconding from their duty. In fact they deliver better results during the lunch hour by working more and make the management aware of their grievances. They drive home the point that they can serve better if their demands are met. The management certainly responds to their sentiments.

Lack of sensitivity of the leaders at Delhi, lack of social responsibility of local leadership to drive home the need for a healthy expression of dissent and the collective frenzy that go unchecked result in such inevitable calamity to the common man. Political parties that run funny tableaus on the roads decrying the hike should aim not at the next election, but at the next generation of better citizenship. Is it a tall order to expect from the present political set-up? One wonders.

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