A word, or two, about protests. In this season of “uprisings” when “cockroaches” and Opposition parties alike have decided to run amok in the heart of India’s capital city, it’s time to make it clear that the right to protest cannot imperil the citizen’s right to life and livelihood.
In fact, right to protest ceases to matter if it obstructs in any manner these rights. If in July this year, the CJP had not instigated the violence at Jantar Mantar, and constantly threatened anarchy to paralyse the city, and its people, in an effort to blackmail the government into submission, the latter wouldn’t have felt the need to shut down the capital’s high security zone on 10 October, or move the protest venues towards the peripheries of Delhi.
This is Newton’s third law—for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The rest is all theatre, like the attempt to barge into Jantar Mantar, as a few CJP leaders did on Tuesday. As for the political opposition, it is now clear that the issue is not about the so-called vote theft, but the removal of the government. Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi said this in as many words.
That he also said that the government must prove it has not stolen elections—while saying all these days that he had enough proof of vote-chori—is a classic case of shifting the goalpost. Are we to believe that the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha has been fulminating on India’s electoral process without having any evidence, that he has been just shooting and scooting? If this is indeed the case, it’s extremely irresponsible.
As for the threat to topple the government, what gives him, an elected Member of Parliament, the right to threaten a democratically elected government? Then he claims that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is in regular touch with him, and over 200 officers in the government are ready to spill the beans to him. This is not the first time that Rahul Gandhi has made such claims, but till date has not been able to substantiate anything.
Sadly, lack of proof is becoming the story of Rahul Gandhi’s political rhetoric—in fact, lack of proof and big talk, like the latest on how he will expose the Prime Minister. This does not inspire confidence in a man who hopes to be Prime Minister of India one day. Then let’s take the protest march by the Congress and other Opposition parties to the Supreme Court on Monday. Given the reasonably strong turnout— although assessments vary wildly between 10,000 and 1.5 lakh—there is much elation in Congress circles that their time has come. This needs a reality check.
A CPM rally in Kolkata earlier in the year had around 1-1.5 lakh people. But the crowd did not translate into votes, and CPM got exactly 2 out of 294 seats in the West Bengal Assembly elections. And this is just one instance. To win votes, groundwork is needed, plus the ability to win the voter’s confidence. Without these two fundamentals, no amount of gathering a crowd for protests, or rhetoric about electoral malpractice, will move the voter.
