Face of India

Some people are so dumb they never learn. Our decision-makers in the Union Government are a good example of this. Time after time, the government has been caught on the wrong foot. Most Indians will remember how, earlier this year, our leaders tried to prevent the public from assembling and demonstrating—first time during the incident involving Baba Ramdev, and second time involving the protest march of Anna Hazare soon thereafter. Both times the government underestimated the extent of public support in favor of the two protests, and resultantly had to bite the bullet. But did they learn anything?

This time around, the public anger against the government had grown many times greater compared to earlier in the year, what with the unending rise in prices and the ever-increasing number of scams by government ministers. One can go on and on, but the fact is that we suffer from a “governance deficit”. It seems everybody, from police to politicians to judges, is busy making money. So, when demonstrators began to assemble in central Delhi nobody understood the gravity of the situation. Nobody from government came to talk, pacify, or placate the protestors. Instead, they were warned not to assemble.

Having seen the tremendous public anger and outrage on the streets, the same decision-makers are now paying their respects to the gang rape victim, whose body came back from Singapore yesterday. They are talking about doing something for the protection of women. But talk is cheap and is almost always intended to score political points and to save one’s skin. Similar assurances were given earlier this year, in similar circumstances, in connection with the passage of the Lokpal Bill. In India rules are enacted to allow exceptions, and promises are made to be broken.