Violence in India

Bengaluru burns over Cauvery issue: Young men go on a burning spree

Ashali Varma

Freelance journalist Ashali Varma has authored the biography of her father late Lt. Gen. PS Bhagat — 'The Victoria Cross: A Love Story'. She was executive producer with the International Commentary Service Inc, New York in 1990. She was the executive publisher of The Earth Times, New York (1992- 98). She has also worked as the editor of Choices Magazine, United Nations Development Programme. She writes on various issues including human rights, population and sustainable development.

I have lived in other countries but never seen the kind of violence that occurs from time to time in India. We have too many  under- educated young men who have nothing to do and mobs form burning busses, police stations and every kind of public office they can. Our police force is always a little too late. It almost seems like the Chief Ministers of various states are blindsided and hope like hell the violence will die down as in Haryana with the Jats; Kashmir with the Burhan Wani death and on and on.

The reporters call them drunk miscreants but the fact that we have so many all over the country is frightening. So called political activists and goons make up a scary portion of India and invariably they are either self-employed muscle men or just goons who have nothing better to do than be part of a mob.

Local political goons instead of setting a good example are criminals themselves. Take the case of MP Shahabuddin, in Bihar, he has been in jail for 11 years for murder but it was to be life. He got out early on bail as the government of Bihar did not bother with a trial that was mandated by the High Court to be completed in nine months.  On his release there were 200  cars in the entourage and the police were told that they should not be asked to pay tolls at the toll booth! Such is the example we set for our youth.

In Bengaluru, when the Supreme Court said the Cauvery waters would have to be shared with Tamil Nadu there have been days of rampaging and as of today 35 busses burnt. Where are the security forces? Why is this allowed to happen again and again where crores worth of public property is destroyed? What is the local government doing sleeping on the job? It is reported that there are about 15,000 policemen out but where are they? Perhaps they are so badly trained and equipped that they can't handle mobs.

From all the violence that one reads about it is clear we have a demographic nightmare on our hands and not a dividend. Our population programs have clearly failed and India simply cannot educate or employ the youth bubble. This has become clear to me in the last nine years since I returned to India. It has personally touched me from the young boys/men who come for employment from Bihar, UP and Bengal. Not one of them could read or write thought they insisted they had passed various levels from class five to eight. Many of them had an attitude and one actually told me he was the Dada in his village and his mother would have hot food ready for whenever he came home. His father wanted him to earn a decent living in Delhi but clearly he had other plans.

We have no one to blame but ourselves. The importance we give to a boy child; the number of female infanticide that has taken place in the past decades; the fact that after Sanjay Gandhi's Family Planning efforts the very phrase became a bad word and we lost all political will to confront it again. We pride ourselves in having the youngest population in the world but at the same time we are a water starved nation and have the largest under-five child malnutrition in the world.

Our education system has failed the poor especially the rural poor and millions are barely employable but the male youth seems to have an attitude of entitlement that is terrifying.

India is the only country in the world that people want to declare themselves "Backward" to get government jobs. They will fight for this, lynch the really backward class and vandalise public property even burning railway trains.

Clearly our old colonial system of policing is out of date. Now we need a professional police force with high-end equipment and training for 21^st Century violence as they do in Thailand, Korea, the US and other countries. We need it more in India than in the countries I have mentioned as we have a huge youth bulge who are angry and frustrated from generations of poverty, indifferent education and massive corruption from our so called leaders in state after state. If there is bad corrupt governance and every authority demanding a bribe than there is bound to be a backlash of violence; violence against women; against the state for not delivering; against castes and class. A dangerous practice has taken root of our country and it will take a generation of good governance to change it. There can be no quick fixes we are racing against time in India as we add millions to our population every year.

And today, almost every third person holds a smartphone in their hands that can get a huge mob together like never before. They have 21^st Century technology against states that are still in denial and slow to respond when law and order breaks down. Then we also have a very free media that loops some images that can fan the flames and politicians that play games to incite their own goons. All together it makes for a very toxic mix every time there is a section of the population that is disgruntled. I hate to say that there is an undercurrent of violence prevailing in India for a long time now and unless the local Chief Ministers act quickly and India gets a highly efficient police force with effective intelligence and equipment, we will see more and more of it in the future.  It is time the authorities are the first responders and not caught napping every time there is a crises brewing.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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