Who Benefits Anyways???

Another week, another set of lives lost, life nipped at the bud, leading people to take to the street, sloganising (ok I made that word up), burning effigies, trying to shutter shops in protest (trying to capture their actions on their mobile phone, or are they doing a Facebook live), creating a general sense of uneasiness, conducting candle light marches, political parties trying to make the most of the situation that presents it smelt, adding weapons in their arsenal to attack each other, to earn brownie points, engaging in mud slinging instead providing a united front, creating makeshift memorials, hanging shradanjali posters, whether they mean it is another question altogether. And then you have runs organised for the victims (on cue).

But how does these actions benefit the ones who happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time, the victim of someone’s delusional sense of self-righteousness, delusional ideologies, religion and concept of heaven. How would all these postering and sloganing benefit them. The only fire that their families would burn would be that of funeral pyres, the only things they would bury would be their loved ones. Give sometime and these attacks would find themselves as yet another page in the sordid history, all but forgotten, buried in the numerous chapters of war mongering, except by those who suffered great loss.

How would shutting shops (let’s face it, this ain’t done voluntarily but more out of fear), and calling for bandhs help them? In fact you end up causing loss, you’re creating a tense climate. Instead it would be better notion of donating a days earning to them.

What we would need to do is to hold responsible the elected members, the ones who claim to represent people. Hold them accountable for the failure to act upon intelligence reports (and online chatter). It’s time we perform our civic duty judiciously, not leaving it in the hands of the ones who can be bought, ensuring that the uncorruptable are elected and are not corrupted, seduced by power. Making a well thought and analysed choice. The ones who would take a stand against lawless neighbours who refuses to see their decent into anarchy, hiding the delusional like a mother would hide her child from corrective actions, from bullies, both National and international, who in their own way try to turn a blind eye.

Once we become a stronger nation no more would a parent have to say goodbye to their child, no spouse would have to mourn the loss of their loved one, no child would have to loose their parent. We need to rise and bring about a change in ourselves first before we begin thinking on a national level, right the wrongs we do, otherwise no one will benefit, and the nation and the world would descend into a toothless and blind world.