Lets riot in the name of the Lord

Gandhi said that the greatest constant in the world is change. Most people in India still believe in that maxim, except that they believe that everything else around them should change but their own selves.

I find such examples in everyday life all around the country, where extremist groups, fighting for one ‘cause’ or the other, regularly attempt to subvert the system by breaking rules and then browbeating the authorities into not taking any action.

Most of the country today lives on a very dangerous cocktail of religion and a failing system. In fact, religion seems to be filling the vacuum that the failed system leaves behind. While its a sad truth that the country is falling deeper into the abyss of religious fanaticism everyday, its also obviously clear that most of it comes from the most backward parts of the country.

Uttar Pradesh is one of the most backward states in the country, be it in terms of governence, the filth in their politics, or simply the standard of living. While our forefathers thought it prudent to make UP the most important state in choosing our federal government given its size and population and the then economic might, UP has sadly squandered that privelage. Now it is a state that is used as a whore by unscrululous politicians looking to put a foot into the door to political greatness.

Where law and order fail, other methods take over, and in UP, that method is political bullying by those sections of the society that have been passionately pandered to by the lowly neta. The minorities in UP are some of the most politically important groups in the country, yet are some of the backward as well. Politicians will bend over backwards to get the Muslim vote, but the sad truth is that the latters are still lagging behind in education and basic human development. I am just using this as an example to illustrate the lethargy that has set into the Indian society, a lethargy that debilitates your ability to stand up against exploitation.

I am sure the people of the country know how our illustrious politicians are busy raping the country and the society with their hunting dogs. I am sure because I come across surveys time and time again about how politicians are the most hated of all, how corruption is India’s biggest threat and all that blah blah. Yet we are what we choose. So there has got to be a mental lethargy responsible for the fact that we can’t see that we are voting for monkeys and wolves.

My whole point when I started to write this post was to write about the recent deaths of the ‘Kanwariyas’ or ‘Shiva’s devotees’, who came under a passing train and many died on the spot. Before I elaborate, I just want to say that they should not be considered devotees at all. In fact, this group is the biggest farce in the name of devotion. Their annual pilgrimage to Haridwar is peppered with constant harrassment of everyone else they come in contact with.

On the road, they walk with the belief that nobody else has a right to walk on the same path. When they take the train, they travel with the belief that nobody else has the right to be on that train. And this is one of those vocal, extremist groups that readily break rules and bullys the system into not punishing them. Being vocal and voilent, and somewhat politically important, of course the spineless politician is ready to lick the dust off their shoes.

So this is how the people died in that unfortunate accident. There is a railway bridge somewhere over the Saryu river in Gonda district in UP. There are two tracks on the bridge, and there is no pathway for pedestrians. I am sure all of us know that the only way one can stop a train on any part of the journey other than the station is by pulling the chain during an emergency.

So this bridge comes up and the monkeys, I mean devotees forcibly stop the train on the bridge and get off, walking on the other track. The train coming from the other side does not, and should not expect pedestrians walking on the tracks as if it’s a bloody footpath.

By the time the train comes to a halt, it has run over some of them, while a few jump into the river.

Now these hypocrites are angry because the Railways did not change their functioning to pander to their free will. They tried to burn the nearest railway station, and have called for a bandh in the district and maybe a few other places. Either the media is playing dumb, or simply too stupid/scared to bring this simple obvious fact up. A tragedy it is, no doubt, but these hypocrite hooligans have turned it into another reason why they must be hated.

But then it’s just another day in the gutter of humanity.