 |
| Image courtesy: www.thehindu.com |
Mumbai,
the financial capital of India, is under siege again. And this time, it
was not bullets that were flying out of assault guns and grenades bursting in
the middle of the road and war cries by so called non-state actors. The city
was under siege by our own God of Rain “Indra” who was responsible for the
havoc and this wasn't even the first time. After 12 years of the first
deluge, the city of Mumbai was again paralysed due to heavy rains which brought
it to its knees.
What
followed was a mockery of the crisis at hand: Newsrooms blaming civic agencies,
advising do’s and don’ts for the people stranded on the roads, offices
and at railway stations and enjoying yet another day of 24 hours
reporting where they are allowed to shout and pass their judgement
without analysing the ground reality.
Mumbai
was always prone to water logging and this time was also not different, we have
seen and witnessed numerous times in the past how heavy rains can bring
thecity to a standstill. Despite the fact that this will happen sooner
than later, no one seemed to be bothered about this, till the time it happened.
We
are talking about spirit of Mumbai and how people helped each other and opened
their gates for unknown people to help them in time of crisis. But I am curious
to know why these very people never did anything to solve the problem that
beset them in the first place. Why, after 70 years of Independence, we are
still stuck with problems like water logging, floods and famine?
We
as citizens have no time to come out on streets and protest against so called
Godman’s responsible for tarnishing the name of religion, we as citizens have
no time to protest against atrocities against women, we have no time to protest
against Child abuse as well! We as citizens exercise only our right to
criticise the government and blaming others for not doing their
duties.
How
many people in India conduct candle marches to improve basic and civic amenities
in the country? How many people protest against depleting infrastructure?
How many people protest ifsomeone is bothering your neighbour?
The
answer is No One!
We
assume that we have chosen a representative by casting our votes and this is
his responsibility to rectify all around us and if he is not doing it we will
choose a new representative next time. This goes on and on, till the time
we are back to square one.
So
for the sake our upcoming generations lets fight: Lets fight for equal rights,
fight for better civic amenities, fight against biases based on caste, colour
and religion and for God sake lets fight for a better India!!!
