Evolution and Rang De Basanti...

26th Jan 1950 was the day when India became a republic. The day is celebrated as a national holiday since then. Rang De Basanti was released the same day this year. It is a about a revolution. It is about the importance of having Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad even today - today when India is already free from foriegn rule. But they are needed equally badly today because even today there is injustice and the poor (and their lives) are sacrificed on the altar of luxuries of the rich (and their consumptive desires).

What the British did to Indians then, Indians are doing to themselves these days. Injustice abounds. Government turns a deaf ear to people's calls for justice. Judiciary goes blind even in the face of stark evidence. It is in this context that we need people like Chandrashekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh even today.

The movie was released more than 2 months back, then why am I writing about it today. Because much water has flown down the Yamuna in the past 2 months. There has been an unprecedented response to injustice that was meted out in Jessica Lal murder case. Jessica Lal was a middle-class upcoming model. She was bar-tending at a Page-3 party one evening, when a group of roitous young men asked her for some drinks. She obliged. But when they came again, it was past the party-time and they were closing. She politely refused. They insisted. She was stern. Then one of the boys - son of a high-fi government official - allegedly pulled out his revolver and shot her in the head. She died even before reaching the hospital. Tens of people must have seen this. It was national headlines the next few days. But, seven years after the incident, the accussed were declared not-guilty. The judge says, "I know that you did it, but the investigating agency has not provided enough evidence". Strange...

The injustice struck a chord with the people. They had seen Rang De Basanti just a few days back. They felt that they can do something. They protested against the judgement. SMSes were recieved from far and wide. People from all over the place wrote against the injustice. Media flared up the issue far and wide.

It was strange. After a really long time was the middle class shouting. They had always been the quiet class. They recieved all the goodies - though not much in terms of "luxuries", but still a very good deal in terms of what they spent and what they got.

The poor were shouting from help, but it was rare that someone from the middle class would stop and listen to the problem and work for a solution. Or show solidarity with the poor and say that they deserved more. The middle class was never bothered about what was happening anywhere else. It was not content within itself either. It would ask for more freebies from the government - subsidies on Petrol and LPG, cheap ration, free water, cheap electricity, better roads, better TV stations and what not. But it never shouted.

That millions of people in thousands of villages do not even get clean drinking water did not bother them. They had their taps running. They used (and still use) the drinking water to wash their cars. Millions of Indians have been displaced to give electricity, minerals, water and food to this so called middle class - its actually less than 5-10% of Indian population.

But middle class had come out on the streets this time - since they felt the pain of injustice - possibly for the first time in many years...

I was hopeful that this awakening would continue. That having felt the pain of being meted out injustice, this set of influential people will possibly raise their voice whenever they see injustice. I was wrong.

On 8th March, Narmada Control Authority (NCA) cleared the decks for raising the hieght of Sardar Sarovar Project dam to 121.92 m from the present 110.2 m. They said that rehabilitation has been completed upto this hieght. It came as a shock to the villagers who were yet to be given any land. 35,000 families is not a small number. It counts to more than 1 lakh people even if you consider 3 members per family.

Jessica Lal was just 1 person. She was killed in a party attended by a limited few. The middle class had still believed the story and arose to ask for justice.

Here were more than 1 lac people, who were being murdered in broad-daylight - for everyone to see - but no one came for help.

Jessica Lal did not have even an organization giving out the details of the event, for Narmada hundreds of organizations across the world are asking for Justice (check out http://petitions.aidindia.org/narmada/), but the middle class is unperturped. The PMO is silent. The President doesn't seem to care. The state governments are lying in the face of evidence. The people are suffering. But the middle class is sleeping.

But this was not why I started writing this article. I was triggered by another event.

Union Carbide plant in Bhopal leaked "unquantified" amounts of Methyl Iso-cyanide in air on the night of December 3, 1984. This was more than 21 years back. Thousands of people died on that night. Mass burials followed. A few survived. But their survival was difficult than death. They were suffering from disorders unknown to mankind. Union Carbide fled the country. It valued every life to about USD500. It gave the compensation to the government (not to the affected people) and fled.

The government did not ask for more. The government did not evaluate the damage caused. It simply took the money. It gave a few thousand rupees to the affected people. It kept the rest with itself - to develop Bhopal. The money was meant for survivors and affected families of the Gas Disaster. It was not a tax that someone had paid - to be used at the whims and fancies of some Babus sitting in air-conditioned offices in Delhi.

The people were suffering. Their problems have not yet been diagnosed. They still encounter births with congenital disorders at a much higher frequency than any general population would. More than one generation have been affected.

The disaster is counted as the world's worst industrial disaster. One would imagine that government would give them some special services - like Japan government did to the survivors of the nuclear bombings. But these people don't even get clean drinking water.

The tube-wells in the area, have all been contaminated by chemicals from the factory. The chemicals that Union Carbide had left in the open - and fled - had leached into the underground aquefiers. The Supreme Court had directed the government to provide clean drinking water to the affected localities. Even two years after the order, and one and a half years after the Supreme Court directive, they did not get drinking water.

In desperation, the survivors walked from Bhopal to Delhi - a distance of 800 km (http://bhopal.aidindia.org). The middle class people in Delhi are afraid to walk even 8 km in the scorching sun. But they did not feel the pain.

I went to show solidarity with the marching people in the last leg of about 6-8 km. It was a pity. The marchers - who had walked 800 km - were being treated as cattle by the police. They did not even get water on the way to Jantar Mantar (from Nizamuddin).

But they continued to walk. I continued to learn. I learnt that their resolve was strong. I learnt that they still forgave the police-wallahs. I learnt that even though they did not get any drinking water by the sides of the roads, they still liked Delhi - not for its people - but for the beautiful roads.

I also learnt that they did not see what I saw - that while crores were spent in beautifying roads in Delhi, even if a small percentage of this amount was routed to the gas affected families in Bhopal, they would not have needed to walk 800 km to Delhi.

But there was more learning to come.

I reached home after the march. I was not very tired. I am used to walking. 8km was not a long distance for me. I was definitely overwhelmed. I was excited about meeting Rashida di and Champa didi and Satinath Sarangi and Rachna and many others who had walked the distance and were ready to go on fast from the next day on. I was humbled by their resolve.

A few comments/ questions came my way. "Did you accomplish anything by wasting a day there?" "Shouldn't you rather contribute to the success of the country by working harder at office - working for something you are skilled at?" "Don't you think that a person could be hired at Rs.60/- a day to increase the crowd there?" "Did you not waste your day?"

I chose not to answer the questions - lest a fight ensue. But yes, I learnt more that evening. I realized that the effect of Rang De Basanti was not as real as I had hoped it would be.

I wondered that if I had gone for the candle light vigil in Jessica Lal case, would my family have responded similarly. Or would they have proudly claimed to their friends that I was there. I am not sure. I think they would not have resisted my participation there.

In fact, so strong is the feeling against my fighting for these causes that even when I went to Dharamsala - on a completely personal excursion/ adventure trip - I recieved a comment from one in the family "I thought you went there to light some candles on the road." The satire and sarcasm in the voice hit me hard. But then you have to learn to live with it.

Rang De Basanti possibly did not bring about an evolution in the middle class after-all...