Time for mass movements to be really mass movements
The late leader, Mr Periyar is credited with having launched a series of movements to get his message right -- he was an atheist, and this was not acceptable to a huge majority of people. Yet, in his fight against superstitions, he was able to mobilize hundreds of thousands of people, through his thoughts and action -- he often lead from the front, and was very friendly with leaders across the entire political spectrum. In fact, his friendship with the former Chief Minster and a giant of his lifetime -- Rajaji -- is well documented in literature that concerns social movements in Tamil Nadu.
Much earlier, Mahatma Gandhi was the one who mobilized millions through his method of non-violence, and he had a huge moral authority, mainly because he lived his talk.
Cut to the modern times. The present Prime Minister has unfortunately not been able to carry his messages forward, due to his own party men and his rather hasty utterances -- like the one on the Land Acquisition Bill, which is now seen -- quite rightly, as against the rights of farmers. Very fertile lands can now be acquired without the consent of the owners and this is sheer nonsense. Mr Modi was able to get his message of clean India, across to a wide range of people, but was not able to sustain his momentum only because the intent was lost in the maze of his acting on behalf of huge Corporate Houses -- at least the Public Perception was such that, and it still is.
So, we are back to square one. What should the parties such as AAP do? Very simple. They should collaborate with the tribe of investigative journalists, get their cooperation and mercilessly expose corruption in public places. In particular, all politicians should be taken to task, and no one should be allowed to escape. When such a movement gets played through the electronic and print media, it is quite possible to enter the collective consciousness of people, and the movement can be sustained, through dharnas, fasting, public interest litigation, and quite simply, protests by huge masses of people -- running into several hundreds of thousands of people.
The use of Student power should also not be underestimated. When such a movement, with the active involvement of the people is on, it becomes very difficult for the ruling political class to stay away from it.
This has unfortunately not happened in many cases. For instance, there has been loud shouting by almost every political party in the Opposition, in Tamil Nadu, against the heavily one-sided Himalayan Blunder of a Judgement by the Karnataka High Court in the disproportionate assets case against the present Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Ms. J Jayalalitha.
It is public knowledge that a mass scale loot was then on by the same Jayalalitha and her cronies in Tamil Nadu, between 1991 and 1996., Every single citizen of Tamil Nadu knows that she had indeed swindled over fifty crores. Now, the public is brainwashed into believing that this fifity crores is small change, when compared to the hundreds of crores or thousands of crores of other later scams such as the 2G scam or the Coal Scam!!
Such is the ridiculous argument! Almost every single person has missed the wood for the trees!!!
The present value of all property in the name of Ms Jayalalitha and her cronies is now over five thousand crores, and this is a fact for all to see!!! What was the value of fifty crores twenty years ago?
People have not taken to the streets because the general public shows apathy. Yet, a whole lot of educated people, who are apolitical, have expressed their angst against one of the worst Judgments in recent times, and it they who should have come to the streets.
We cannot ignore any past sin against any politician, just because he or she is now reformed. It is just as fine to say that a criminal who has committed two murders, and is now in prison for five years. His conduct is very good, and so his life sentence should be suspended.
Similarly, we should all fight against the abuse against the degradation of the environment. No "development" can really answer the needs of people --- vegetables, milk, rice, wheat and a whole lot of spices would have to be imported, if we continue with the present policies of heavy urbanization. In fact, there is such a huge shortage of labor for agriculture in rural Tamil Nadu, and this has resulted in farming becoming such a waster of an occupation. Tamil Nadu has the dubious distinction of the highest percentage of people living in urban areas, thanks to rapid development of small towns, that have developed on the basis of a growing service sector, but one without a huge number of highly needed skills.
For example, Carpenters and electricians and plumbers are very difficult to find. It is very difficult to find trained cooks either. All this, when the State of Tamil Nadu has one of the highest literacy rates in India.
Mass Movements against rampant industrialization and consequent destruction of the environment in total, is so essential. For example, in Vellore District of Tamil Nadu, the entire town of Ranipet is polluted with a huge number of leather industries. Each and every capitalist was able to manage for a very long time, without any significant investment in effluent treatment plants. It is only after the intervention of the Supreme Court, has the situation become slightly better.
Similarly, we need mass movements against the rot in education. Worse, the Union Government, under one of the worst Education Minsters, is now trying absolutely stupid. The attempt is made to bring in an uniform syllabus and examination for teachers across all Central Government Universities. This is the worst reform that is now sought to be introduced. Each and every Central University needs to have a role of social transformation, given the cultural construct of the particular State and location it is in. For example, in Tiruvarur, in South Tamil Nadu, it is essential that the focus should be on training through innovative courses, a whole lot of manpower needed for agro based industries, or for service industries such as the Business Process Outsourcing ( BPO), that is now firmly in place, even in small towns in that region.
If there are common courses with common syllabus, with teachers who can be transferred across locations, it will become a fertile breeding ground for corruption and the "localized approach" to cater to particular needs of particular regions will be totally lost.
Mass movements are the need of the hour. There are no limits to such movements. There need to be hundreds of them at any point in time. Let us all break our heads on how to get such movements going.
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