Dear Protestors, With great power comes great responsibility.....

Read about the protests by Marathas and their demand for reservation while exploring what Shubhashree Sathe believes should be the attitude of protestors.

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India being a democratic country allows its citizens to express their opinions and demand their rights in every possible legal way. Among all these ways, strikes, protests, marches etc. are very common ones. Citizens use these methods to demand for their right from the government. However many a times rather all the times this right to protest is misused for political benefits, because Indian citizens forget that with great power comes great responsibility!

We shall take example of an ongoing recent protest that was conducted by Marathas, a caste in the Hindu varna system, demanding for reservations for them in various government institutions. They had begun this protest in 2016. The protest began by demanding death punishment for rapists who raped a “maratha” girl. However, gradually the protest converted to asking for reservations for Marathas. The protestors demanded reservation on the grounds of the increasing number of farmer suicides in Maharashtra. They claimed that 95% of Marathas were economically backward and that the drought that hit Maharashtra in 2016 had resulted in economic deterioration of the ‘Maratha’ farmer.

There were protests all over Maharashtra in 2016-17,where thousands and lakhs of people marched to various government offices in the cities. The protest in 2017 was highly praised for its systematic, organized, silent and non violent approach. It was actually observed that the organizers had made provisions to have way for ambulances, etc. which in my opinion is commendable. The government also took notice of this as a result of which the upper limit of EBC reservations was raised so as to include economically backward Marathas as well. The other change of reservation in government jobs included a major fault in the government system.

The protest seemed to have settled when all of a sudden it rose again in August 2018. And this time the way was nothing close to commendable. They called for a ‘band’ all over Maharashtra, so that the government takes notices of their demands. They damaged all the shops who dared to be opened on 24thJuly. They harmed the vegetables of all the poor vegetable vendors who were trying to earn their two time meal for that day. They event burnt public transport buses, where they failed to understand that all this damaged was to be recovered from their pockets only in the form of future taxes. They damaged random vehicles on the streets of Mumbai, without any reason. Later the next evening there were severe conflicts between protestors and police where the police had to use lathi charge and tear gas on the protestors.

The most severe of all of these were that 2 Marathas opted to suicide, one by jumping in water and the other by jumping in front of a train as a sacrifice for Martha reservation, which in my opinion is completely stupid. As far as my opinion is concerned I feel that these protests are only used by political leaders to add to their vote banks and nothing else.

I am not against people demanding something in a democracy, it is their right after all but the way in which all these things happens is concerning. Protests and strikes are not used to demand something these days, rather they are done in such a way that they choke the government in order to lend them their demands. When these protests take a violent turn, it is more concerning. Random innocent people suffering losses without any reason, public facilities getting damaged, tires that are burnt aa a sign of unacceptance damaging the environment, is a rather heartening sight to see. And the worst of all is all this benefits only the leaders and not the common man. Tell me what benefit did the farmer get when the protestors threw away all his crop on the road as a way of putting forward their demands in the protest for a farmer’s right, the crop in which he had invested so much of hardwork in; tell me what benefit did the farmer get when the protestors threw away litres and litres of his milk on the road in the protest asking for price rise of milk, the milk which once sold could have given him his meal for the day; tell me what benefits dis the Maratha vegetable vendor get when you threw away the vegetables on his stall during your ‘band’, the ones that could have earned his family a few satisfying morsels of food. We certainly have some things to ponder about in our democracy!

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Written By Subhashree Sathe