Anupam- The Dreamer

The recent Gen Z protests demanding accountability for the fallouts in conducting entrance examinations and educational reforms, have again put the focus on the importance of asking questions to the powers that be and ensuring the answerability of the government representatives to the people of the nation. With the recent turn of events following the protests, the future seems positive and hopeful.

The Gen Z, who were the focus and nerve-center of these protests, were very vocal, innovative and courageous in their way of demanding accountability, in a largely peaceful manner, and exercising their fundamental right of freedom of expression. Much more can be written about it, but for those who were following the news, it will be an exercise in vain. So, I am not going to delve deep into this aspect.

But, here I am going to throw light on some of the lesser and uncomfortable spoken about aspects of these protests, which is not a good trend going forward in a democracy. There is always a fine line between the right to freedom of speech and expression and the duty towards the State for a common citizen of any nation. While a citizen is empowered to ask questions, and even tough questions from his/her elected government representatives, he/she must never forget that there are some obligations too which allows the person to enjoy the right in the first place. Some instances which were seen in the protests call for deep introspection within the Gen Z, in particular, and the youth, in general, to analyse where we went right and where we went wrong.

Now, I come to those examples where I think we went wrong. One protestor was mocking and provoking the policemen by repeatedly saying “vaastegunahuiya”. Seriously? I had to Google it to see what it means. Demanding accountability from police personnel is a person’s right to not commit excesses of force on its own people who are protesting peacefully, but mocking them for doing their duty? Can that be an acceptable trend in a democracy? I am afraid, that shouldn’t be! The police was doing their job of maintaining law and order. Nobody is denying that there weren’t excesses from the police side and from the side of a few protestors as well. When the passions run high, such excesses are liable to be committed, howsoever big restraint is asked to be observed by the leaders on both the sides. But, mocking the police by name calling and asking them to open water cannons and teargas shells? Some police personnel tried to maintain a straight face amidst the dilemma. When calling out their excesses crosses the line of decency, then it becomes a mockery of the institution as a whole. Can a nation survive without its police? NO!

Then, there were some people who used pornographic cartoons to mock the elected representatives! Showing anger is fine, but when it crosses the line of decency and morality, then it becomes a mockery of freedom of expression. By showing such vulgarity, where do we want to go to? Mocking anyone is easy, being vulgar is easy, shouting cuss words is easy, but we have to ask the tough question to ourselves- Are we doing out duty as a citizen to exercise our right to freedom of speech responsibly? Calling out anyone in vulgar language is not a sign of maturity; it is a sign that the speaker is not a responsible person! Can such a person, if given power and position, be expected to govern the country responsibly? Never!

Rights of a citizen go together with their duties. And for the rights to be exercised in a free and just manner, one should always keep in mind the duties entrusted on them by the Constitution of this country! Because, without the rights, there is a fear of democracy turning into despotism and without the duties, there is a fear of democracy turning into anarchy!

We want both- our rights and our duties! And exercising both of them with deep responsibility and truthfulness can only lead us to greater heights as a nation in the future. This is a big lesson that we can take away from these events.

Till next time….