It all started on the evening of this Sunday. It was about 7:30pm. We were playing cricket in our street under street light. Suddenly shouts started coming from near by chownk. We all ran to the roof of my house as that chownk was clearly visible from there. People from nearby DALIT colony started gathering in the chownk. It was about 50meters away from our house. In 10 minutes about 200 people gathered there. They broke away the wooden gate of nearby shop, they took some more wood from here and there and set it to fire in the middle of the chownk. Then the mob started marching towards our house. We were all watching it. The mob started pelting stones on every shop on their way. They first attacked duggal eye hospital, then prem drycleaner and other shops. We were all so frightened at that time. We had no idea why they were doing all this. then they attacked our house with stones. Luckily our main gate was not by the side of main road where the mob was going, so no harm to us. But it was such a terrible night. Many of them were laughing and abusing. Then they passed our house and attacked kamal hospital which was about 50meters further from our house. They pelted stone on every car, scooter, home and even hospitals that came in their way. They didn’t even bothered that patients in the hospital can get injured. Then we came down and watched tv. Breaking news flashed on television “RELIGIOUS GURUS, GURU NIRANJAN DAAS AND GURU RAMMA NAND OF RAVIDAS SECT SHOT IN VIENA”.
All night news of dalits protesting against this shooting, destroying public and private property were coming. Next day there was a curfew in whole city. It was announced that no one is allowed to come out on streets. There were frequent patrolling by police in whole city. But people made fool of police. When police party would come, people would run to their homes, and when police party would go away, people would come out again and start abusing police. In mid of this curfew also, some reports of clashes between dalits and police were reported. People were not taking police seriously. At last military was called. When the situation was going out of control military fired some rounds. And two men were killed in that firing. There were reports of protests in ludhiana, fagwarah, Amritsar and nearby cities. People destroyed public and private property all over the Punjab. In jalandhar even the car of DSP was burnt by protestors. Many cars, buses, bikes, trucks were burnt. All this went on for the whole day.
What a mockery of system.
I was not able to sleep that night. Again and again it came in my mind that it is so easy to bring this country to a stand still, it was so easy in this country to harm public and private property. Any small incident can trigger a chain of violence in this country. In fact I truly believe that this incident of shooting in Viena was not a small one. But I think that no incident is so big that it can force people to come out and vandalize hospitals, attack private and public property. This was not for the first time. It had happened many times before also. Some years ago baba ram rahim wore the attire of GURU GOBIND SINGH JI, and made his followers drink jam-e-insaa. People of sikh community were so angry on this that they started protesting violently against this. whole of the Punjab and Haryana came to a stand still. public and private property worth crores of rupees was vandalized at that time also.
Here a question comes in my mind, Is this the correct way of protesting? Is it correct to justify destruction of life and property by saying , “We are protesting against the shooting in Viena”, or by saying ,“We are protesting against baba ram rahim?”. I don’t think so. In fact I don’t even believe in this kind of protesting as many of the protesters I have seen were laughing and consuming alcohol while their protest. This is not a protest.
There was a poor man I knew. He borrowed some money from here and there and bought a second hand taxi some days ago. He thought that he would earn money from that taxi and would repay his loan. His taxi was burnt in this violence. Now he have no source of income, and no source to repay his loans and a family of 6 to support. Now if some one shoot some one in a far away country, in this what is the fault of the man whose taxi was burnt? What is the fault of those people whose property was destroyed? What is the fault of those thousands of passengers who are struck on bus stands and railway stations all over Punjab? This is absolutely ridiculous. This is not the right way to protest. Their were protests in Viena also. But they were very peaceful.
In my every previous article, I have mentioned a problem and then I have tried to give a solution to that problem. But this time I m not able to figure out what could be the best possible solution for these vandals? U have any practical solution to this problem?? Plz discuss it in ur comments.
All night news of dalits protesting against this shooting, destroying public and private property were coming. Next day there was a curfew in whole city. It was announced that no one is allowed to come out on streets. There were frequent patrolling by police in whole city. But people made fool of police. When police party would come, people would run to their homes, and when police party would go away, people would come out again and start abusing police. In mid of this curfew also, some reports of clashes between dalits and police were reported. People were not taking police seriously. At last military was called. When the situation was going out of control military fired some rounds. And two men were killed in that firing. There were reports of protests in ludhiana, fagwarah, Amritsar and nearby cities. People destroyed public and private property all over the Punjab. In jalandhar even the car of DSP was burnt by protestors. Many cars, buses, bikes, trucks were burnt. All this went on for the whole day.
What a mockery of system.
I was not able to sleep that night. Again and again it came in my mind that it is so easy to bring this country to a stand still, it was so easy in this country to harm public and private property. Any small incident can trigger a chain of violence in this country. In fact I truly believe that this incident of shooting in Viena was not a small one. But I think that no incident is so big that it can force people to come out and vandalize hospitals, attack private and public property. This was not for the first time. It had happened many times before also. Some years ago baba ram rahim wore the attire of GURU GOBIND SINGH JI, and made his followers drink jam-e-insaa. People of sikh community were so angry on this that they started protesting violently against this. whole of the Punjab and Haryana came to a stand still. public and private property worth crores of rupees was vandalized at that time also.
Here a question comes in my mind, Is this the correct way of protesting? Is it correct to justify destruction of life and property by saying , “We are protesting against the shooting in Viena”, or by saying ,“We are protesting against baba ram rahim?”. I don’t think so. In fact I don’t even believe in this kind of protesting as many of the protesters I have seen were laughing and consuming alcohol while their protest. This is not a protest.
There was a poor man I knew. He borrowed some money from here and there and bought a second hand taxi some days ago. He thought that he would earn money from that taxi and would repay his loan. His taxi was burnt in this violence. Now he have no source of income, and no source to repay his loans and a family of 6 to support. Now if some one shoot some one in a far away country, in this what is the fault of the man whose taxi was burnt? What is the fault of those people whose property was destroyed? What is the fault of those thousands of passengers who are struck on bus stands and railway stations all over Punjab? This is absolutely ridiculous. This is not the right way to protest. Their were protests in Viena also. But they were very peaceful.
In my every previous article, I have mentioned a problem and then I have tried to give a solution to that problem. But this time I m not able to figure out what could be the best possible solution for these vandals? U have any practical solution to this problem?? Plz discuss it in ur comments.
