Whenever I get to discuss about
democracy, I get emotional. For me, like many others, democracy is an ethical
question. This was the reason that I did not enjoy my Sri Lankan visit (just
before the last civil war and subsequent genocide) much: despite the country’s breathtaking
beauty. The army check-posts, the tedious process of checking (since I have a
Chennai address in the Passport and I look like a Tamil), travel restrictions
and above all ‘something about to happen’ kind of ambiance, I felt some sort of
un-freedom there.
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| Mahatma Gandhi Marg- Gangtok |
Perhaps, this was the reason, I
did not like the arrival of the nice looking woman police officer in the
morning asking us to remove the clothes (spread for drying on a cloth-line)
from the balcony facing the NH 34 (the only highway we Sikkimese has and very
possessive about it). She was medium polite and informed us that due to the VIP
movement we have to remove the cloths from the line and have close all the
windows facing the road.
The funniest thing is that we did
not know who the VIP was, what is the purpose of his/her visit till yesterday and what all we knew was that hell a lot of activities
were going on, cleaning up of the ridges, white-washing, decorating the traffic
Island and other such places with marigold etc, etc. There was a mobile
announcement two days back that the people should not park their cars on the
roadsides. To understand the devastating effect of this announcement, you have
to live in Sikkim. Parking is a huge
problem here, if you could find a place somewhere on the roadside, then you are
being treated as lucky. And you can see people parked their vehicle in every
possible angle which made me laugh when I came here first; but it is no longer
a joke. We are extremely lucky to have got some space in front of the
University library to park our car.
People were running hither and thither to find
a place to park their vehicles far away from the VIP passage. As the library is situated on the main road,
our car has to find shelter on the girls’ hostel compound which was quite far
from the roadside.
Right now, through the closed
window, I see the deserted road; a lone ambulance and two police vehicles
passed through it in the last 45 minutes or so. Whole traffic to this part of
the State (the only road- no diversion possible) has been completely stalled.
The students were asked to halt midway.
Suddenly, beaconed vehicles
appeared, a total number 30 including two ambulances, VVIPs, VIPs, the press (the
fourth pillar) passed in a hurry.
This is where I get emotional;
why is that the peoples’ representatives are so scared of the people? Why can’t
they travel like other normal human beings without making such sound and fury?
If the answer is that they have a lot of things to do than the lesser beings,
then my simple answer may be that they have not done as much as they would have
done in the last 66 years. If they
stopped the car on the road and just have looked around, they would have seen a
lot of child workers living with in their so called development paradigm.
Anyway, thank God, the road-show
is over, life got into normal. I can put back my clothes to the cloth-line, as
it is winter, we get only few hours of sun.
Long live
democracy!
