Tuesday, August 13, 2013

The siege of Thiruvananthapuram.

The siege of the government secretariat at Thiruvananthapuram was into day two today when saner thinking and appropriate face saving measures were worked out for both the CPM-led Left Democratic Front and the Congress-led United Democratic Front. Thankfully, the siege had become history by afternoon because it had begun to hurt the people of the capital city as the infrastructure was bursting at its seams with the arrival of the comrades from the other districts.

Some of the interesting observations were:-

       (a) Central forces were brought in and kept as standby.
       (b) The state police had worked out their strategy to tackle the situation in a meticulous manner.
       (c) Both the sides showed remarkable restraint not to escalate the tension.
       (d) And a couple of interesting tidbits:-
             (i) The LDF was footing a bill of Rs. 17.35 crores, per day, for providing food and snacks for
                  its volunteers working on the siege. Several community kitchens at vantage positions were
                  supporting this effort!
            (ii) In addition, every comrade was being given a sum of Rs.1,500/- to ensure his continued
                 interest in the 'cause'!!

Just goes to show the tremendous amount of finances that all the political parties have in their kitty. Consequently, no wonder why none of them want to come under the ambit of the RTI act!

The government has agreed to conduct a judicial probe on the solar scam and the LDF, while calling off the siege, has reiterated that their cadres would continue the black flag demonstrations against the chief minister till he steps down!

My take.

I've the following doubts regarding this Quixotic drama:-

            (a) Was this really required, putting the ordinary people of the city under tremendous discomfort?
            (b) Has anyone won in this show of might?
            (c) The days of resignation by individuals, upon the slightest hint of a black mark, citing morality
                  are long since over. Truth will eventually win despite any amount of cover up! The obvious
                  end can only be delayed.

And, therefore, I feel that such an impasse could have been avoided in the first place if everyone concerned had discussed matters, setting aside their egos albeit for a short while. But that would have been like asking for the moon, I suppose! Sad!!


Tailpiece.

The best thing that has evolved out of this incident is that all sides have shown that they've the ability to exercise restraint! Cheers to that!!

No comments:

Post a Comment