Mob politics an outrage
If the forum of Parliament has just been subjected to a four-week grinding-down as part of a desperate political manoeuvre by a nervous Opposition, reducing India to a helpless, single-issue democracy, what we saw in Bhubaneswar on Thursday was subjecting of the democratic order to a violent physical battering.
Street mobs under the direction of some top leaders of the state Congress Party fought pitched battles with the police in a clear attempt to discredit the Naveen Patnaik government in Orissa and secure the chief minister’s resignation. A woman constable was hit on the head and then kicked about mercilessly in a frightening display of goon power. It is a shame that Orissa’s main Opposition party has not found it in itself to express regret in any form.
The right forum to press for the chief minister’s resignation was the floor of the Assembly. But does the Congress have the numbers in the legislature? The issue driving the Congress mob was “Coalgate” — the controversial allocation of coal blocks that has rocked Parliament — and the role of the chief minister in guiding the process in Orissa. While the part played by various chief ministers in the exercise is a legitimate matter of scrutiny, to mobilise an unrestrained mob of some 40,000 with the sole aim of causing havoc on the streets appears seriously irresponsible. Political dividends usually bypass those who resort to mob extremism. What works best is persistent non-violent protests on the streets when a cause appears worthwhile.
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