This is extremely sad news. He surely deserved a dignified farewell. As someone commented, 1 man dies and we showed our reverence by killing three five innocent people. A metro held to ransom. Cars burnt, buses stoned and people dead. There is definitely something wrong with us.
17 thoughts on “A sad day indeed”
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And that too, when he died of natural cause. Seriously there’s something wrong with us. I can’t think what’d have happened if he was killed in accident (or in Veerappan’s custody). 🙁
very bad. things like these make me sad about our country. somehow we need to change our mentality.
IMHO, this is due to the vast divide between the have’s and the have-not. A large section of the society looks and reads abt the millions, the so called IT folks make in the city and see that nothing of this wealth has percolated down to them. As Girish Karnad said, it is now Bangalore vs Bengalooru.
For once I am really ashamed of being a Bangalorean. The national press has more to say on the senseless voilence than celebrate the great life of this artiste. It seems that the voilence is obviously instigated by a group of half-educated, jobless, curious onlookers who had not even an ounce of respect for Dr.Raj. Like someone who said in an interview, the people who felt real remorse stayed home and mourned in silence.
I was trying to explain it to my american friend because we coud’nt have our teleconference with bangalore.It was pretty hard.I told him it was like madonna or elvis dying.He had a look of utter disbelief.
When we comment and lament about violence then I feel we have understood Mob Psychology. This is nothing new in India or elsewhere. When Sikh riots happened we did not have blogging, what about riots after Indira Gandhi died.
As IMHO rightly says its the divide between HAVE and HAVE NOT’s. We all sit with a fat salary and pay for anything we want without asking second question, but what about guys who do different kind of jobs. Where do they have money to afford things which are only within the reach of so-called s/w engineers.
Only if we change they way we are living today, such kind of violence can be minimised in future though there can be no guarentee that these would stop.
1. There was a total failure of government machinery. Where were the contingency measures? The decisions were haphazard and kept changing every minute. Instead of blaming in conspiracy theories and lack of personnel, the government should own full responsibility. It is their duty to maintain law and order and they don’t do that by order the police to kill innocent people.
2. Our male dominated society – the guwahati ODI crowd and this was purely male dominated. Easy for emotions to go lose and the situation out of control. If only there were women, the situation would have been different.
All in all, WE have FAILED in creating a civil society. Our country is not a democracy, but a mobocracy. Mobs have the power – be it Ayodhya, Godhra, Guwahati or Bangalore.
Quite sad indeed. Slightly off topic, but I was intrigued by something that commenter “Kris” (Sathish) left above. He mentioned “Sikh Riots” – which puzzled me somewhat. So I did a search on Google for “Sikh Riots” – and I got pageful of results titled “Anti-Sikh Riots” instead.
I think I agree with most of Sathish’s point though. There are many, many occasions in time and in places all over the world where we have lamented mob violence, but I’m not sure we have really understood the reasons for it, or if we have, the truths are often irreconcilable due to them striking at the heart of one’s personal, cultural and spiritual beliefs. And there’s very little you can do about it if these come into conflict. The anti-Sikh riots following the death of Indira Gandhi are just one of many, many examples …
Yes, Jag.. i think i made a mistake in writing as Sikh riots instead of anti-sikh riots…
this happened as Indira Gandhi’s killers were believed to be Sikhs…
No worries Sathish! As it happens – the murder of Indira Ghandi was indeed a Sikh. And the “mob violence” that ensued was almost certainly based on a belief that all Sikhs were evil and responsible for it. A belief whipped up, in part, by corrupted officials of the state looking for wider retribution. It is indeed sad that the “mob mentality” can override all sense of individual human rationality …
I meant to say “murderer”, not “murder” above. Apols.
What to do? As the comments of some folks on a city bus I overheard said: ” They are not of proper mind saar, they are like that only.” or ” people are not scientifically cynicals” (probably meant as superstitious people)….
The violence and hooliganism following the death of Dr Raj Kumar is a symptom of the great divide that is taking place in Bangalore due to the IT boom in Bangalore. To me it is a wake up call.
I am myself an IT professional on a short visit to Bangalore. Infosys, its shareholders, NASSCOM or the IT ministry can rejoice the announcement of 600% dividend announced by the Infosys.
But what it means to a common man? A house or a plot of land has move further away from him. It means more aliens among themselves. It also means losing their cultural identity in times to come. Unfortunately, the education in our institutions of higher learning alienate our young minds from their roots rather than integrate them with the common man.
What has Infosys or Wipro done for the community? What advantage the community derives from the success of Infosys or Wipro except frustration and anger that will get manifested at some future time. It is not new phenomenon – it happened in Calcutta and north east against Marwaris or in Uganda against Indian businessmen in 60s and 70s.
I am not Kannada speaking but I feel strongly that companies like Infosys and Wipro should make it mandatory for its employees to know Kanad and integrate them in local culture by encouraging Kannad theatre for example. They must also set up institutions to look into the cultural and social implications of their industry.
The industry and society must look into this seriously otherwise we will be in turmoil not in too distant future. Look what is happening in 160 districts – so called Naxal infested regions. It is not law and order problem. I wonder if there are any serious studies on this issue in places like JNU which may boast of experts on various areas of international conflict.
Sureshchander, well put:
Here is an article in Asia Times on the topic:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HD22Df01.html
One way IT companies in Bangalore can meet their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) obligations is by offering their out-of-state employees lessons in Kannada and by contributing to local cultural activities. But, most companies in Bangalore think their CRS ends with ‘donating’ old computers they are trying to dispose. The situation in Bangalore has reached a tipping point and IT companies being responsible for the influx of outsiders into the city, have a greater responsibility to address the concerns of the local people.
I totally agree with Sureshchander and agora in their views. The divide is getting bigger and bigger and it is time the IT companies claimed some responsibility and did something back for the city that has helped them grow and acheive what they have.
Now I know why we’ve never met in bangalore, you must spend all your time doing this!
Luckily for me, I split at day break that thursday morning, the morning after, and drove full pelt like a bat out of hell, I nearly did not make it for the efforts of some tire burning, stone throwing louts, thanks for parallel side roads.
Anyway, hope you are doing great my friend.
Ya its really a sad state of affairs . Every life should have equal worth . It should not matter if its of a political leader or a common man .
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