We Are Stupid!

Last week, Dr. Ambedkar's statue was vandalised in Kanpur. And that caused Dalits in Mumbai and Pune to vent out their fury, destroying private and public property. Venting your anger on buses, trains and cars has become so acceptable in India that we might as well legalise it. The Shivsainiks do it when something pisses them off. The Muslim groups do it when something pisses them off. And we've never heard of anyone from those mobs being punished for acting like hooligans and disrupting lives. Why be surprised and extra shocked when dalits do it, then?

But I want to talk about something else in this post. I want to talk about the utter stupidity of us Indians which shines through at times like these. Doesn't matter if we are right-wingers, communists, muslims, dalits or anyone. We all can be equally stupid. The kind of idiotic reasons that set us off on these rampages are so inane. Some statue being desecrated. Some foreign head of state visiting. Some other slight oversight. It would make a neutral uninformed observer feel that we have no real issues to get pissed off about.

The real problems, the real outrages go unprotested. Real people can be raped and murdered like in Khairlanji. But what brings us out on the streets is some statue being desecrated. Some mosque being demolished. Some temple which was demolished 300 years ago.

We are stupid!