Looking at the nature and tone of the public protest in Delhi against the brutal rape of a 23 year old medical student who has now succumbed to her injuries and the way things unfolded in the streets of Imphal and other valley districts in Manipur following protests over the brutal assault of a young film actor, brings home the very nature of differences in approaches, participation and content. Protests in Manipur have been loud, vocal and yes, often violent. On one side are protestors who explain their actions of extreme forms of protest as being the only resort to waking up the Government and its various machineries. On the other side of the protestors are the security personnel who are only ready to get cracking literally with laathi sticks and ready to shoot with tear gas shells, mock bombs and even real bullets. Even if we are to look at other protests taking place in the country and then at those taking place where there is deep militarization, we will see that the deep seated insecurities and angst of people gets reflected in extreme ways of protests like burning and damaging public property that one gets to see so often in Manipur and stone pelting that started in parts of Jammu and Kashmir and adopted in the recent protests in Imphal.
Compare the scenario to the protests that take parts in other parts of the country where the norm is to have large turn-outs that congregate peacefully and light candles. Since the nature of protests are different the responses, too differ. It is not too common to see police resorting to brutish ways elsewhere. The presence of the national media spotlight on protests in the country except of course, the ones that happen in the north eastern region also means that authorities are well aware of the need to be less violent in cracking down on protests. The recent protests in Delhi which took place at the most security sensitive areas of the country- India Gate, Parliament Street and the official residences of the Delhi CM and other leaders for days on end only saw barricades, water cannons being used to keep protestors at bay and on the occasions where protestors broke down barricades, they were fired with tear gas shells. Manipur on the other hand, has seen a lot of physical casualties over the years during the course of public protests that have included serious injuries and death by firing.
A popular Hindi film showed a novel way of protesting against government apathy. When officials refused to entertain complaints from the public, they would be handed red roses. One famous scene had a senior citizen whose pension process was being stalled as he had no money to offer as bribe, taking off all his belongings and even his clothes and offering them in lieu of the money. A term ‘Gandhigiri’ was coined keeping in Gandhi’s concept of showing the second cheek to the one who slaps one cheek to begin with. Not surprisingly enough, this reel form of protest was soon adopted in real life with success. Where protests filled with strong words and aggressive actions were not working, the change to shame people into taking action was seen to be working. In neighboring Nagaland, young people reached out to one another on social networking sites and through personal contacts to take a stand against pot-holes in the streets of Kohima and Dimpaur. When numerous complaints to civic authorities failed to bring in any positive action, the youths took to the streets and made a strong statement by merely making fun of the state of the roads: some youths brought out their fishing rods and acted like they were fishing in the water that filled in the pot holes while many others ‘planted’ saplings of plants. Maybe just maybe, there needs to be some serious thought on how public protests should be shaped for maximum impact and one with minimum casualties with no harm done.