Unprecedently and historically, India’s present political governing generation stood besieged for nearly ten hours by India’s Generation X by agonised protests against the Government’s inaction of letting India’s Capital City turning into the ‘Rape Capital’ of India.

India’s political masters would be sadly mistaken by dismissing this development as a passing bubble.

Symbolically high in content, these protests in which the Government allowed police to use baton charges, tear gas shells firing and water cannons to break peaceful protest demonstrations of India’s youth represents a systemic breakdown of India’s governance. India’s youth perceptionaly seems in no mood to submit to use of police power by the Government of the day.

Visible starkly throughout the day on TV visuals was the total lack of any pacification initiatives by a highly apathetical Indian political class to assure that strict measures would be undertaken to stop crimes against women. Generation X and the ordinary person on the streets were persistently asking throughout the day as to where was Congress President Sonia Gandhi, herself a women and Delhi’s Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, herself also a woman. In their perception both of them should have restrained the use of raw police power.

India’s Generation X were also vociferously asking as to where was Rahul Gandhi projected as an iconic leaders of India’s youth when the Delhi Police was indulging in brutal breakup of peaceful Young protesters, for no crime at all, but to demand death sentence provisions for gang rape crimes.

India’s Opposition Parties political leaders were equally absent in coming out at the protest demonstration sites and plead with India’s Generation X that they would all make efforts in Parliament to pass the concerned Bill lingering for the last six years.
This does not augur well for the Indian Republic where it appears that India’s present political class, both ruling and opposition ones, are in a state of ‘severe disconnect’ from India’s Generation X and irresponsive to their legitimate demands.

These demonstrations were not confined to New Delhi alone but found resonance in metropolitan cities all over India. Notably these widespread political demonstrations have been spontaneous ones fired by the sense of injustice and agony over breakdown of law and order.

The significant point is that these widespread demonstrations are not spearheaded by any political party and nor is Generation X are letting any political outfit to take over the movement.

At the time of writing a TV visual is showing a 91 year old elder carrying a Placard “Rashtrapati Ji Jago’ which translated means ‘Mr President Wake Up’.

Sadly, these visuals are more reminiscent of suppression of peaceful demonstrations by the police under British Colonial Masters.

This should be a wake-up call. India’s generation x is seething with anger at India’s political class.

All this makes me ponder whether I was wrong in the past in this Column for advocating that India Needs a Second Republic.  

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