the politics of protest

on a night in september 2004, i had watched the beslan tragedy unfold in my living room. i cried in front of the t.v. with the parents who wept as the tiny limp bodies of their dead children were brought out of the school building. i prayed with them that their children may live.

none of the black widows involved in the seige survived that day. shamil basayev, the alleged mastermind of that beslan tragedy was killed this monday.

yesterday, we woke up to a morning that pronounced that terror in india was alive and kicking. a colleague of my father lost half his family in the srinagar bomb blast. they were from kolkata. they had been on their way to amarnath as part of a series of pilgrimages. before that, they had stopped by at amritsar and vaishno devi.

in mumbai, an activist, among 140 others, lost his life in the bomb blasts on the local trains. he had been on his way to a village in madhya pradesh for an action-plan meeting of his organization.

delhi is on high alert today.

no doubt, sooner or later, the alleged masterminds of yesterday's bomb-blasts would be hunted down too. and justice would be delivered.

on the 9th of july, the prime minister categorically stated that the work on the sardar sarovar dam won't stop. of course, the shunglu committee found that the relief and rehabilitation work is completely upto the mark.

the narmada bachao aandolan is a non-violent movement.

no cause is worth innocent lives. violence has never begotten peace. but oftentimes i wonder if non-violence is all that it is cracked up to be.