Rajkumar died. Errr ... I must be careful while addressing Him**! (The capital 'H' of 'Him' is not an oversight). THE Dr. Rajkumar died. THE 78-year-old SUPERHERO of Kannada Cinema died. THE icon died. THE cult figure died. THE demi-god died.
He died a peaceful death at his home. But the scenes that followed were anything but peaceful. As soon as the news broke out, thousands of people thronged at his residence. The police had to resort to lathi charge to control the crowd. This despite repeated requests by the bereaved sons of the superstar to maintain peace and order. In other parts of the town, mobs burned tires, private vehicles, buses. They pelted stones at glass panes and forcibly shut down shops.
The government declared the next day as a 'bandh' in His 'honor' (only in this case, 'honor' would rather be spelt as 'politics' because if the government would not have declared a bandh, the opposition party would have done so to derive political mileage). This news of an unexpected holiday would have thrilled me as a school kid. But now, I think about the laborers who earn 50 rupees a day and lead a hand to mouth existence. Will they have to go hungry for a day because the Kannada superhero died? I think about the economy and the huge loss it will be forced to suffer. There are around 300,000 IT workers in Bangalore. Enforcing a bandh would mean at least 2.4 million lost man-hours. Will the government or the rioters make up for this lost time? The ATMs had their shutters down too. What if Venky's family had an emergency in Chennai and he did not have enough cash in his wallet for plane tickets? The Garuda-Mall food-court shops pay a monthly rent of Rs. 200,000. These shops need to make a turnover of at least Rs. 20,000 per day just to break even. Who will compensate for this lost income and the accompanying heartburn?
During his lifetime, Dr. Rajkumar was a strict disciplinarian, one who knew the importance of an honest days work. Would he have endorsed any such action? The answer is a resounding NO! So would a true Dr. Rajkumar fan resort to violence or to forceful bandhs? Where's the connection between grieving for a departed noble soul and rioting?
Most of this disorder is the handiwork of hooligans who use such incidents to settle personal scores. Here are some true-life examples -
1. There was a Tamilian in Bangalore who did not contribute funds for roadside maha-poojas because he did not believe in the public display of religion. Well, some 6 years back, the famous smuggler Verappan (who happens to be a Tamilian) kidnapped Dr. Rajkumar. The organizers of the maha-pooja used this as an excuse to settle their personal vendetta and broke all glass panes of this Tamilian's house in Bangalore.
2. A muslim chacha was riding on his brand new scooter. Unfortunately, he choose a road where mobs were rioting. The mob asked him to get off his scooter and thrashed the scooter in front of his eyes. The police were mute spectators to this - in fact, they asked the muslim chacha to quietly leave the scene rather than take any action!
There are many other stories of such targeted violence.
As a symbol of my protest against this irrational behavior, I went to work today in spite of the bandh. I took the timeout to write this blog. I talked about this to all who would care to listen. And I have pledged that today will be life as usual...
(**Addressing the respected Dr. Rajkumar as Him (with a capital 'H') is not meant to be demeaning. It is used here as a symbol of sarcasm for his so called 'supporters' who have used his demise as an excuse to showcase their personal power.)
