Occupy Dalal St? It already is. Try Occupy Tihar instead

A fledgling Facebook movement called Occupy Dalal Street appears to have got some adherents. Among other things, it wants to fight “greedy capitalism” and “greedy corporates” and media or even India Against Corruption. It has Che Guevara’s picture as mascot. As with any copycat movement, Occupy Dalal Street has tried to fit a western situation into the Indian scenario and falls flat on its face. [caption id=“attachment_110259” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“How about occupying Tihar? Adnan Abidi/Reuters”] [/caption] While corporate greed and crony capitalism have been flagged off as an evil to be fought a long time ago in India, the Occupy Dalal Street movement – if it can be called that at all – has all the looks of a loser, for several serious and non-serious reasons. It has missed the bus. The non-serious reasons first. Dalal Street is already occupied. Anyone who has been to Dalal Street – or any street in Mumbai – should know that they are already occupied. There is simply no space for the Facebook crowd – except in a cyberspace Dalal Street. Dalal Street is home to street occupiers ranging from assorted bulls , bears and stags, street hawkers and the poor. Dalal Street is home to an also-ran exchange – the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). And even the BSE inhabits the Street only in virtual reality space. It’s not the real thing. Ever since shares were dematerialised and trading shifted entirely to the electronic mode, the physical stock exchange has been reduced to a relic. The richest denizens of the share market don’t live or work close to Dalal Street any more. So please do Occupy Dalal Street – most of the rich seem to want to move out of there. Now, for the serious ones. Occupy Dalal Street is a johnny-come-lately to the protests scene. Just in case they haven’t heard about it, the movement against corporate greed and crony capitalism started more than a year ago – in the courts, in the streets and in TV studios. From Team Anna to Team Aruna to Team Arnab, everyone and the dog-at-the-lamp-post has been in “Occupy Dalal Street” mode for at least the last six months. Yes, we know that you don’t think much about India Against Corruption, or Anna or the media, but the people who occupied Jantar Mantar and Ramlila earlier this year, or the campaigners against black money and corruption, are not your everyday greedy blokes, whatever you may think of their leaders. You should know that the battle over Jan Lokpal puts you on the same side as Team Anna – who is opposed by the powers-that-be. Dear Occupy Dalal Streeters. You are way too late to occupy anything except Facebook. And the use of Che Guevara as your mascot also gives you away: you should know that all revolutions end in disaster. Only evolutions work – for they obtain the slow consent of the people in whose name revolutions are staged and misdirected to violence and murder. Ask the Maoists. Even Mamata Didi now calls them “supari killers”. Just in case you haven’t noticed, the whole of India is debating issues of the poor. From the Food Security Bill to the Land Acquisition Bill to the Mining Bill, every piece of recent legislation is about shifting resources from the rich to the poor. “Greedy corporates” are screaming blue murder. It may be another matter that corruption will find a way to grab some of this money out of the hands of the poor, but this is what you should be fighting for – and play watchdog on Social Security Street. Instead of squatting on Dalal Street, you should be watching the pipeline of money going from rich to poor and see that it is not diverted to nefarious ends. You may not think much about the media – even we have some concerns about it – but in case you have been reading some newspapers and watching some TV channels, you should know that many politicians and businessmen are in jail precisely for the greed you want to campaign against. At last count, the jail roll call included one former cabinet minister, one chief minister, one state cabinet minister, several politicians and their family members, and a handful of very senior business executives. In the coming weeks, we may see some more businessmen and politicians, including some chief ministers and former union cabinet ministers, being sent off to jail for scams ranging from illegal mining to land to bribery. So if you want to protest excessive corporate and political greed, the place to go to is Tihar. You may find most of your enemies there. So forget Occupy Dalal Street. The poor have already occupied it. Occupy Tihar instead.