Pawar attack: Things are going too far, let’s pause and reflect

In the climate of hyperventilation, over-the-top reactions and general acrimony, the attack on Sharad Pawar does not surprise.

It was Pawar today, it could be anybody else tomorrow. It should be time to introspect for all. Things are surely going too far. We are forgetting to draw the line between what is acceptable conduct and what is not and unless we cool things down, it could turn explosive.

Something is decidedly unhealthy about the surrounding. Just check the reactions after the assault on Pawar. “Was it only one slap?” asked the venerable Anna Hazare, in his first reaction to the news. He was quick to make amends, saying, “… it is not right to hit someone. Our democracy does not allow such attacks.”

From the political class it was a qualified condemnation. “We have just been told that Sharad Pawar has been assaulted over price rise and the government says that prices have come down,” said BJP MP, SS Ahluwalia.

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh said price rise was an issue but such attack is not acceptable. Almost every opposition leader expressed shock but made it sound like it was not entirely unjustified.

The attacker, Harvinder Singh, had said he was frustrated with rising prices and corruption. He claimed to be the same person who attacked former telecom minister Sukhram outside a court last week. It is perfectly alright to feel angry and frustrated but who gave him the right to attack somebody? Isn’t that against the law? None of those who were reacting to the incident was willing to ask that question.

Moreso, there was no open condemnation of the growing culture of violence in society. No call to sit back and reflect what is wrong.

On television, political leaders were playing their usual games — trying to score political points while trying to sympathise with Pawar. There has been a flurry of such attacks on different personalities in recent days and each attack seem to be encouraging new ones.

Let’s feel sorry for Harvinder. He is a victim of the anger manufactured in television studios. He is a victim of the sense of hopelessness and powerlessness created by intellectuals and activists in the public fora. He is made to believe that nothing is right with his world and nothing will change for better. The more they keep harping on the negatives, the more angry he gets.

Obviously, he is not mature enough to understand the stupidity of his act. Attacking ministers has never brought prices down, it will only bring unpleasant brushes with the law. Nobody told him that price rise is a complex issue and no government — particularly this ineffective one — would want to lose popularity, by letting prices go through the roof. And, nobody told him that governments do not have magic wands to control prices. He sounded too emotional, too disturbed.

There’s something in the air that’s making everybody aggressive, impatient and intolerant. We see it daily on television during ‘debates’, we feel it in the uncivil rant on the websites and we saw it during the anti-corruption move of Anna. This has to stop before it gets out of hand.

Harvinder is a symptom of a larger malaise. The country needs to address that first. For starters, let’s tone down a bit and bring the heat down. It may ensuring eyeballs, but, it is also causing long-term damage to society. Let’s us not pretend that all the problems of our country have easy solutions — there aren’t.

The impressionable get easily carried away by that assumption. And we should not applaud physical violence as a tool of self-expression.

Such incidents don’t make us look macho, they make us look foolish, immature.