Pundits pursuing issues relating to governments functioning in countries following principles of democracy have favoured a set of privileges, rights in particular, of which the freedom to dissent seems to have drawn into its whirl the land’s mass of humanity, specially the youth and more so the unemployed sections, given the present-day scenario of rampaging road shows being staged all over the country, Mysuru too hosting them almost 365 days a year. Observers of the goings on in the country must have lost count of the number of such road rages, with some days witnessing multiple events in a single day in many cities, including some in Karnataka. Not too long ago, rallies for protesting government’s various measures used to be talked about as a speciality of the people of two well-marked States —one in the South and the other in the North-East, both known for a significant presence of intelligentsia. In some circles, people of these two States were dubbed as perverted, but now the rest of the land has fallen in line as it were.

Farming fraternity, accounting for more than half the population of the country, industrial workforce, various sections eking out livelihood in unorganised sector and the army of government employees (both Central government and different State governments) are coming out in the open to pressurise the administration for meeting their umpteen demands, some of them being justified on good grounds, leaving the powers-that-be flat-footed.

Seeking redressal from the law courts, subject to the provisions made in the nation’s original Constitution and subsequent amendments that have touched three figures so far is conditioned by a) awareness about rights and the lawful ways of enjoying those rights, b) affordability to meet the exorbitant cost of hiring legal  practitioners, c) complying with the verdict of the judges, whether favourable or otherwise, d) bearing with the inordinate dragging of the court procedures and so on. It is only the land’s middle class, as a distinct slice of the total headcount in the country, who are languishing under life’s stresses, yet to find an exclusive platform from where to dissent or protest, unlike the other slices mentioned in the previous para.

The causes triggering protests, rampaging road shows, organising bandhs, violent acts of destruction such as burning buses, disrupting normal life of people, strikes marked by high-decible sloganeering and so on have remained unresolved to an extent that results in an economy that limps instead of galloping. In this context, the measure just taken by Andhra Pradesh government for organisers of protests in different ways to bear the cost of damage augurs well. Even then, unlawful ways of pressing for demands to be met doesn’t befit our democracy.