Guilty Middle Class?

I am surprised to read the piece by Suhas Palshikar (“In the Shadow of Terror: “Anti-politician or Anti-politics?”, EPW, 13 December 2008). The Mumbai incident has shocked everybody and the public response is seen as natural and necessary. To read in this a middle class attempt to subvert our democratic political system borders on a overreaction. Palshikar timidly mentions “many faults of our politicians”. I wonder how anyone could ignore the way the politicians have been taking the people for a ride. Do I have to talk of the level of attendance in the Lok Sabha? Or the crimes committed by them or by their progeny in total defiance of the law of the land?...the list can indeed be long.

Sometimes a point comes in a nation’s life when one has to agree, “enough is enough” – no matter who says that in the media. I am afraid to say we have to be living in a very perverse world if demanding “tough measures” (which certainly does not exclude implementation, nor does it necessarily include waging a war) in the face of a crisis like this becomes immoral because someone or some party also says so! Should not the idea, and not its source, be more important?