Salman Khan one
of the top Bollywood superstars was recently convicted of manslaughter
in the death of a pavement dweller and sentenced to five years in prison
by the sessions court in Mumbai. The Mumbai High Court has suspended
the sentence letting Salman remain free while he exhausts his appeals.
The sessions court judge while announcing the sentence reiterated the
following facts presented by the prosecution—Salman killed one pavement
dweller and maimed four others when he rammed his vehicle into a
roadside bakery and rode over the pavement. He was under the influence
of alcohol and was also driving without a valid license.
It comes as no surprise that the
Bollywood fraternity rose up to support him. There was talk of the 200
crores (30 million USD) invested in movies being wasted if Salman was
imprisoned and there was a beeline of politicians including the
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray and the Congress
MLA Nitesh Rane to the house of Salman, a convicted felon to express
their support. Singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya came up with the strangest
allegation by tweeting that “roads are meant for cars and dogs not for
people sleeping on them” thereby squarely blaming the homeless people
sleeping on the pavement for getting killed and maimed as well as for
Salman’s predicament!
I suddenly realized that singer
Abhijeet’s point of view wasn’t all that crazy. In fact we have been
hearing this all along. When dams were built and dozens of villages were
submerged uprooting hundreds of thousands from their homes and land
whether it was the Narmada dam in India or the three Gorges dam in
China, the powers that be proclaimed the villagers are in the way of the
dam and development, like homeless sleeping people were in the way of
the Toyota cruiser racing over the pavement with a drunk by the name of
Salman sitting behind the wheel without a driving license.
The mining companies advance the
same argument when they want to mine the hills and mountains—the tribal
communities living in the valleys are in our way. The South Korean
steel giant POSCO and its friends in the state government of Odisha and
the central government sang the same tune—the people whose houses,
fields and lands were being swallowed by the company are in the way of
investment and development.
Sometimes it is not the people
but trees, gardens, educational and cultural institutions that are in
the way. In 2013 the prime minister of Turkey wanted to convert Gezi
park in Taksim square, Istanbul into a mall and shopping complex and
when people protested and camped in the park they were brutally
assaulted by the police. The prime minister declared that the park and
the people gathered there were in the way of development.
Nearer home I witnessed this
misguided enthusiasm of the Kerala government to convert a heritage
school in Trivandrum, my alma mater which last year observed its 125th
anniversary amidst the uncertainty to a bus park and shopping mall. The
school occupies more than five acres adjacent to the East Fort and falls
within the heritage zone comprised of the East Fort, Vettimuricha Fort
and Sri Padmanabha Swami temple which was recently in the news for its
hidden treasures worth more than twenty five billion US dollars. Famous
poets such as Ulloor Parameswara Iyer, former chief minister of Kerala
Sri Pattom Thanu Pillai, former chief justice Sri Padmanabha Kukkiliar
and social reformer Sahodara Ayyappan once taught in this school. When
the students, teachers and alumni of the school protested against the
takeover the government said they are all in the way of development!
Democracy is supposed to be
about equal rights and rule of law. But the rich and powerful want the
whole country as their exclusive playground. They don’t want anybody or
anything in their way whether it be people, trees, mountains or
educational or cultural spaces and institutions.
Bollywood wants the poor people
to spend their hard earned money and watch their movies and dance to the
tune of their songs but the stars don’t want the people in their way
when they drive their Mercedes Benzes, BMWs, Lexus SUVs or Rolls Royces
on the road, pavement, park, shops or even into your homes if you are
lucky to have one.
from here
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