9/17/2010
3:27 pm
If this article was renamed "India's Love/Hate Relationship with Protests," I wouldn't argue. This article establishes that India's people love their right of free speech and protest, mainly because of the effects that Gandhi achieved through his demonstrations, but then we are introduced to the current day situation where protests have lost their integrity. Firstly, because they are mostly organized by political parties trying to exhibit how much power and influence they have in the country. Secondly, because the protests essentially shut down the entire country, so much business is being lost that the true victims of the "bandhs" (the word used for business protests) are the people at the lowest end of the economic spectrum, since they are the most affected by inflation. The article continually mentions that the public isn't even in great support of these bandhs anymore, and they are more of a nuisance than a powerful message- my question is "which public?" Quotes used on the second page of this article are from "a prominent business leader" and a garment factory owner showing their discontent, and while their employees most likely experience a consequent pay cut from it all, they are the ones expressing their discontent, not the employees, not anyone at the bottom of the economic spectrum.
So how this relates to Human Rights: the right to free speech and protest is a human right, but from this article, even though it seems a little biased, it seems like people are being pressured into partaking in these movements whether willing or not, and could encounter consequences if they defy or oppose the strikes. So the free speech doesn't seem so free.
Instead of focusing on how annoyed the "public" is with these bandhs, the article should really be focusing on how people are forced into a protest when the right to free speech is so highly valued in India. I thought that since this article was in the NY Times it would be relatively unbiased but for some reason the newspaper apparently thinks that the middle-upper business class is the face of India's everyday people. I want a real perspective of this situation, not some business guy whining about a protest actually doing its job.
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