Following a year of scams, cheats and swindles which have come to light after robbing several lakhs of crores from the country, the year 2011 has been marked by some very definitive protests and struggles that are aimed at ending our politicians’ unjust control upon the citizens of India.

This can be seen from a number of demonstrations that have occurred across the country be it due the rising inflation, crime and corruption, the jan lokpal bill is one of the biggest example of public protest.

Although India won its freedom from the British more than 60 years ago, the citizens of this country continued to struggle from scandals and unfair governance due to the selfishness of the few people who had been in power. Because of this, India’s post-Independence history has also been marked with hundreds of protests to oppose this sort of governance.

However, the recent protests that have taken place in opposition to the government have also caused a disturbing trend to be realized. Apparently, it is not the cause that is important according to observations. Rather, it is the people or organizations that endorse this cause that makes the difference in how effective the protests.

Baba Ramdev’s recent protests for bringing back black money to India that is stored in foreign banks has taken the limelight not only because the cause is just, but also because Baba Ramdev is a highly revered personality himself and has many followers across the world.

Also, many high profile organizations such as BJP have also garnered their support to the Baba. The media involvement in such a high profile event just further highlights this demonstration making it the “jewel of the crown” of agitations.

In contrast to this, there have been many such other protests and demonstrations against causes that are equally just but have failed to capture the same attention that Ramdev’s movement has as they are not considered such high profile events.

When the media was busy promoting Baba’s movement, one Swami Nigamananda Saraswati died after holding a 73 day fast for protesting against the illegal mining that pollutes the Ganga River.

Nearly everyone agrees that our national river Ganges has now become heavily polluted. Yet, most of the public was unaware of this Swami’s movement because the organizations and the media did not consider this event important enough. In fact, despite the fact that both Baba Ramdev and Swami Nigamanada Saraswati were admitted to the same hospital, all the media coverage was given to the Baba and no word of the Swami was even mentioned.

Although the numbers of demonstrations that are held against the government continue to grow, it is questionable if any of these developments are currently aiding the common man’s livelihood in any way.

It seems as if the government continues to turn a deaf ear to these protests and do what it has been doing for the past few decades. It just continues to play the blame game with the other political parties and carry out tricky political stunts in order to gain support.

After some time, the people themselves dismiss their movement as a lost cause and the government is given the freedom to carry out governance as it pleases.

The objective, it seems, is to continue opposing the government until it finally realizes the mistake it has made. However, the public would have to wait and watch to see when such a miracle will occur.

edited by Prashant Arya