Streets are the cradles of social changes!

Should all the public meetings conducted by the roadsides be banned? Should the political parties be denied the most effective means of reaching out to the people by denying them the access to the place where the mass is most likely to be found? The Supreme Court seems is suggesting so!

On a judgment dismissing the review petition filed by the Kerala state government, the Apex Court has upheld the verdict passed on June 24, 2010 by the Kerala High Court imposing statewide ban on public meetings by the roadsides. The Court also further made an observation wondering why the government had to even approach the Apex Court to reverse the judgment of the lower court when the High Court verdict only strengthened the government’s hands!

Earlier, the Kerala High Court gave the judgment in response to a petition filed by an individual who contented that public meetings caused inconvenience near the railway station area in the Aluva town. However, the High Court had issued a blanket statewide prohibitory order on conducting public meetings and rallies by roadside and suggested that the order was being given to ensure free flow of traffic on public roads and to ensure the safety of the traveling public.

Before coming to the issue of the ban, let us spare a thought or two on the apex court’s observation wondering why in the first place state government has to approach the court when the high court’s order was in fact giving the government more power. This remark has long-term repercussion and should worry anyone concerned with the democracy and citizen’s rights. Is the court trying to suggest that government should be happy with anything that give it more power over its own people? Should the government be happy with any laws that allow it to impose its will over its people? The order implies and legitimizes the fact that the government and its people have to be in the opposite camps! Though the ruling machinery is by and large anti people, the said character is not something that should be welcomed or condoned, but is something that to be treated as an aberration. By very definition, the government in a democracy should be ‘for the people’ and thus it should be more interested to empower the people and not itself. Court’s opining that the government should automatically accept any laws that empower its hands at the expense of people’s rights is worrying to say the least.

It is suggested that public meetings be held at designated places like conference halls, play grounds etc without disturbing the traffic and the people on the public roads by conducting meetings on the roadside. On the surface this may sound like a simple, straightforward, win-win formula for everyone involved. However, once we go a little deeper into the realities on the ground, it will become clear that this issue is not something that should be dealt so simplistically. To start with, there are not enough facilities suitable for holding public meetings in the state of Kerala. Street and corner meetings have been thus an integral part of the political, social and religious activities in the state for long. It had been a continuing practice since decades to hold festivals, processions, political and other public meetings, religious discourses etc by the roadside. This is however only a part of the problem. The crux of the issue is in fact much more fundamental and far reaching. The bigger concern about the ruling is that it is taking away from the hands of progressive forces the most fundamental means of instilling social changes through educating, organizing and orchestrating public upraising against the wrongness in the system.

Reaching out to the masses has never been easy for social reformists and political activists. Mass don’t flock to them. They rather have to reach out to the people, run campaigns and dialogues and raise the consciousness of the people in the process. This exchange happens on the streets. It is this coming together of the people that results in the emergence of the ultimate driving force behind social changes. Any move to close down this very avenue would only be at the risk of cutting down the most critical lifeline of a healthy democracy. It would be a grave ignorance to expect people to always voluntarily gather in the air-conditioned conference halls and designated meeting grounds to get educated and inspired. As the saying goes, if Mohammed doesn’t come to the Mountain, the Mountain has to go to Mohammed! The activists go to the people, not the other way around.

We are living in a time where people, especially the large majority belonging to the middle class, are increasingly becoming self-centric and inward drawn! Added to this, every vested interest having any stake in keeping the status quo in the society spare no effort to keep people away from coming together. The sermon of the era is never to look beyond one’s own affairs. More the people turn their heads away from public issues, the better! Everybody has only one goal in this age of globalization; to win at any cost, even if it is at the expense of the rest. Competition, not the cooperation, is the mantra of the present. Efforts are to destroy even the smallest signs of revolt and resistance. Scheme is to keep people away from any places that can potentially groom resistance and forces of change. Thus, many of the once most active meeting places like libraries, clubs, street corners and community places are slowly disappearing. People are kept out of the street, not by force but by carefully designed market tactics, tying them within the trivialities of life and luring them with the temptations of soap operas, entertainment and reality shows within the comfort of their homes. It is to this mass the activists need to converse. It is this mass who need be turned into soldiers of the army fighting for change. A population passive and slaved to the existing system will be the biggest threat to our democracy. We need a responsive and responsible population to safeguard our democracy. We need them on the streets. Let us not destroy the very cradles of social changes.

Suresh Kodoor