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| Dirty deals: For a few leaders, 'protest' is tool for blackmailing | | A new way to mint money | | Bharat Bhushan
Early Times Report
JAMMU, July 3: The protests, which are a strong medium of communicating with the government on vital issues of public importance, may gradually lose their flavour in Jammu given the inputs that a few small-time leaders have been doing so to blackmail government officers.
They need a reason to protest, howsoever irrelevant it may be. Some protest 30 days a month over virtually "no" issues, discrediting this important form of democratic expression.
The frequently held demonstrations are anti-Pakistan, anti-Geelani and against the government over dilapidated roads, broken electric poles, choked drains and other such issues. Their acts are solely aimed at drawing the attention of authorities concerned towards them and they succeed in it.
A few days back, a government engineer was found enquiring about the address of a "protester" at New Plots. Asked why he wanted to meet him, he said, "Sahib ne bheja hai us-se milne ke liye taaki voh hmare department ke khilaf protest na kare (My boss has asked me to meet him so that he does not protest against our department)."
For these leaders, protests are a "tool" for blackmailing. They have found out this new way to mint money. They would hold protests and then resort to blackmailing of the authorities concerned to keep their mouth shut in future.
There is another leader, who would protest outside Press Club against a particular department once or twice a month. Later, he could be seen frequently visiting this department and exchanging "pleasantries" with its officers.
There is another set of leaders who would hold protests to get favours from the state administration but most of them have now been sidelined by their parties.
The "protest industry" is flourishing well for them. People's issues are important for them only to make money and carve out some political space for them.
Apart from these protesters, there are others for whom politics is a means of making a fortune. A small-time contractor did not have much work to do but after he joined Congress, he developed close relations with a former PCC president which, in turn, helped him to extract huge contracts from engineers of different government departments. He is now a rich person. Like him, there are some others too who have joined politics only to make money. |
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