There is a hostage situation prevailing in our great country. Mob mentality is getting increasingly more assertive by each passing day. Helpless and bound to our homes, we cringe with fear from the news of wanton violence trickling in from the streets outside our homes. We are held hostage because our respect for the law of the land is found to be in breach of street laws. Rulers of the streets don’t give a damn to those who are lawfully elected to rule. Neither do they give a fig for the choice of millions as to who would be their rulers. The government brought in by the common citizens by due process as prescribed by the democratic setup, is rendered ineffective by the brute power of mobocracy.

Judiciary is seen wringing its hands in helplessness. It has never looked as undermined as now. The judgements that flow out of their pens no longer obtain to the rigours of law. They are rather tailored to conform to the extraconstitutional laws of the street. Parliamentary processes are given a go by and methods of street rule takes precedence.

The rulers of the street justify their unlawful rule by embellishing their methods with flowery rhetoric of some sublime cause and greater good of democracy.

It’s nothing but blatant electoral malpractice after the election has been done and dusted. It’s more dangerous than electoral malpractice during voting because of its inherent potential to be wielded at the whimsies and fancies of rulers of streets.

Rule by constitution provides for welfare and equitable justice to all. Whereas, street rule distributes equitable inconvenience to all. Democratic rule is hinged upon opening up newer roads of avenues and better prospects for its people. Rule by street blocks all roads and blocks the lives of common public. Checks and balances operate in a system that is rule-based and democratic. Street rule, on the other hand, doesn’t entertain any intervention from any quarter to apply corrective whenever required.

The path from street rule may not lead to anywhere, but it certainly does to violence and mayhem. We witnessed it in anti-CAA protest. It had started off similarly as farmer’s protest now. Encore of speeches were made from the protest site at Saheenbagh, hailing beauty of peaceful protests, of democratic dissent and of constitutional values. All of a sudden, the carefully built narrative came crashing down. The impatience to subjugate the state to their dictates got the better of them and a full-scale bloody riots followed. Many innocents lost their lives. The conspirators are still advancing arguments in the genuineness of their protest and pointing fingers at everybody else, who don’t agree with their methods, for the violence.

We are told this is a protest by humble farmers. But one look at the amount of money flowing and the luxuries being indulged in at protest site, is enough to see the protest for what it is. The humble farmers can’t do without pizzas, pastas, filter coffee and sumptuous Biriyani. He has to have massage center at his disposal and gyms too. He can’t make do with anything less than a real life experience of an amphitheatre for his entertainment. The humble Kissan dazzles his co-panelists in TV debates with such sophistication and with a fluent western accent as to put the hi-bred, western-educated people to shame. They drive hi-end cars. Yet, they want a lifetime privilege of subsidies being paid for by taxpayers to be made into a law.

They want the laws passed by parliament to be repealed. No committee and no negotiations for them. They won’t call off strikes even after supreme court’s order to suspend execution of law. They won’t sit across the table with the supremecourt-appointed committee. The laws have to be repealed, or else they will disrupt republic day celebrations with a tractor rally.

This is getting brazen, an out and out blackmail. The presence of elements supportive of Khalistan and Pakistan’s ISI at the protest site, points to motivation behind the whole game of protest. The supreme court must stamp its authority and stamp out the spark before it becomes an unextinguishable blaze.

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