Was the reaction justified?

Reason is an attribute bestowed upon us by Providence that enables us to choose, to differentiate and opt, opt not only between the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, but between the right and that which appears to be right. My emotional needs may demand that I kill a doctor who is responsible for the death of a person I love, but my intellectual faculties immediately juxtapose themselves in between my desires and prompt action, reminding me of the consequences. It is when these faculties take a downside in the event of the former gaining mileage over the latter, it is when we tie our reasoning to the anchor of our self-acclaimed righteousness and drown it in the ocean of our eagerly manifested hormones that our actions are termed as unreasonable. Prudence categorically denotes most unreasonable actions as unjustified while the remnant few are classified as those committed by mentally retards. Considering the fact that most of those who are mentally challenged land up in asylums and definitely not in IITs, we can safely conclude that Sunday’s incident at the Diro’s house was unjustified. Purely because of what the agitators themselves had to say, “We were motivated by emotion”.

True, one might add that what passed would focus the attention of the authorities on the needs of the students as never before. What passed would ensure that our dear friend did not lay down his life in vain. What passed was a rightful answer to the aeons of inaction by the authorities. After all, didnt we lose a life, a life that is irreplacable. From a periheral perspective, it might appear legitimate, a ‘justified’ line of reasoning. But, let us ask ourselves a less obvious question. If such an unfortunate incident had occurred at the beginning of the Puja holidays, would the reaction have been so vigorous? When a similar incident occurred with a student from MMM in the middle of the summer holidays, where was the average population’s patriotic sentiments? If one assumes that being in a 1st year hall was not a large impediment to the generation of such sentiments amongst seniors, then one can be safely assured that months of vacation discreetly sapped away the public’s initial, intolerable wrath. In other words, passion gave way to reason and restraint and that being vividly discerned by the lack of even a peace protest march by the students after returning back. Drawing inferences from the above episode, it becomes apparent that the agitators behind the pandemonium were being directed by flared up emotions and not reason, by a thirst for vengeance rather than a quest for a change as claimed by some. After all, a reasonable individual does not heap obscenities on a 70 year old person on the basis of a self-imposed judgement. Like I pointed out earlier, that which is not guided by reason is termed as unreasonable and therefore in most cases unjustified.

Unlike some who toe my line of thought, but simply point fingers at those who were taking a sadistic pleasure out of the situation, I would rather point my finger at those who were actually hurt and felt the brunt of such a loss first hand. For the former can be construed as bastards who were there and will always be there simply to mock the institute which lends them its credentials, the cause, their own upbringing and thereby mock their own selves. But the latter, as much I sympathise with them and might appear hypocritical in denouncing their role, should have considered that there were alternate ways of achieving the same desired result through peaceful means. Did they ever consider going on an indefinite strike against the management and not attending classes? Did they ever consider filing a RTI asking the administration for explanations, facts and figures? That would have immediately brought the media to our doorsteps and highlighted our cause with the desired effect. But now, the focus has partly shifted to the Diro’s plight with a section condemning the students for their lack of constraint. I assure you, we, by our actions nearly ensured that our friend lost his life in vain.

Have we then become that which we so abhorred? What difference is there, then between us the average rioter from Gujurat who would have gone home at the end of the day feeling justified by what he did because even his own brethren were slaughtered by members of the opposite community? What difference is there between us and all the rioters and mutineers in the past because even their actions were legitimate in their own eyes as much as ours are in ours…

My writings do not hold affiliation to any particular organisation’s views and is solely my own opinion.