Two days back, Dilip Krishnan had posted a picture of some Gujjar (Or is it Gurjar? I have sene both spellings) agitators vandalising a train. He wondered why nobody does anything even when the faces of the vandals are clearly visible.

Makes sense. They come on TV, they are lighting up and burning cars and scooters on TV, they are turning over hardcarts of vegetable vendors (how does that help in getting ST status?!) on TV, laughing on TV - why don't we just arrest them using all this as proof?

This is unfortunately not practical on two levels.

One, if you arrest every protestor who in front of TV cameras indulge in violence and arson, our jails will overflow. Remember that we have some major protest happening somewhere in India all the time. Often it includes some kind of breaking the law. There are not enough policemen to arrest everyone, not enough place to keep them once arrested, not enough courts to sentence them or file chargesheets in. I remember when I was in Kerala, often cops would arrest protestors, let most of them go, and just keep a few in the station or jail.

Two, social unrest. Today, there is a rumor that an attempt to murder case has been filed against the Gujjar leader Bainsla. If it is true, it is a dangerous trend. Mind you, I am not saying he is responsible or not responsible for the deaths that occurred. It is dangerous because every major political and social leader in India is responsible for violence. Do we arrest all of them?

During every political agitation, there is a party leader or leaders who announce the hartal, bandh, rasta roko, whatever. And often many lose their property and some lose their lives in the ensuing violence. If we follow the principal of arresting the leaders who started the agitation, every party and every community in India would have its top leaders in jail. Often under attempt to murder!

Not practical at all, is it? So even when they are responsible for deaths, they stay happily out of it. This what we have managed to do with our democracy! Super, I say!