Make 2013 the year of Angst, Revolt and a New Order

Preserve this rage.

Nothing is sacred except the People of India, says Tarun Vijay, MP.

The Raisina Rising has given us new hope and confidence to take on the ugly and undesirable in Indian society.

The colourless, bannerless and leaderless upsurge has proved that we are alive and cannot remain mute spectators like the crowd that sees an injured Indian on the roadside and moves on callously.

The hardest hit has been the credibility of insensitive politicians who seek refuge in family fiefdoms. Change is needed to usher a fresh, new, forward-looking, polity that goes beyond caste, religion and parochialism.

The People want peace, progress and prosperity. We want to be happy Indians rather than self-ridiculing and hate-arousing Taliban.

Look at India-Pakistan cricket matches -- those who said we shouldn't be playing 'them' were surprised to see thousands of youngsters willing to wait for 24 hours, out in the cold, in mile-long queues to buy tickets.

That is the mood of the nation which is not gauged by the naysayers.

The economic boom and empowering the marginalised and disadvantaged segments should become our new Ram temple.

When a nation is in pain and exhibits profound sorrow collectively, it is shocking to see the complete absence of religious leaders from the social radar.

Whether they are Hindus, Muslims, Christians or the new gurus and miracle healers, we don't see them sharing in the People's faith in the New India and mingling with the true devotees of the new gods of happiness.

Do the Gods have nothing to do with the sufferings and the dreams of the masses?

Why can't we begin an initiative to make our places of worship more sensitive to the mundane affairs of the faithful?

As a Hindu, I would like to have my temples more responsive to the people's demand for corruption-free governance, clean temples and orderly pilgrim centres, free from the anarchist demands of the priests.

Let these temples have a proper, pre-determined, regimen of fees and services offered where the poor are on top of their priorities.

Our faith centres should be natural centres of social responses too.

We should praise and recognise goodness anywhere and in anyone.

The common 'do-good person' should be more empowered and recognised.

In Uttarakhand, we have started a campaign to recognise and honour those small, yet significant, contributors to the common public good.

Anyone who has done anything good at a small, regional or village level, will be invited to say why and how he did what he did. Whether s/he is a student coaching the poor or a housewife saving a family against alcoholism, or a teacher taking care of her/his village environment and teaching students honestly, or a labourer working for the common good or a bard arousing the people's conscience.

These individuals will be felicitated by the governor on Swami Vivekananda's birth anniversary on January 12.

Let those who have never been recognised, never mentioned for their goodness in the newspapers, be at the forefront and the obvious fossilised faces of fame be left in their backyards for a while.

The nation will feel a refreshing change that way.

We must argue with the mediahouses to give lesser importance to political leaders who mean less than the voices of those who have no political opinions and ambitions.

The media too has failed abysmally with its fixation for the rich, urban and politically influential for whatever reason.

The rural and common India hardly finds space unless something weird or catastrophic happens.

The bad, ugly and the weird have become bywords for TRP gains.

Will something more interesting and overpoweringly glamorous in its content soon replace the present angst against the system and euphoria for change?

Remember Gohana? The atrocities on Dalit women never found a consistent follow-up from the same media which has taken on a missionary zeal during the Raisina Rising.

Rape has become the main instrument to subjugate Dalit women. Yet, the so-called high caste-dominated media is completely immersed in its page three, paid reporting of the wine parties of the rich, which suddenly wakes up to the grim reality once the youth invade Delhi's power circle. This too needs to be addressed.

But finally it is the politician, the ruler, who has to share the blame and make amends before it is too late and s/he is dust-binned by public rage. S/he must answer why s/he is hated by the new youth.

The Raisina Rising has given a new dimension to the people's war against the ugly politician-administrator nexus.

The politicians who hire buses and trucks and make followers travel without tickets to turn up at their meetings for a fake show of strength;
the paid media that gets money from every candidate and political master to project false images of success and character assassinate the neta's rival;
the moneybag-touting musclemen trying to control Parliament through sheer bullying;
the benefactor who promises everything to everyone to capture power;
and the big corporate investor who would put money in the business of politics to earn ten or hundred times more with minimal risk.

The youth at Raisina have proved India is alive and doesn't care much about filthy communal issues raised to garner votes and have strictly stopped politicians from piggy-backing on their cause, making the anger and its expression very honest.

Even the media, otherwise politicised and in the habit of projecting news through the coloured glasses of the mediahouse owners, had to become transparent this time and project the issue as a campaigner for truth and justice.

The government first frowned like the British sergeant at Jallianwala Bagh in April 1919, then fumbled and finally yielded.

New laws, new commissions, speedy trials, special courts, official party proposals to castrate with chemicals, a hospital and a special plane to Singapore, the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi at the airport to receive the body...

Everything is possible, in no time, once the politician discovers that the waters have reached the neck and people will not let her/him come out of her/his home.

Shame the politicians and they deliver

Make them afraid of losing power, losing votes, and the Opposition gaining from a particular issue, and s/he comes out on bended knees, saying yes to everything you demand.

This chicanery, hypocrisy and insincerity expose these archaic politicians, which the New India does not want.

Rot in the garbage, but don't come to us is the People's cry to politicians.

The credit must go to the social media and the youth who gathered at Raisina Hill from nowhere.

Preserve this rage.

Learn to be more angry and dissatisfied with the status quo.

Revolt against all boxed sacredness.

Nothing is sacred except the People of India.

That should make 2013 a Year of Angst, Revolt and a New Order.

The rest will follow, naturally giving way to a better India.

Tarun Vijay is a Bharatiya Janata Party member of the Rajya Sabha.