8 Deaths and a Funeral in Bangalore...

No this is not a Hollywood flick, it's the hard core reality what Bangalore witnessed couple of days ago. Over the period of half a decade of my stay in Bangalore, I have witnessed two violent days, where the whole city went out of normalcy, threw caution to the winds. Incidentally both trace back to the same icon - Dr. Rajkumar.

Who exactly is Dr.Rajkumar?
To anyone who isn't from Karnataka, he is a remarkable actor, however for Kannadigas, the community belonging to Karnataka, he is a cultural icon. He is identified as a leader, big brother, guide of Kannadiga culture. He has been a legend in the movies, an icon in the Kannadiga culture and an icon, people look up to.

The day I landed in Bangalore, for my job, I found the streets to be violent, tyres burning, people observing a bandh or strike. The cause, Dr. Rajkumar was abducted by former forest brigand, Veerappan. That day started a period of protests and violence till he was released. The anger of the people could be somehow justified, given the efforts of the government to capture the brigand or rescue the icon turned to be futile, but what happened on April 13th can't be justified. You can't justify 8 deaths, $40 million loss to the booming IT industry, cancellation of transportation, public inconvenience, improper funeral, defying law & order, and so on.

What caused this violence?
Different people had different views. Some say that it was caused since the mob was not given adequate opportunity to pay their respect to the departed leader. The crowd was big, but there was decent amount of Police force to control the same under normal circumstances. However, the mob is required to show restrain as well. It's a big loss, but then you can't defy the law, break the rules, beat up police officials, burn vehicles to prove your point. Agreed, that the government should have planned better, given that they got some indication in the evening of Wednesday when his demise actually occurred. There could have been other ways to ensure that more and more people can pay their respect, by making his body available all through the night at a designated place, it would have reduced the mob pressure.

There is another school of thought, which is more political in nature. If that is believed, then it says that the violence was politically instigated by rival political groups to prove that the present government is useless and incapable of maintaining law & order. It was made to point fingers at the administration. As much as I have seen, these people were all drunk to their throats, and the clearly instigated others. The sense of being in a mob, made them feels secure and provoked them to defy law and carry out violence in multiple forms which lead to 8 deaths.

Some policemen died, some civilians died. One of the policemen, who died, was caught on the cameras to be beaten up by the mob with whatever they have. Poor chap was just out of training school, without any protective gear, he tried to flee for his life, but was chased down and battered. What an awful show of defiance of law and order.

No genuine fan of Dr. Rajukumar or he himself would have like what happened but then that's what mob fury is, once instigated; the instigator too can't control it. It spreads like wild fire, as it did on this horrific Thursday and no one in Bangalore, who witnessed the saga, would forget that kind of farewell to such a legend as Dr. Rajkumar. It could have been better...

The city did come back to normal the following day, things moved the usual way as if nothing has happened but for those, who lost lives or property in terms of business establishments or vehicles, this day would be burning in their mind and heart for some time to come.