The 20th Day of May, 2006 was planned to be marked as solidarity day with protesters against the governments reservation policy supposed to carry out a massive rally in the capital and also in other parts of the country.
All geared up, we waited for the Saturday morning to make a historic trip to Jantar-Mantar and be a part of this rally. The day's temperature was pretty cool and probably supportive of our noble cause. Puneet Poddar ( a new found friend/ally in this drive) and myself reached CP at 9:10a.m. We were soon joined by another guy from Flextronics. Within the next 10-15 minutes, Ramesh, Prabhakar and Swapnil along with some of his other friends had arrived. By 9:25a.m. or thereabouts, we started towards Jantar-Mantar (very near to CP). There, Kaushik was waiting along with his friends & room-mates (after having watched Rang-de-Basanti the night before). Soon more and more people started pouring in, not only from our company but from various organisations like TCS, CSC, Siemens and many others.
The atmosphere was charging up. With more people came the banners as well, written - "Pukar - A corporate initiative". That was our corporate banner to show that the corporates were not be left behind. A cop came over to give us a few guidelines and also instructed us not to get provoked by the pro-reservationists.
The gathering got into shape around 10:00a.m. with the banners flying high and the protesters getting into a queue. The media people were there to cover the issue. The students from the DU, CAs, Lawyers and various people from other professions were also there. There was some in-decision as to whether we should march towards MAMC to meet the other rally (which had started from MAMC) and then march back along with them to Jantar-Mantar. However, we finally decided to stay put and wait for the other group to join us.
The protests started off with the singing of the National-Anthem, followed by chanting of various slogans against the governemnt policy, in general and Arjun Singh, in particular. Pamphlets were also distributed to the passengers of the vehicles passing by.
While these continued, the media got active to get a word or two about the agenda of the various groups that had assembled out there. So I was called upon by the CNN-IBN team, A BBC journalist and the ETV to speak on this issue on behalf of the corporates joining this protest. Questions ranged from why do you want to join, to whether this is going to be a one-off incident and even asking as to whether the violent means applied by some pro-reservationists in Patna and JNU, a day earlier, was justified.
Soon after, we were joined by the other rally that had started from MAMC. From Jantar-Mantar, we proceeded towards Parliament Street. A podium was set up a few 100 meters from Jantar-Mantar. With the members from the other rally joining in, the numbers soon swelled to a few thousands.
Immediately afterwards, we saw Navjot Singh Sidhu (in his conventional style) and Shiv Khera walking towards the podium. Sidhu started off with his big booming pledges in his own inimitable style with the crowd liking every bit of it. Once he stopped after about half-an-hour of speech, the podium was taken over by Shiv Khera.
Around 12:30p.m., the rally got over with the observation of a minute silence to mark this protest.
The whole thing went of peacefully. A Pan-Indian face was visible in this agitation with people from different professions and also from different parts of the country chipping in, in their own capacity. We left with a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment to have been a part of this drive. A special mention for Amit Jain from our HR dept. who was an active supporter and handled the media issues very adeptly. We have to continue with our fight from hereon, to show further solidarity with the protesters, if required, and in our own endeavour to create a new awakening in this nation.
All geared up, we waited for the Saturday morning to make a historic trip to Jantar-Mantar and be a part of this rally. The day's temperature was pretty cool and probably supportive of our noble cause. Puneet Poddar ( a new found friend/ally in this drive) and myself reached CP at 9:10a.m. We were soon joined by another guy from Flextronics. Within the next 10-15 minutes, Ramesh, Prabhakar and Swapnil along with some of his other friends had arrived. By 9:25a.m. or thereabouts, we started towards Jantar-Mantar (very near to CP). There, Kaushik was waiting along with his friends & room-mates (after having watched Rang-de-Basanti the night before). Soon more and more people started pouring in, not only from our company but from various organisations like TCS, CSC, Siemens and many others.
The atmosphere was charging up. With more people came the banners as well, written - "Pukar - A corporate initiative". That was our corporate banner to show that the corporates were not be left behind. A cop came over to give us a few guidelines and also instructed us not to get provoked by the pro-reservationists.
The gathering got into shape around 10:00a.m. with the banners flying high and the protesters getting into a queue. The media people were there to cover the issue. The students from the DU, CAs, Lawyers and various people from other professions were also there. There was some in-decision as to whether we should march towards MAMC to meet the other rally (which had started from MAMC) and then march back along with them to Jantar-Mantar. However, we finally decided to stay put and wait for the other group to join us.
The protests started off with the singing of the National-Anthem, followed by chanting of various slogans against the governemnt policy, in general and Arjun Singh, in particular. Pamphlets were also distributed to the passengers of the vehicles passing by.
While these continued, the media got active to get a word or two about the agenda of the various groups that had assembled out there. So I was called upon by the CNN-IBN team, A BBC journalist and the ETV to speak on this issue on behalf of the corporates joining this protest. Questions ranged from why do you want to join, to whether this is going to be a one-off incident and even asking as to whether the violent means applied by some pro-reservationists in Patna and JNU, a day earlier, was justified.
Soon after, we were joined by the other rally that had started from MAMC. From Jantar-Mantar, we proceeded towards Parliament Street. A podium was set up a few 100 meters from Jantar-Mantar. With the members from the other rally joining in, the numbers soon swelled to a few thousands.
Immediately afterwards, we saw Navjot Singh Sidhu (in his conventional style) and Shiv Khera walking towards the podium. Sidhu started off with his big booming pledges in his own inimitable style with the crowd liking every bit of it. Once he stopped after about half-an-hour of speech, the podium was taken over by Shiv Khera.
Around 12:30p.m., the rally got over with the observation of a minute silence to mark this protest.
The whole thing went of peacefully. A Pan-Indian face was visible in this agitation with people from different professions and also from different parts of the country chipping in, in their own capacity. We left with a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment to have been a part of this drive. A special mention for Amit Jain from our HR dept. who was an active supporter and handled the media issues very adeptly. We have to continue with our fight from hereon, to show further solidarity with the protesters, if required, and in our own endeavour to create a new awakening in this nation.
"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering
his attitudes of mind...."
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