Reactions to the Jessica Lall case remind me in a way of similar outrage over what happened after Satyendra Dubey and Manjunath murders.
People you wouldn't have expected to have felt a sense of outrage and wrong doing. When we think of PIL-filers, protesters, outraged citizens asking for retrials and justice, often it's the lawyers/NGOs that come to mind. But in these cases, it's been what I'd reluctantly call "regular citizens". Software engineers, students, researchers, bankers, courier company employees. Ask a middle class person on the street about the Jessica Lall verdict - in Delhi atleast - and you're unlikely to draw a blank. There's some strong feeling.
A young researcher tells me she relates to this because "Jessica was a woman, she could have been me". Two young men buying paan outside the NOIDA Barista sound angry at what they call a media outcry over someone who was good-looking, and ask why no accompanying hype followed say the Kalinga Nagar killings. Whatever the reaction, there is one, and I'm certain I'd have drawn a blank if I'd asked the same people about Dalit deaths or tribal injustices.
Have so many people sent protest SMSes, showed up at vigils and rallies, signed petitions, ranted on their blogs because of the media hype? Or does the media hype reflect the newly expressed outrage of a class of society traditionally silent on issues of public governance/law?
Part of the co-opting of the New Activists certainly has to do with technology. How much easier to send a message or sign a petition online than earlier forms of protest. It's the mainstreaming of activism, the inclusion of a middle class so far impotent when it came to matters of governance. But what comes after the quickly generated SMS or blog petition? How does middle class frustration with the system translate to positive change?
ps: Just opened comments after months, let's see how long the good feeling lasts!
