Mumbai: Somasekhar Sundaresan and Sunil Lulla sit at a poolside table in the Cricket Club of India. Lulla, along with his wife and daughter, was on Marine Drive an hour ago, near the wrecked Trident hotel of the Oberoi Group, participating in a protest against the government’s inability to protect its citizens. He still wears a black paper badge on his shirt lapel. “Tomorrow, it’ll be a cloth one,” he promises.
The Black Badge Movement, started by Sundaresan and Lulla, is only three days old, but it already has its own Gmail address, a Facebook group, and a charter; it has also enlisted hundreds of members, Lulla says. In capital letters, the charter proclaims: “We the citizens of Mumbai will stage our peaceful protest by wearing black badges on our sleeves in the conduct of all our work and business.”
“When people see these badges,” Lulla, director of Alva Brothers Entertainment, says, “they’ll ask why we’re wearing them. And then we’ll tell them. That we want action. That the badge is a symbol of something gone wrong, and that we’ll wear it until it’s fixed.” Sundaresan and Lulla knew seven people trapped in the terrorist attack at the Trident hotel; one died.
The Black Badge Movement is one part of an edifice of bitterness and anger against India’s political machinery. It was built in Mumbai over the last few days by governmental ineptness in anticipating and then quelling the terrorist attacks on the city, varnished by the ire of television anchors, and crowned by the refusal by the widow of Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare to accept the monetary assistance offered by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
On the streets of Mumbai, that edifice is plain to see. Near the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel, passers-by shake their heads at the tragedy and pin the blame first on politicians. Every taxi driver ventures his opinions on the shambolic and corrupt nature of the government. At Karkare’s funeral, the most prominent posters requested politicians to stay away.
Enough is enough
Like the news of the tragedy itself, the anger is now propelled by the Internet and social networking sites. One online group named “E.N.O.U.G.H.” encourages people to wear arm bands with the word “Enough” to “make a quiet, but firm statement to everyone—especially the government(s)—that we have had enough of this world of insecurity, mistrust, and above all, grief”.
“It’s time Indians had a new political party!” another group says on Facebook, adding: “The existing political parties are abysmal, irresponsible, immature and pathetic. There is corruption, blame game, horse trading, cowardice, vote bank politics, spinelessness, lack of awareness and education, and a high criminal record.”