Need for Discipline
One's freedom should not be exercised at the cost of others. If our freedom begins to impact others' lives negatively, then there is need for either voluntary restraint or legal prevention. Someone else's freedom cannot be at our cost.
However, in today's world freedom produces collateral impact that harms others, and yet there is no effective mechanism to prevent this. The result is that those who abide by the rules become victims to those who have scant regard for laws and rules.
What is the solution? Effective prevention and punishment, of course. It is the primary duty of the governments to protect the law-abiding. The administration, the courts, the media should all work for the protection and the well-being of the law-abiding and not for the violators of rules and norms.
Incidents of road-accidents by minors from rich families who mow down innocent road-users and destroy families cannot be treated as unintended deviations by "innocent children" who need our sympathy.
An Act of Terror
The protest in the AI Summit must be considered objectively and without personal prejudices or political expediency.
My objection is not to the taking-off of clothes. It could be taken as a protest all right. But the wrestling the protestors did with the members of the public and the security staff gave it a totally different complexion.
The word "fear" has many equivalents --- apprehension, fright, anxiety, worry, panic, terror, and many more. Of these the word terror must be understood. Terror is an apprehension of fear that might strike suddenly, unexpectedly and cause damage.
Viewed from this perspective, the assault of the protestors was
- Sudden and unexpected.
- By indulging in physical struggle with those who tried to stop or secure them, they created a situation where the sensitive and costly equipment in the pavilions could have got damaged.
- The experience, naturally, creates in the minds of prospective participants fear that a sudden and unannounced "protest" of this kind might damage their equipment in case they participate in such events. They may, therefore, shun such events in our country.
The political party by this "protest" has only earned a bad name among the countrymen. No political party other than the Congress has said a word of defence or appreciation for the "protestors". The damage to the image of the country is sizeable.