Whose Loss is it?

The common feature among all agitations, representations or rebellions against the government is the disruption of normal life and loss to both public and private property. We have read innumerable articles and stories on how many buses a group of protesters torched, or the number of trains they stopped. The recent (or rather the ongoing) gujjar agitation in the state of Rajasthan offered the same standard package. You name it and the media had it reported – stopping trains, uprooting rail tracks, disrupting daily economic activity, loss of property …

Among all this darkness, however, there was a flicker of light … when I saw an article which actually talked about the loss to the country as a result of this agitation. I am usually very cynical of the sensationalist journalism of this era, but this small piece of news hidden among the other more important national issues like who will win the IPL, made me feel that all is not lost, at least, as yet. It is important to quantify the loss to the nation because the human brain does not start ticking till the bottom-line is mentioned.

The corporate sector estimates that India had lost a whopping Rs. 5000 Crore by June 3rd due to the gujjar agitation excluding loss to railways, other property and tourism. The Railways estimate a loss of more than Rs. 40 Crore during these 2 weeks, notwithstanding the huge inconvenience to the passengers for the past 2 weeks. The total loss would probably top Rs. 10,000 Crore for this entire agitation period, which is equal to the income of Rajasthan’s population for a month!

We need more articles in the media quantifying the losses of such man-made calamities and explaining how it affects everybody, either directly or indirectly.