Just another hit, or is it?

A manager of a distinguished petroleum company, the Indian oil corporation, blacklists a petrol pump for selling adulterated oil. The pump starts selling petrol on the sly, after a few days. When he tries to stop it, he gets five bullets on his chest. What if he happens to be my alumnus of 2003 batch? I’ve never heard of him, and, aren’t we used to murders?

The 27 year old Manjunathan happened to be one of the few bright spots of our country who dared fight our rotten system. A system controlled by corrupt officials-politicians-mafia nexus, a system which lacks transparency and accountability, a system which takes eons to punish offenders, a system people are so used to, that it fails to tickle them anymore than when Satyendra Dubey, an IIT engineer was killed by mafia when he whistle-blew the corruption in the national highway project an year ago. A system where there is no place for men of integrity, much less courage.

So what’s the purpose of more petitions or even a peace march which we are planning? Customary? Just to show that we are alive and kicking? I guess not.

There is only one alternative to this rotten system. We students, who will refuse to get brow-beaten by such acts, refuse to escape this by the time-immemorial-bushland offers, and strengthen our resolve to fight them. It’s no time for dejection, but action. Rest in peace, whoever you are.