During the protest march at EWS Quarters, Ejipura, the Inspector-in-charge (named Prasad) warned one of the Resident- Representative that they would be arrested if they came in between the demolition work. When an representative from our group (civil society) stepped in and spoke to the inspector, he identified himself from an individual from an welfare group. The inspector gave the same warning to him and asked him to produce the order from the court or, BBMP commissioner asking to stop the demolition and he would gladly oblige else, face consequence for stopping police from their duty. He then made a statement to him “ “You people are simply supporting for your own selfish motives”. This statement got me thinking.
There is no doubt, when situations like these erupts, there will always be politically-linked groups capitalizing the situation for their selfish motives of vote-banks. But, there will also be groups of citizens (like us) who work with the selfless objective of welfare and sustainability.
Although we were from different Forum groups, as a whole we are representative of the civil society and therefore have 1 identity. .
Thus, the Question is, How do we make our identity strong to ensure we are not stereotyped? How do we introduce ourselves to be taken seriously?
Regards
Vimal