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Occupy Dalal Street

Hafizzz

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Jun 28, 2010
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India’s ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Barely Fills Corner
India’s ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Barely Fills Corner - India Real Time - WSJ

For those who were excited about the prospect of the “Occupy” protests finally coming to India, a spoiler alert: Even before India’s “Occupy Dalal Street” could get going in Mumbai Friday, it fizzled in the face of a dismal turnout and police action.

Members of the Maharashtra State Bank Employee Federation, a trade group, and Prakash Reddy, a local official of the Communist Party of India, had announced their plans to stage protests at Dalal Street, India’s Wall Street. They hoped to ape the success of the movement in the U.S.

But it wasn’t to be. If, in the U.S., the movement is characterized by large crowds and days or weeks-long protests, the scenes in Mumbai were very different. The protest comprised of fewer than 50 people, bored police, and an audience clueless as to what it was all about. It lasted all of an hour before representatives of the trade group declared the protest over. Some bank employees even took the chance to leave early ahead of a long weekend.

The only action came when party workers from the Communist Party of India, with red flags bearing the party symbol of a hammer and sickle and placards with anti-capitalist slogans, marched toward the site. The police promptly pushed them inside a police vehicle and took them away. Police officials declined to say why the protesters were removed.

As this was happening, a small group of middle-aged men and women stood at a corner of the street with posters articulating their demands. They represented the bank employees and they shouted slogans against the policies of the Indian government. Among their many demands, they voiced opposition to licenses being given to companies to open banks and they urged the government to enact strong recovery laws to tackle the problem of willful loan defaulters.

Mr. Reddy, on the other hand, expressed his anger at the police crackdown — before he, too, was taken away by the police. “Instead of stopping us from protesting, the police should crackdown against the frauds who have occupied Mumbai,” he said.

The only star attraction at the protest was the presence of Tushar Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson. Mr. Gandhi expressed his anger at the attitude of police officials against peaceful protestors and questioned India’s democracy. “Even before independence people could stage peaceful protest. But what has happened today smells of bullying and is not a sign of democracy,” he told India Real Time.

There were other activists who came to the protest hoping it would be similar to the movement across the globe but they were turned off. Sanjeev Khedekar, an artist, said in an interview: “We came here through the appeals doing the rounds on Facebook to occupy Dalal Street, but this is something else.”

He added that he came to the protest to express his anger against the lack of transparency in the Indian political system and called for a movement here like the Arab Spring.

Still, the event’s organizers remained optimistic. “Given the time we had to spread the word, I think it is a good response. We are very happy,” said Suresh Dhopeshwar, a former president of the All India Bank Employees Association.

How it will pick up momentum and spread all across India just like the way it is happening in the USA.
 
How it will pick up momentum and spread all across India just like the way it is happening in the USA.

It will not appen in india..
The Wall Street protest is a protest against high flying bankers who in their greed made illogical speculations and lost the money of millions of investroes..
In India the banking sector is primarily dominated by Government sector
The RBI through its extremely conserrvative policies keeps a tab on foreign capital that insulated india during recession
The Communists who might actually lead the protest in India have lost their power in their strongholds and are politically irrelevant
The private sector is a major job creater and value adder in India while Government jobs are actually shrinking
Indian entreperenusrhip is respected throughout the world and domestic consumption rather than exports have been true contributor to India's growth story
 
It won't Hafizzzzzz it won't.

For those who were excited about the prospect of the “Occupy” protests finally coming to India, a spoiler alert: Even before India’s “Occupy Dalal Street” could get going in Mumbai Friday, it fizzled in the face of a dismal turnout and police action.
 
IAC & Occupy Wall Street: Many parallels between Indian and US movements, says Friedman
IAC & Occupy Wall Street: Many parallels between Indian and US movements, says Friedman - The Economic Times

GOA, India: The world's two biggest democracies, India and the United States, are going through remarkably similar bouts of introspection. Both countries are witnessing grassroots movements against corruption and excess. The difference is that Indians are protesting what is illegal _ a system requiring bribes at every level of governance to get anything done.

And Americans are protesting what is legal - a system of Supreme Court-sanctioned bribery in the form of campaign donations that have enabled the financial-services industry to effectively buy the U.S. Congress, and both political parties, and thereby resist curbs on risk-taking.

But the similarities do not stop there. What has brought millions of Indians into the streets to support the India Against Corruption movement and what seems to have triggered not only the Occupy Wall Street movement but also initiatives like Americanselect.org - a centrist group planning to use the Internet to nominate an independent presidential candidate - is a sense that both countries have democratically elected governments that are so beholden to special interests that they can no longer deliver reform. Therefore, they both need shock therapy from outside.

The big difference is that, in America, the Occupy Wall Street movement has no leader and no consensus demand. And while it enjoys a lot of passive support, its activist base is small. India Against Corruption has millions of followers and a charismatic leader, the social activist Anna Hazare, who went on a hunger strike until the Indian Parliament agreed to create an independent ombudsman with the staff and powers to investigate and prosecute corruption at every level of Indian governance and to do so in this next session of Parliament. A furious debate is now raging here over how to ensure that such an ombudsman doesn't turn into an Indian "Big Brother," but some new ombudsman position appears likely to be created.

Arvind Kejriwal, Hazare's top deputy, told me, "Gandhi said that whenever you do any protests, your demands should be very clear, and it should be very clear who is the authority who can fulfill that demand, so your protests should be directed at that authority.

" If your movement lacks leadership at first, that is not necessarily a problem, he added, "because often leaders evolve. But the demands have to be very clear." A sense of injustice and widening income gaps brought Occupy Wall Street into the street, "but exactly what needs to be done, which law needs to be changed and who are they demanding that from?" asked Kejriwal. "These things have to be answered quickly."

That said, there are still many parallels between the Indian and U.S. movements. Both seem to have been spurred to action by a sense that corruption or financial excess had crossed some red lines. In the United States, despite the fact that elements of the financial-services industry nearly sank the economy in 2008, that same industry is still managing to blunt sensible reform efforts because it has so much money to sway Congress. It seems to have learned nothing. People are angry.

Corruption is evil.
 

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