As a youngster, I grew up in Kerala where it was fashionable for the educated youth to be Left sympathisers (This is no longer the case, as the Left has been discredited in my home state and elsewhere). The State also had its own share of youngsters who believed in the Extreme Left philosophy. I am not talking about the nihilist nexalism of Ajitha & Co who believed in armed revolution ( a la Maoist insurgency of the current), but about a sizeable chunk of intelligent educated youth who rebelled against the powers that be and tried to attract people's attention to the injustices of the political class, the servile and corrupt bureaucracy. These people conducted 'Theruvu Nadakam' or 'Street Dramas'. They will assemble in a street corner, beat the drum, and backed by a robust, hard hitting script conduct a 20-30 minute skit highlighting the corruption in the high places. These will be watched by a crowd of 100 people who stand in a circle. Once the drama was over, they move to the next street corner. These dramas were very effective and went a long way in exposing corruption. More often than not, these activists were harassed, arrested and jailed. It was an open secret that the politicians and officials hated their guts, but the common man identified with them and appreciated that a bunch of youngsters were taking on the mighty State. I am not here to talk about the larger agenda behind Marxist-Leninist activists or the morality of their ideology. My objective is to illustrate the methodology used those days to inform the public about the wrong doings of the powers that be.With technology improving leaps and bounds, we have a new set of activists, who are prepared to take on a much more mightier State - A State that has virtually become a Police State of late globally. The Governments indulge in massive corruption, intrude on the privacy of people, and hide behind official secrets act. Disinformation and lack of transparency is a norm than an exception. The politicians speak of democracy, but do everything in their power to subvert democratic process. The people who elect them are held in utter contempt. The new set of activists are the netizens. Perhaps the greatest tool democracy has in the world today. We have wikileaks exposing the mighty US government and here when the broadcast media blocked out the Radia tapes incriminating Burkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi, the netizens took up a crusade to bring the truth to the public, forcing the two tainted journalists to come out in the public with statements, and were promptly taken to task for being less than truthfull.
What we are watching is a new version of 'Theruvu Nadakam', one that is more powerful, has a much wider audience and a broader stage - the WWW.
