Retributions  

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he alleged cutting of the hair of a 17-year-old Sikh boy sparked protests by the members of the community who went on a rampage here on Tuesday. Two cops were hurt when they tried to stop the protesters from pelting stones. an official said, adding that the situation in certain areas of the city remained tense.

By all accounts, this is a another of those juvenile fights involving the usual suspects, love and a group of testosterone driven youngsters. One group proved to be more vicious than usual and in the process of beating up the Sikh kid, they also cut off his hair. In normal course, the cops would have been called, some counseling would have been done, a minor punishment handed out and things would have settled back to normal.However, the very act of cutting of his hair has ensured that this no longer can be treated as a normal case. Riots have broken out, protest demonstrations are breaking out all over North India, and politicians of all kinds have become mobilized.Pray, what are these demonstrations protesting against? Is this a pogrom against Sikhs? Would they have protested if the Sikh boy was beaten up or even killed as long as his hair was left intact? But shearing of his hair in the course of a normal assault has become an act against Sikhs and their religion and they must protest henceforth, violently of course. Of course, the government will treat them with kid gloves and actually concede that they have a locus standi to protest in the case.As a society and in governance, we have no qualms about trampling on individual freedoms. But as soon as those individual coalesce into a group, preferably with some sort of a religious identity, the government and the society will strive to afford them every protection and concede their every unreasonable demand. Whether it is the caste based system of reservations or religious head counts in our workforce, its is the same mentality of groups which drives our public policy.While some sort of group identity is unavoidable, it is in our own interest to minimize such exclusionist identities. Encouraging such narrow identities ultimately threatens our own existence as a nation state.