The stark visuals (on television) last month of lathi-wielding and rampaging Gujjars destroying public property were enough to send shock waves around the country. Delhi Transport Corporation buses were burnt, street lights were destroyed but what made one really wince was the way they went around damaging what looked like a brand new air-conditioned coach of the Indian Railways.

The window panes of air-conditioned trains are usually made of tough glass and are not easily breakable. In fact some years ago, when the Calcutta-New Delhi Rajdhani Express met with an accident, the biggest problem faced by the trapped passengers was the tough sealed glass panes that could not be broken open. But obviously, Gujjars are made of tougher material — and here I mean not just physically because anybody and everybody can’t bring themselves to break and destroy public property with such abandon. But Gujjars obviously had no such hesitation. As the nation, or to be more specific, consumers watched in horror, the glass panes of an air-conditioned railway coach shattering to smithereens under the Gujjars’ sticks, the sympathy for the cause of Gujjars turned to anger. Each of these coaches, buses, streetlights, that they destroyed were paid for by consumers, either through taxes or through the tickets that they purchased for travel. And it is again the consumers who will have to bear the burden of this loss. Why should law-abiding consumers pay for the consequences of lawlessness?

As consumers, we need to express our displeasure over what happened during the weeklong agitation and demand that those responsible for the destruction of public property, pay for them. Or else, this may well become a pattern. There are some 3,400 castes among the Hindus alone and so long as we have caste-based reservations and so long as politicians nurture caste-based politics, demands similar to the ones raised by Gujjars, are likely to come up again and again. So by making them pay for the destruction of public property, we would be sending a clear message: hold a peaceful dharna by all means, express your anger and anguish if you feel that you have got a raw deal. After all, the entire reservation system is meant to provide those who have been oppressed for generations with better opportunities, a better deal. But violence and destruction of property is a no-no.

Today the consumer movement is stronger, the number of consumer groups across the country exceeds 2,500. However, in order to remain relevant, in order to make their presence felt, they must take up issues such as this that affect consumers at large.