A couple of months ago, an incident from Ludhiana or Jalandhar was actively being shared among Uttarakhand Facebook users. In the incident, a high speed SUV car hit and run five Uttarakhand natives working as embroidery workers in the city. One of them got seriously injured. Even after their repeated requests, the police was not filing a complaint against the SUV car driver.

When other Uttarakhand natives working in Punjab got to know about the incident, they rushed to the city, met with the injured, arranged for the medical assistance and staged an infinite peaceful protest in the respective police station. Finally, the police had to bow down and they filed a proper complaint against the SUV car owner and his driver.

This is meaning of "standing in support of someone". Hadn't the Uttarakhand people from nearby cities and towns in Punjab stood in support of their people in distress, the police complaint and required medical assistance may or may not be be ensured.

One has to stand in support of others, from time to time.

But there are some conditions which tell us when a person has to stand in support of a fellow brethren or human being.

The conditions are:

Person(s) is outnumbered

Justice is being denied

The fight is against the Mighty


All these conditions were present in the above incident. Hence people flocked to help and stand in support by staging a peaceful protest. I’m sure majority of people present on the spot at the time of accident would also have tried to catch the SUV car while he was fleeing away. Some might have helped at lengths as well.

Would Uttarakhand people's reaction to the incident be same if some person of Uttarakhand origin had hit and run some poor laborers; and he had been duly booked by the police?

No.

Why would anyone run to support a wrong doer? It doesn't matter whether the wrongdoer belongs to Uttarakhand or Timbuktu.

So standing in support of someone means standing against injustice and high-handed tactics used by those who have numbers or more power (mob, or who are more in number).

The main reason for sharing the incident and the meaning of “Standing in support of someone” are some articles that are being shared online.

These articles are strongly appealing people to support BJP because the party stood for them during communal riots.

This is not the meaning of standing in support of someone, that too when their appeal is for apolitical party which claims to be governing the country on behalf of 125 crore Indians. Nearly 80 percent of which are Hindus (according to the party).

Riots at all circumstances be avoided. The risk to people lives, property must always be tried to be minimized.


Making an Appeal to the people by instilling fear in their minds – Who will protect you, the next time such riots happen – is WRONG.

Indians are living everywhere – From Muslim countries in middle east to multi-faith USA to catholic Europe to Happy-go-lucky Australia. Who protects them there? …. No one. People live in harmony with each other. People know what it means to show solidarity and they help each other. So why talk about communal riots all the time?

Instilling fear of communal riots in minds of people for some silly votes is wrong and plain immoral.

Don't harbor such fear. Discourage any such attempt.

----