Although there isn’t any shortfall of concerned people, their tweets, prime-time debates, rightful suggestions, processions, promises, assurances, empathies, sympathies, etc. Ironically the scenario hasn’t improved a bit.
It was a child this time, and the torture was similar too. The good news however is, that the police too was behaving the same, ignorant. To top it all, the police resorted to slapping the women protesters this time around. Are they frustrated of their own shortfalls? At times I feel like picking a baseball bat and giving everyone starting right from the culprit to the police to politicians to media and the moral police (the debaters), a good piece of my mind once and for all.
Will things ever improve here? If yes, then how? From where I look at it, it’s everybody’s fault and everybody’s responsibility cos it’s everybody’s business. Going by the present scenario, the dreadful day is not very far, when our tourism would take a hike cos women are not safe here, education would go for a toss since educated people ain’t like this, Indian men would not be allowed in other countries since they rape and our GDP would further reduce since no-one would be able to focus on their work cos the ladies of the house have gone for grocery shopping.
Delhi witnessed a horrendous gang rape incident a little less than six months back, and since then, either the media has become over vigilant, or rape attempts have sky rocketed. Here, the former seems more likely and I sure have reasons to support that. Let’s look at how the police, the politicians, the media and the debaters are all individually responsible for such an unimproved disgusting scenario.
The Police
1. The laxity in the police’s behavior is something which is inherent and comes as a part and parcel of the policemen’s job. In today’s date and time, when a person joins the police force in India, I am damn confident that their prime focus is on making money while performing their daily chores. And when that’s met, the secondary objective is to flaunt the uniform and the designation to earn respect in their respective social circle. Rarely will you find an officer who has the national agenda on top of his head, leave aside the national agenda, I bet you could not find a single officer in today’s date who is willing to register an FIR the first time you report an incident.
2. There has been a traditional myth over which these guys have seeked enormous pity over years by making a foul cry that they are paid too less as compared to the work that they do. Here’s the reality, all thanks to the various pay commissions that have been rolled out over the past years, a decent designation in the police department easily gets paid equal to a managers salary in any of the reputed MNC’s in today’s date.
3. Timings of work and short staffing of the police department are the two areas of improvement on which immediate attention is required. I would strongly recommend the induction team to hire only those personnel who are not only educated and disciplined but are also highly motivated not just by the monetary aspect of the job, but by the purpose of the job.
The Politicians
Although we all know how and why the politicians are responsible, throwing a little light on the same none the less would not be as harmful.
1. The opposition is jubilant when such incidents happen; they get an opportunity to square their existing rivalries against opponents and they hardly think twice before washing their dirty linen in public. All they can do is, prove a point to their aspired vote bank while hoping to make them realize about the mistake they have made by not choosing them. Flag off a couple protests by activating their NGO’s who jam the streets and vandalize property.
2. If a law is made to curb a crime and punish the culprit severely, it also assures in the longer run that such heinous crimes would eventually reduce. Quite ironically, such a beneficial law is never allowed to go through smoothly. Opposition’s logic behind creating all sorts of hurdles while the government is trying to make such a law is, that if such a law is made and it proves to be effective, the ruling party during the reign of which such a thing was introduced would hog on all the limelight. After all everyone remembers the year in which the law was made and at most the ruling government, nobody cares to remember which leader was in which party or who was in opposition.
The Debaters
1. Ex government officials, eminent activists, renowned lawyers and various other public personalities from various domains are called upon to participate in the prime time debates on various channels to discuss the prevalent scenario which permitted such a thing to happen. A debate always has to sides, for and against. Whosoever is speaking for either side, tries his/her best to prove their point. And while doing so, people speaking against giving a harsh reprimand to the culprit and the ones who talk the most about the human rights, tend to forget the treatment that they give to their own domestic help at times.
2. Just because of these moral policemen speaking against the strong sentence, the opposition and the ruling party feel the need to consider the democratic nature of our constitution before formulating a law for someone who probably would not be able to spell either of them. This inadvertently gives a boost to an aspired criminal since at the back of his head he is pretty sure that at the end of the day, nothing would happen and at most, he would be let scot free after spending a couple years behind bars.
The Media
1. Since the ill-fated day of December 2012, people have become wary of such offenders and have harnessed strong anguish and a sense of hatred against them. Such a feeling therefore motivates the public to keep an eye on similar instances, as if they would bring all the criminals to justice at once. The media therefore wants to leave no stone un-turned as far as en-cashing the opportunity is concerned and so they are covering every incident without even waiting to check the authenticity of the same.
2. The mental and physical torture that the gang rape convicts are going through even while in jail is a very strong deterrent for most first time offenders and should be for at least some history sheeter’s also, although the judgment is more like a wait and watch scenario with the law system in India, rest assured, the number of cases cannot have increased all of a sudden post December 2012 since the media be it television or newspaper, was already overflowing from the retaliation which both the government and the accused were facing from all around. Lawyers refusing to take their case, accused getting beaten up by the inmates in the jail, case put on a fast track basis and is being heard daily, the main accused committing suicide and so on are also some other important events which are sufficient to discourage an aware wannabe rapist.
The media is just trying to make its bread and butter and there is nothing wrong in it, after all they are the mirror of the society. But I have a problem when the media becomes monopolistic by just covering whatever they feel like, there have already been four instances where I myself have informed various news channels about something grave and they just kept passing the call from one desk to another and all I got in the end was an assurance that someone would call me back, needless to mention that no-one ever did.
The media itself is so irresponsibly self-centered; leave aside the corrupt politicians, the incompetent police and the disgusting perverts that this country is blessed with. India seriously needs help, but as they say, God helps them, who helps themselves.
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