Sunday, February 24, 2008

Stop being animals

The other day I saw a shuddering video on YouTube. An antelope was battling a fierce crocodile which had its gory teeth thrusted into the antelope's neck. The antelope didn't have much space to maneuver but it was still trying to snatch its skin from the crocodile's clutches, bit by bit every second. The crocodile was trying hard to firm up its grip and the scene was getting bloodier. If only it was accompanied with drums beating in the background, this amazing fight for survival would have got me at the edge of my seat.

I wonder if the policemen watching a man being lynched by a mob in Hajipur were thinking the same. If only there was music...

Yesterday in Hajipur, a mob dragged a murder accused out of a hospital, where he was being treated in police custody, and then kicked, boxed and thrashed him. It stopped only when the man was nearly dead. There were several policemen present there, watching the whole event but not doing anything to stop it. It seemed like they may be enjoying that man's fight for survival against an angry mob. I caught that on BBC and believe me, it was one of the most brutal and the most animalistic behavior I have ever seen. The man was not as lucky as the antelope, who did save itself from the almost lethal attack of the crocodile. That angry mob was more fierceful than that hungry animal.

This is not an isolated incident in India. Recently in Bhagalpur an angry mob beat up a chain-snatcher in front of policemen and all the action was caught on TV camera. A politician was lynched few weeks back at a rally near Nagpur because people believed that he was behind the killing of a popular local politician. Fifty-year-old Ambadas Dharrao, an employee of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (a state owned enterprise), was killed in heavy stone pelting on company bus in Nasik by members of a political party who were angry at their leader being arrested by police in Mumbai, 200 kms away. This incident was different because Ambadas had nothing to do with that arrest. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. A professor in Ujjain was killed by a violent group of students belonging to Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad when he cancelled student elections on observing irregularities in the procedures.

Yes, this is the country of Mahatma Gandhi, the messiah of non-violence. These are examples where some wives have lost their husbands, some children have lost their fathers and some families have lost their futures. And there have been infinite occassions where angry groups have gone on a frenzy damaging public and private property, physically abusing and hurting people, displaying their animal side so proudly - making a travesty of the economic progress of India which is turning it into an important global player - not letting social progress to happen along with the economic progress. Political parties will strike at the drop of a hat and these strikes would become violent in 11 out of 10 cases. Clearly while some Indians are moving up the social ladder taking advantage of the economic boom, some are left behind and their frustrations are getting manifested in these senseless episodes. There is no logical explanation possible for such behavior that holds people, government and nation at ransom. Why would members of political parties destroy buses, trains, and public property rather than help the government build infrastructure!

What is very surprising to me and many Indians is the silence of our Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh! He has been a mute spectator aptly deserving the title of Meek Manmohan. Its hard to believe that the national government cannot force the state government to take action even though it does not have direct judiciary control over matters internal to the state. These issues affect the whole country and set back the social and economic progress, so very essential to the country. With increased international media coverage, such incidents don't remain hidden and are highlighted by every TV channel and newspaper around the world.

What India needs is a zero tolerance policy - zero tolerance towards brute display of public outrage - which has lead to loss of innocent lives and unnecessary damage to public properties. It can easily take cue from Malaysia or Singapore on how to contain such incidents. The governments in these countries have a high degree of respect for life and nation and the perpetrators of such heinous acts are meted out the highest punishment. Every citizen has the right to be secured so that they can focus on contributing towards the society rather than spend a lot of energy worrying about their and their family's security. The cost of such issues goes much beyond the physical damage. I just hope that the one replacing Manmohan will be strong and will take charge in such situations to set an example for people to not follow.