The death of Ram Singh within the precincts of the holy Tihar was perhaps the only death in recent times that brought smiles on the faces of many. Vicious it may sound but the fact remains that this news gladdened many hearts for the act of his suicide was perhaps the best retribution for the heinous crime that this animal had perpetrated. Maybe God intervened for want of a swift and just punishment for this heinous crime against the human race.
Mad dogs should be killed at the earliest and what better
than the mad dog killing himself and in the process making it easy for the
overburdened machinery. Perhaps ours must be the only country in the world
where even an act of killing a top honcho or an attack on the parliament itself
takes decades to be taken to the logical conclusion of punishing the
perpetrator. Dispensation of justice is also perhaps as deeply tied in knots as
development and education are and rightly so, we all hail from same societal
structure, howsoever good or bad it may be.
The Nirbhaya case has displayed the extent to which a
human being can be brutal, merely for satisfying his basic instinct. The extent
of brutality perpetrated shocked not only the common man but also hard core
criminals who throng the holy Tihar and regarded Ram Singh and his gang as the
ultimate scum amongst scums. Newspaper reports at times highlighted the vicious
treatment that the men of Tihar inflicted on all those who defiled humanity by
the rape and brutal murder of Nirbhaya. To that extent the men of Tihar gained
the appreciation of many of us.
The affected party in almost all instances has a
different and perhaps an appropriate viewpoint, yet the rest of us impose our,
the society’s viewpoint even if it may be contrary had we been directly affected.
During an earlier tenure as the head honcho of a major sarkari setup, I had as
always cracked down on sexual harassment within office premises and suspended
and transferred the male in many cases without going through the motions of an enquiry.
On being questioned by a union leader during a staff interaction, I agreed to
enquiries in future provided the leader would also seek an enquiry and not
demand direct action even if his daughter or wife was sexually harassed in the
office she worked. He and all other armchair critics were thus suitably
silenced.
I am also unable to appreciate the clamour of many arm
chair enthusiasts for a humanitarian handling of the criminals who displayed animal
instincts while violating the girl and worse still showed no remorse
thereafter. That this is distinctly a behaviour definitely not worthy of mercy
or condonation is not in doubt, yet statements seeking the protection of the
juvenile interalia seeking legal rights to rape and murder by adolescents keep
on doing the rounds amongst the intelligentsia. Such pseudo protectionism
encourages criminal tendencies, a familiar scenario in the capital city that
has juvenile act in force.
Why cannot we be like Singapore or Dubai, nations where
criminals are treated like one and crime therefore makes extremely rare
appearances. That sheer deterrence is indeed the remedy for such crimes is a
fact that needs appreciation even amongst that section of the society that
remains fairly insulated from all that affects the common citizens of the
nation. It is also beyond doubt that all those who are in favour of a treating
the juvenile with kids gloves and abolition of death penalty for even heinous crimes,
would like a chameleon change their stance the day someone from their immediate
family and friends goes through even a hundredth of what Nirbhaya
experienced.
Soft pedalling on issues and softer still on deliverance
and economic growth has led our nation to such a pass that even miniscule
nations cock their thumbs at us more often than acceptable, and the recent snub
is a case in point. Gandhi, the father of the nation wanted to build an India
based on the foundations of truth, value systems and character, yet nation
building has perhaps remained the least of our concerns.
Today
morning enroute to my office I read a graffiti on an auto that said “Please
don’t honk. The nation is sleeping”. How true, yet how sad!
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