Public Menace and Public Outcry

It is already four days now, and the electronic media is playing out a shameless act of public molestation of a 17 year old girl that took place at 9.30 in the evening in Guwahati, the capital of Assam State in India. There are too many problems with the incident. The girl seemed to have had some altercation with a man inside the bar from which she was getting out when the incident took place. Who was this man? Did he instigate the mob to molest this girl and strip her? Some TV channels are suggesting that this was the scribe of a TV channel that broke the news first a day later. Someone else seems to have got a "raw footage" of the incidents without "the editing" by the news channel and has claimed that in the other video the audio can be heard of the scribe saying to another person how he had "organized the incident". Was the editing of the footage reason for delaying the telecast by a day while every channel fights to shell out "breaking news" as it happens?. 

The second point is, giving benefit of doubt, considering that the molestation took place on the instigation of another person, the TV channel has rightly pointed out that if it were not for the footage the criminals would have gone scot free as there would be hardly any evidence against them. This is absolutely true. In India, every day hundreds of women are abused, molested or raped. But things don't get the importance if it were not for TV footage. Why is this? Why each case is not taken seriously and has to wait for the media to take stand? 

There is a National Commission for Women. I have serious problem with this commission as their job seems to be just taking reports and sending out reports. Other than this, the commission looks like a toothless tiger. I have never heard of the Commission having charged anyone or a government and brought them to book. There is a need to give ample powers to this Commission so that it can take punitive action. Now, look at this: there is an unwritten law that a victim of molestation or rape or a victim who is a minor (below 18 years) is never named to protect the identity of the person so that the person can live a normal life. Can anyone believe that the officials of National Commission for Women, while addressing the media, revealed the full identity of the girl? This is callousness and the official must be shunted out of the office and suspended. Unless we send out strong signals to officials, such callousness will continue to live on. Responsible channels like CNN-IBN showed the media brief but by blocking the name of the girl with a beep. This is responsible journalism. 

The Chief Minister of Assam has promised action and has given deadline till 16 July evening to catch all culprits. The police has managed to get only 4 so far. Probably many molesters have already escaped the police net and have become fugitives in neighboring states.

Largesse of the Government

The deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor has crossed 170 and still some are battling against death. The government of West Bengal has announced an ex-gratia of 200,000 rupees for the bereaved families. On 9th Dec 2011 after the major fire in AMRI hospital in Kolkata too the government announced similar grant. I wonder from where does this money come from. I have no problem in giving out the money, but my question is from where is this kind of money being generated? Before we discuss this, the death toll in the hooch tragedy has gone well past the total deaths due to Cyclone Aila in 2009. Only 139 persons died in the aftermath of cyclone Aila; but this tragedy has killed more than 170 people. Should we call it a disaster?

Now, about the money. AMRI is a hospital for the rich, of the rich, and by the rich. I am not sure if some of these families whose loved ones died in the fire really require this 200,000 rupees that comes from the government. The other question is, if people die drinking spurious liquor, and their families get 200,000 rupees, will this event become a tipping point, and the situation escalate that the poor think that they can die drinking spurious liquor, and their families can get the money, and live happily ever after?!!! We are walking on a very fragile paradigm. Secondly, what is the source of money that the government is giving out? If it is money of the general public and that of the tax payers, I am against. it. If AMRI authorities are at fault, the government must realize the compensation from them. Let them take 500,000 rupees per each patient. No issues on that! Let them take over the entire land and the building, and pay for damages. That would be exemplary, honest in every way, and not impinging on the money for development. In the case of the hooch tragedy, the government must attach the properties of all those involved in production, sale and permitting such sale. I might sound harsh. But unless exemplary punishments burn a hole in the pockets of these people, it would not be an example. 

There is something called Law of Torts. This is hardly used in India, although it exists. It is simply the law relating to civil damages. The only civil damage cases we see are some big politician asking for money from media houses for a perceived damage to their supposedly good name. We must take this further. Civil damages must be compensated, but the damager, and not by people's money. For heaven's sake, will someone say this to the Chief Minister, please!

The Worst Continues....

The deaths due to the hooch tragedy (drinking of spurious liquor) mostly by the poor, rickshaw pullers, daily laborers etc has spirally as if we are watching a cricket match! The deaths that started on Wednesday have continued through Thursday, and by evening 6.00 pm we have 131 confirmed deaths! What a shame! 

Last week we lost over 90 persons in fire and this week due to liquor! All because someone is negligent, and the system is corrupt. I feel ashamed at times that we have not been able to save the lives of people who trust the government to protect them. The honorable Chief Minister has ordered an inquiry into the deaths. But what will they look into? Who were the culprits who were selling liquor? And who were the people who drank from them and got sick and died? If this is the point of reference then this inquiry will not serve any purpose. The inquiry should cover: how did these teams of liquor sellers continue to get patronage? Who was patronizing them? At what cost? For how long? Where else this is going on? And then, put them all behind bars, and make them culpable. It is not enough to bring in cases of culpable homicide. They must be charged with culpable homicide amounting to murder.