The Hindu Business Line : Something rotten in...

There is something rotten in the Republic of India, which needs to be tackled on an emergency basis if the lives of our children and grandchildren are to be as secure as ours (which, to many people, may not amount to much). This, of course, has nothing to do with the economy which, perhaps, is the only sphere of national life where something concrete has been achieved to make the citizens of the country proud.

True, the fruits of the economic growth are not even close to the poorest of the poor for plucking as would have been possible perhaps under a different state dispensation. But given the form of government the republic has, it can perhaps be argued that the performance could have been much worse than has been the case. It could, of course, have been better, but then, in the last resort, this depends on the people themselves, for it is the latter who vote the government of the day into power.

Quality of Life

The point of concern is not the economy. It is the quality of life that is under threat, and not our ability to quench thirst and reduce the pangs of hunger. The latter are important no doubt but, as the truism goes, Man does not live by bread alone. When, even after 60 years of Independence, the parents of women members of a particular community, living in arguably the most affluent metropolis of the country, are physically assaulted because their wards have opted to go to school or college, clearly, something is grossly wrong with either the system of governance or with society itself in which the victims concerned live.

Possibly, it is society itself with which something is wrong because the system of governance (in our case a parliamentary democracy) is run by people who are themselves the product of the society — and are chosen by the same society — they are mandated to govern. This is perhaps why the Bombay High Court has had to censure the police for not extending appropriate protection to the family concerned even after repeated complaints were registered. Indeed, as reported, at the next hearing of the suit later this month, the police will have to explain to the court "why no security was provided earlier despite several complaints."

What makes the issue much more serious is that there is nothing very special about the behaviour of the police unit involved in this particular case. All over the country, such shameful instances of motivated police inaction have been reported on a regular basis even when the incidents have been serious enough to be converted into public issues.

Change, the only remedy

To make matters worse, their number is increasing, possibly because the social values of honesty and propriety are becoming scarcer with time. Where does the fault for all this lie, and what is the remedy?

As the bard once made one of his characters say, the fault does not lie in our stars but in ourselves, the tragedy being compounded by the fact that no remedy will be possible unless we change ourselves for the better. But how? Indeed, why is it that the number of history-sheeters in the country's legislatures has increased over time? Simply because we the people have cast our votes for them!

Ranabir Ray Choudhury