Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high…’ These great words of the Bard of Bengal had inspired and enthused Indians, mired in poverty and backwardness, enslaved and deprived of their rights by British imperialism. The great sage had envisioned an India where all Indians, irrespective of caste, creed and gender could move freely and live their dreams. But 65 years after independence, when the new year dawns on 01 Jan 2013 , every Indian has cause to hang his head in shame. India that boasts of Chandrayan, the emerging super power waiting to be acknowledged as one of the developed nations of the world , with a voice that demands to be heard in the corridors of power in the world, could not provide safety and security to one of her daughters who had just sought an innocent pleasure of a late night movie. How can the mind be without fear when the perpetrators of such crimes are at large in the greatest democracy of the world? How can we hold our head up in pride when our own brethren can perpetrate such violent crimes upon our fellow beings?
Cry, my beloved country, cry in shame. Cry for the innocent daughter whose dreams and aspirations were burnt to ashes at the altar of man’s lust and beastly amusement. Cry for the thousands of abused girls and women whose voice could not rise above the power and pelf of a corrupt political system and the unjust laws of a blind legal system. Cry for all the crimes committed against the weak and the hapless . As the dawn of a new year breaks, let us resolve to put right the wrongs done to man by his fellow beings. Let us pledge to exercise courtesy and dignity in our everyday dealings. Let us promise to stand by truth and right and raise our voice against injustice and abuse of any sort. Let us stand united, as we did when the gruesome crime against Amanat came to light, and fight for the dignity of man and woman in this enlightened world.
From the age of lawlessness where the law of the jungle prevailed, society has evolved into the enlightened world of the educated and the sophisticated Indian..Our country can boast of a woman prime minister, a woman president and a woman as the president of the powerful Congress party. We have a missile woman and many women entrepreneurs and politicians. Yet when a horrendous crime came to light, some of the ‘powers that be’ asked- why did that girl go out at night? Some accused the society of becoming so permissive that there is too much interaction between the sexes. Whenever a crime of this sort is exposed, some point a finger at the way a woman is dressed , the way a woman behaves with the opposite sex. Let us have no more of such narrow minded moral policing. This is the time to think and reflect on what ails our society. It is a sick society that allows what should be considered sacrosanct to be defiled and cheapened. It is a sick society where lust and alcoholism can deaden reasoning and stifle the pricks of conscience . We know that a mob has no conscience or reasoning power. Out of the six beasts who defiled and tortured that girl, not even one had the morality to stop the others from such a heinous crime. This is a mental aberration that cannot be condoned.
But there is hope. The protesters who came out in large numbers to raise their voices against this crime points to an India which is no longer content to remain passive and neutral. Here is a voice that cannot be subdued,, a voice that is echoed in the mind and heart of every progressive minded citizen of the modern world. We should not allow this society to regress once more into the dark ages. Progress in society should not be equated with flights into space or nanotechnology or fashion pageants. Progress is the way you treat your fellow citizens, your civic sense, the way you think of others as you think of yourself. Progress is courtesy, care and thoughtfulness in word and deed. Only when each one of us inculcates this kind of respect and concern for others, our society can evolve and develop. Let us weed out the anti social elements who stain our society. Don’t let another President exercise clemency and allow rapists to go scot free just for the hollow title of ‘the merciful’. Be tough with the tough and gentle with the gentle. Understand that all human beings cannot be measured with the same yard stick. Among the species of homo sapiens ,there are those for whom a stern word or look would be enough as a punitive measure. But there are others for whom only the gallows would suffice to wipe out their sins.
