LIFE - COLORES INFINITUM (39)
“O Sahab, let’s us settle it between us, why to
involve the police, tell us how much you need, after all it is just a small
accident. It is no big deal when even death cases are handled easily with
cash compensation.”
An
unwelcome suggestion, a disturbing tone and a menacing voice!
This
was one of the suggestions (and the veiled threat) made by a goon looking guy
to the person who had just met an accident when a commercial minivan run by
one of the stooges of the guy had rammed into the standing bike of the person.
Though
the person stood his ground, called the police, waited for them to come while
getting veiled threats and suggestions from the cartel of the goons who were
running that illegal minivan business near one of the busy Delhi Metro
stations, the subsequent details of the incident were reflective of the overall
deterioration in the society.
Deterioration
of values in the society – it is not dystopian to write so, but it is about
being realist.
How
easily the fellow could say that loss of a life could be compensated easily with
money?
A
loss of life can never be compensated. The pain of separation never heals.
But
the insensitivity and the moral disintegration of the society and its various formations
have become so common that one can easily find such goons talking this or the
similar other nonsense ironies almost on a daily basis, almost everywhere.
People
kill people and they move on as if the person killed didn’t even exist.
People
see people being killed and they move on as if the person killed didn’t even
exist.
The
System is getting insular to the pain afflicting everyone while selectively recruiting
the victim and the assailant.
This
one incident was reflective of countless such incidents happening every passing
moment, everywhere.
Nothing
much happened to them – to the assorted goons of the cartel there. Though the
police tried to sound sympathetic to the person (largely due to his ID), the
primary response was that police could not do much in the case as it was a
minor accident.
On
being told about legality of the permission to run the minivan business there,
the police official said he would look into the issue and would ensure that
they didn’t operate from there anymore.
Next
day, it was the business as usual, the same spot, minivans overloading passengers,
drivers driving rash!
Rule
of law needs the element of fear in the mind of those who break the law but
corruption in the apparatus to ensure the rule of law has killed that spirit,
has made that need redundant.
It
results in the mentality where people disregard every other life while trying
to corner the maximum of the sky for them.
And
it is fast becoming a commonality.
People
are rapidly forgetting the difference between human and inhuman.
It
is a big lie and an unforgivable crime.
And
indeed this crime-to-the-humanity has become a regular part of our social
weaving. There are many wars going on within India that has become a society
dissected with religion, caste and region biases. The killing teeth of these
biases become even more lethal with the chronic corruption that has become a
way of life in India.
When
someone finds an easy, alternative but corrupt route to earn easy bucks for
which someone else has to work hard, the person starts losing every regard for
the disciplinary rules of life.
We
are living in a society when we hear debates about issues like ‘legalizing
bribery’ or formalizing the ‘convenience fee’.
Expecting
a work done without paying bribe, in almost every walk of life has become a
next-to-impossible thing, be it health service, education, police or even the
so-called social security measures like MNREGA or farm-debt-waiver or the
upcoming food security.
The
request of a threatening eye and a menacing voice was, like always, reiterating
this only.