By Avanija Katiyar:
The recent alleged rape and murder of the 14-year-old Sonam in Lakhimpur Kheri highlights the degree of lawlessness and chaos that parts of our country are going through. The most shocking point is the fact that the alleged perpetrators of the crime seem to be the very protectors of the common people – the police. We as the citizens of this country should ask ourselves whether we are a real democracy, or competing to be lawless with Somalia and Congo.
The fact is that we can draw a close parallelism between the degree of lawlessness in such countries and some parts of our country such as U.P., Bihar, the North-East, and Jammu & Kashmir. The relative degree of immunity with which criminal gangs and offenders of law operate is simply appalling. The armed forces too, as in Kashmir and some disturbed areas of the North-East, operate with relative impunity. The government gives such impunity to the law and order machinery in order to curb crime. But, the repercussions of this policy have been disastrous for the country. It results in more crime with the members of the armed forces taking law into their hands and thereby adding fuel to the fire in areas where secessionist movements are strong.
The media too has not been responsible enough to give due coverage to such stories. If such stories had received as much attention as Anna Hazare’s and Baba Ramdev’s fight against corruption, then speedy justice would have been delivered to the victims. Ultimately, it has been proved that the media can actually solve a problem by building up pressure on the concerned individuals. After all, human dignity and life is also as important as the issue of corruption. What the need of the hour is a complete “bashing” by the media on these issues.
A disturbing trend to have emerged from all these cases is that these cases seem to lose trail after receiving a bit of importance initially. Most notable of these cases are the “Shopian Rape and Murder Case” and the more recent “Lakhimpur Kheri Case”. According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, India is the fourth most dangerous place for women. We are not too far behind Afghanistan (1st), Congo (2nd), and Pakistan (3rd). Only the media, with the help of common people, can purge our country from such sins.
What do you think?
