By Pratik Mantri:
The recommendations of various panels and committees of the government look very impressive on paper, but it is meaningless and utterly useless if even basic things like filing First Information Reports (FIRs) remain a problem for citizens. The government and the politicians have always been reactive to change rather than being proactive to change; this has always been a major hindrance for developing economies like India to flourish.
The prominent character of a political party (which is hard to ignore) is the abuse of power and ignorance shown towards the interests of the ‘aam aadmi‘ for ages, but time is seriously catching up with these parties. The recent death of a 23 year old student in Delhi after her gang rape has forced the government to act, still, only speeches and interviews are being heard and the ground reality has remained the same. It took our ‘silent’ and ‘shy’ PM took 7 days to issue a public statement, not to mention the gaffe ‘Theek hai‘ at the end of his speech managed to incite humour at various social networking sites.
An excerpt from his speech says:
“I am a father of three daughters so I can understand the pain.”
I want to ask our PMji if it is only because he has daughters that he understands the pain, is it very easy to swallow for the rest of us? The incident was horrific for everyone.
Sushil Kumar Shinde went one step ahead in this race and termed students as Maoists. He has forgotten to enlighten us with the reason for this comparison which would put even Digvijay Singh (a very experienced person in giving headaches with his stupid remarks) to shame. The list is endless and increasing day by day with the likes of Sanjay Nirupam, Abhijit Mukherjee, and Asaram Bapu along with some others across the political parties and groups joining in.
There is a lack of efficiency among the policemen and bureaucrats which can be attributed largely to political pressure, but the fact remains that men have got away with murders, rapes and other crimes. Police ask uncomfortable and ridiculous questions to rape survivors, cases run for years and the prosecution rate is very low.
The political leadership fosters disorder and lawlessness. Conferences and commissions seeking suggestions from state governments and the public on what changes need to be made to the law and the administration to handle crimes like rape is necessary but not enough. The reason I say that is because the changes needed for effective governance have to start with the politicians who need to get out of their comfort zone and bring in some efficiency, transparency and accountability.
There is no way recommendations by a commission are going to change anything because the fact of the matter is that the state uses the police force as per their political requirements. Often the police refuse to register an FIR and these instances go unrecorded just like the untold cases of rapes and abuses of many women and girls.
There is a dire need to inject a mechanism in the police and the judiciary departments to work more efficiently, honestly and effectively towards any case. The CMs of various states along with Ministry of Home Affairs need to work together and take the initiative and not just wait for the feelings to die down and go back to old inefficient ways.