Who Is to Blame, People?

My father is a very avid newspaper reader. Since my childhood, I have seen him finish the entire paper in the morning itself. And I believe that to an extent; I have inherited his habit. Although I am not able to read the paper in the morning, I make sure that I do go through every heading in the day.

During those days, there never was much news about the crimes- rapes, killings, kidnappings. If there were, they used to form the biggest headline on the front page because they rarely happened. I often ignored them.

Now, in the 21^st century, the pattern has not changed much. You pick up any paper of Delhi region and 25 days out of 30; you still find news about this mis happenings. But they make it to front page only if a prominent personality is involved. They will be covered with bold letters and almost half the cover page and many more pages devoted to it in the entire edition. If the victim is some roadside labour or slum worker; he will be mentioned in a small 10 x 5 column on some middle page and probably; you will miss it.

You know what the worst among all this is-it is our reaction. We, the white-collar society, shrug our shoulders, wish for the wellness of our dear and near ones and turn the page. These accidents/ incidents have become a norm in the society.

What have we people come to? Carrying the technology with us, travelling in metro train with mobiles in our hands big enough to cover our entire face and studded with brand-powered apparel; to lessen the burden, we have decided to get rid of the most basic thing that our society needs right now- values. With a tough hard day’s work at MNCs; we end up crashing at a bar to gulp few beers and then- then the character test starts.

And who is to blame for all this- the rapes, inhumane murders that feed the serials like Crime Patrol day and night? The answer does not lie very far.

I have seen people giving arguments that people committing these heinous crimes are illiterate and not educated enough. While saying this, the ignore some very obvious facts-

1. You don’t need education to know that rape is a crime which should not have any kind of justification. Same goes for murders.

2. The ‘well-educated’ people also feature regularly in columns comprising this news. For better clarification, read what two IT executives did on New Year eve with a girl.

3. Ponty Chaddha case, Pramod Mahajan case and various hit-and-run case- the accused are those whom you can’t say- education-less (yes, value-less, manner-less will do).

There is no single justification for this. We all are culprits. Some are doing the crime; some have played a big part in giving them the reasons to do what they should not have. The less educated people are ridiculed so badly that they end up venting their frustration in a fashion that nobody will justify for.

You abuse the guard to open the gate, you swear at the rickshaw-wallahs for blocking your car just because you are getting late for meeting with the top boss in the office. The real reason for being late- you had those 2 extra pegs last night and the hangover stole your 15 crucial minutes. The problem lies in our mannerisms, in our habits, in us. 10 more people will do this to the guards and others; they rob them off their self-respect; hurt their dignity. Repeat it for 25 days in a month and for a human with a normal functioning brain; it is not tough to imagine the state of mind of the lower society; rejected by us day in day out. The esteemed class of the society has been an influential, if not the most evident factor among all this.

We are the people to blame, in some or other way. And the only way it can be cured if each one of us starts taking care of ourselves. In a day, just make sure what you are doing is right. Get your work ethics, etiquettes, manners spot on and change will inevitably come which we all are badly wishing for.