It was inhuman - the brutal torture and rape of a girl in a Delhi bus. We were disgusted by what we have made of our society. And so many of us started hoping, instead of dreading, that the world would end on 21st December 2012 as predicted by Mayans. The prevailing sense was captured best by a post doing rounds on facebook - 'I am not scared the world would end on 21st, I am scared that it will continue as it is'. But the world didn't end. It went on and it went on unchanged. So some of us, in fact, many of us got out of our homes and started demonstrations at India gate for something that needs to happen somehow. The only things unclear were what and how!
- We have gathered at India gate to demonstrate without a clear leader. When a group of people from among us demonstrators came out after meeting some officials in the Rashtrapati Bhawan, the crowd questioned the legitimacy of their representation and refused to listen to them.
- We do not seem to have a clear demand. Some of us want capital punishment for rape in rare of the rarest cases, some want capital punishment for rape in all cases, some want a special session of parliament to bring this amendment to the law, some want the guilty in this specific case be lynched, some want the resignation of Home Minister, some want the suspension of Delhi police commissioner, etc. What seems to doom our demonstrations is the absence of a comprehensive set of structural fixes in our demands.
- I heard a politician ask "if capital punishment hasn't deterred criminals from murdering people, will it deter criminals from resorting to this crime?" and found myself unsure.
- Five policemen found in dereliction of duty will be suspended. But that's routine. Things will be forgotten in 2 months and those guys would be back in service. We are anyways short of staff in police. And the broader point is the state of our police staff. They are 'on duty' for long hours and sometimes 7 days a week, are paid peanuts in salaries, take bath in open outside the police stations (read their office), dry their laundry in the police station (read their office), can't easily touch most serious criminals due to their political connections (read do not perform their duty because their bosses do not allow them to do), etc. If you and me worked under such conditions, what would be our quality of work! Despite those work conditions, because all of us have to feed our families, someone might supervise us into working from time to time by brandishing the stick of suspension but in absence of the underlying motivation, we would revert to our shoddy self as soon as the supervision fades.
- Many of our political leaders are 70+ years of age. At our home, we do not expect family members of this age to be 'able' to take care of us youngsters. They speak feebly and walk with support. We urge them to take more rest, eat carefully and lead a retired life. I feel terrible then when people of this age have to run this entire country. Not that they are stronger of the lot, even they are speaking feebly and many of them walking with support.
- It's heartening to see that High court has taken suo moto cognizance of this unfortunate incident and set up fast track courts to hear rape cases. But a villager whose land was snatched by local influential people wants a fast track hearing equally badly because he can't feed his family without that land.
- Should we not demand judicial reforms, police reforms, and political reforms?
- Can those reforms not happen in parallel with economic reforms?
- Given the number of inconclusive public demonstrations on various issues lately, is it time that we make our demonstrations more effective by taking lessons from our rich pre-independence history (on proper public discourse to come up with a blue print of popular ideal state while agitating for change)?
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