Guwahati Molestation Case: Have we lost our Ethics?

"A teenage girl who was returning home after a party at a city bar was pulled by her hair, lifted up, thrown down, beaten up, thrashed, molested, groped, slapped and stripped in full public view for 30 minutes on Monday night at a busy road near the Christian Basti area in Guwahati by a mob of around 20 men."

These are the opening lines of a report of the incident on the CNN IBN website. The verbs used in them surprise, stun, annoy, perplex, irritate and exasperate me more than any other part of speech. This is just one of countless such appalling incidents that have become an undesirable appendage to our (so called) modern society- such heinous instances of breach of morality, display of profanity, insult of humanity and exhibition of insanity.

"The girl had gone to celebrate a friend's birthday... There (at the bar) they had a fight and the management asked them to leave as they were creating a ruckus over there... they came out and some hooligans (20 of them) saw her and tried to take advantage of her..."

What is disturbing is the fact that this incident, this carnage, happened in full public view. As a matter of fact there exists 30 minute footage of the crime that has gone viral over the internet, in the absence of which this could perhaps have drifted into oblivion just like many others. It nauseates me to think of such scum bags who suppose that merely being physically superior to the opposite sex gives them the right to subject them to despoliation. The fact that being blessed with a pair of glands qualifies them to regard women as commodities. It sickens me to even write of them.

But what is further astounding is the fact that there existed not a single person (read 'viewer') who could step-up and object. There was nobody man enough to call the police, let alone take her side and retaliate. Such is the indifference, such is the passivity we have imbued in ourselves. 'If it doesn't affect us, who cares?' No one wants to be a decent man in an (supposedly) indecent time. We have become amazingly adept at turning a blind eye to things that do not concern us but which we very well know, ought not to flourish.

It is this 'chalta hai yaar' attitude that's making us who we are becoming every passing moment- a self concerned, self obsessed, self centered 'narcissist'. From our petty 'settings' with the local Electrical Officer who we bribe to switch our electric meter or our bigger 'negotiations' with the Income Tax Officers who help us skip our dues, we easily become 'used to' discrepancies and start discovering ways to benefit from them. Needless to mention 'kya karen bhai, SYSTEM hi kharab hai' is the speeding ticket cum excuse that is always at our disposal.

"While the Assam Police have identified twelve men, it has only managed to arrest four so far."

Then...
There's the system, so we mock at it.

There's the police, so we bribe it.

There's the law, so we bend it.

We love such 'challenges' for we know the judiciary is a mess and there's always a babu, a neta or a bada admi who has infected the higher levels and who by his mean nepotism will ensure that the countless jails erected out of the tax payer’s money never get to harbor a convict behind the bars. The deaf needs a bang to hear, it’s said and we do wake up from our slumber, search and light our candles, create fancy posters, shout enthusing slogans and march into the streets behind an 'Anna', only to drift into sleep soon enough. Of course we won't be surprised if all the 20 manage to flee, make a few headlines, churn a few blogs and are forgotten (in fact 'forgiven')

We hear of this every day, read of this often, talk about this seldom, but 'do something about this' never. The media is never an asset, only a spectator and at best a rouser. We watch stuff like 'Crime Petrol', 'Dastak', 'Wardat' etc but that's only before we go to bed.

Change is what we always miss.

"You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be...”

... said 'The Joker' referring to the ‘stupid innocent common man’ and perhaps he was right. But we must remember that in this 'real world' both the lurking ‘Devil’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ reside only within us.

It’s the choices we make that make us who we are...

R.I.P Rustam-e-Hind