DailyPost 2410
IS CRIMINALITY IN THE AIR?
Not going by the figures of crime being quoted or misquoted, in a combination or a narrative to suit your purpose, there is not denying the fact that as a society, today we are more numbed to criminal acts, than a few decades back. Has the pervasiveness of criminality grown by leaps and bounds? Has the acceptability of criminals become the norm or vice-versa has the stigma attached to crime weaned off? White collar crimes have rarely been treated as crime, in the annals of Indian social history, but the recent acceptability in heinous bodily offences is something aghast.
It has been done without remorse, so the societal acceptability will have to be presumed; forced or otherwise. What is criminality in the first place? It is defined as a behaviour that is contrary to or forbidden by criminal law. This primarily means that whether a case is booked against you or not, the harsh reality is that you fall under the purview of this definition. And in reality, criminality is far away from the lofty and self serving explanation of criminality limited to registered criminal cases, more so the ones who fix it with the conviction in a case.
It that case given the registration rate vs actual crimes and the conviction rates, whole population would get criminalized before we can prove the massive element of criminality prevalent, eating away the vitals of our society. We have been seeing Bahubalis representing the population in various constituencies. Without getting into psyche, state of mind, muscle and money power being exerted on the electorate, what is really pathetic is that all political parties are fine with it. They condone and thus propagate and are a party to making criminality the mainstay of Indian politics. This brings us to the next big question, what has been their role in making criminality all pervasive?
From cheating in public exams to booth capturing to managing tenders in a variety of ways, to electioneering being transformed into a battle zone, has been the impact of making criminality a mass appeal formula. Why do the professionals keep away from active public life could have become a matter of concern in any other country but for India? When parliament stands in unison to pre-empt investigation into blatant acts of financial crimes, what does it mean? Large number of governments have fallen because of major cases of corruption and still governments keep on falling in the same abyss. Might be criminality has become the order of the day; the only to success. The lip service to all what is right, good and truthful does not fool anybody any now. Dharna just to get a case registered, speaks volumes as to what extent criminality has seeped into the body politic of India.
CRIMINALITY IS FIRST A STATE A MIND WHICH CONDONES CRIMINAL ACTS, FINALLY TO GET CAUGHT IN THE SAME VORTEX.
Sanjay Sahay