DailyPost 2881
RECLAIMING SECURITY…
Has insecurity for the common man has become a foregone conclusion in this country. Have PG accommodations, to college campuses to hospitals to coaching centers and any number of other locations become so insecure that the criminals operate with unprecedented impunity? Then we have the normal rigmarole of protests demanding justice and security and then it peters down, till another major crime hits the national headlines. What percentage of lesser crimes (ones not hitting headlines) go unreported and even if reported don’t see the light of the day?
Does it create a sense of fear? Crime against women happens in this country with an alarming regularity. It is all the more intriguing given the supposedly major overhaul of the criminal justice system in the wake of the Nirbhaya case more than a decade back. Major CCTV and other projects were taken up out of what is known as the Nirbhaya fund. Presumably the security apparatus was geared, operationalized and made robust to prevent any such crime, while the amended law, professional investigation skills and fast track courts would take care of the rest.
Of late, the bunch of new criminal laws were to add further teeth of investigation and literally ensure results. The political and governmental lip service and the harsh reality on the ground is like two different planets. In the wake of quite a few cases of crime against women, only sometime back, one of the national TV channels was running a campaign, ‘Save Our Daughters’. You can well imagine the criticality of the issue for such a campaign to take place, the real and perceived indifference of all stakeholders, leading to a state of general disillusionment. Things would look up was the general hope.
The world went crashing with the devastating news of the rape and murder of a Kolkata medico, that too in the hospital premises; seminar hall of the emergency section, in the middle of the night. Without getting into initial goof-up, the mismanagement of the college, and case getting handed over to CBI on the instructions of the High Court, this case has stirred the very soul and conscience of the nation. It was security in shambles on the campus. How can doctors work if their very workplace is not safe? They have been forced to hit the streets with their demands to save their own lives, going on strike. The stalemate continues. In another tragic turn, in the wee hours of the 78th Independence Day, unidentified individuals, disguised as protesters, entered the hospital premises around 12.40 am and caused extensive damage. The violence erupted during a “Reclaim the Night” protest. Where do we go from here?
SECURITY IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT FOR THE RULING CLASS AND OTHERS. HOW LONG WILL THIS SECURITY APARTHEID CONTINUE?
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.