SR, my business partner, moved last year to Gurgaon. He has been regaling us with stories ever since, during his visits to Mumbai.
Gurgaon sounds like the wild west, meets hilly billy country in sparkling new steel and chrome mall-dom. I have heard stories of signboards, outside watering holes, that tell you to leave your fire arms outside. Stories of the fact that the area itself has been developed sans sanitation – the hospital just chucks its waste outside. Or that villagers – who have made tons of money selling land, refusing to pay toll, people pulling out guns at the drop of a gaali. Most of the time, I think that SR, is pulling my leg with the outrageousness of the story – simply to see my horrified look.
And, then you read about a 22 year old – Umesh Kumar Pandey – had been shot dead for asking motorists to pay their toll. Rs.27. Many ask, is this the price of human life ? My response is that this is the cost of machismo. A behaviour that emanates from ‘tum kaun ho mujhe poochne waale’. It is the same reasons that possibly led to the murder of Jessica Lall – the rage at being asked to follow rules. Rs.27, a drink not served – both ending in violent death. Gun shot. Both cases a mixture of inebriation, machismo and firearms leading to death.
Yesterday, i managed to catch some news – on it were the parents of Umesh Kumar Pandey. His brothers are physically & mentally challenged. and Umesh was the only financial support for his family. You watch the crying father, the stoic mother and you ask what kind of society are we becoming? Are societal institutions such as the family or religious organisations preparing people to live in the 21st century. or is there a genuine mis match between upbringing that tells you that ‘might is right’ and that ‘you have to fight for what you have’ – and society that is based on the rule of law.
I heard some murmurs about stronger gun laws. India already has strong gun laws. You and I will not find it easy to go and buy a gun (even if we wanted to). These are most likely illegal firearms. Am not quite sure what the lawmakers or law enforcers will do to reduce these.
I keep wondering, is there any way to ensure that people who get crores of rupees for their land can be trained for something apart from a life of feudal excesses. I read about farmers near Pune who have managed to spend their windfall on wine, woman and song. I see the read the same about Haryana. Does the responsibility of the system end with getting a buyer and a seller together. Does the system have a duty to ensure that monies are not whittled away – especially by the first generation landless rich.
There are somethings that the market can settle, a human life is not one of them.
By system you mean administration or society?
Society (we) has to take ah honest look at what it accepts, discriminates, condones, condemns. Today, money is the criteria for judging “successful” person. If you have money, no one asks how you got it. How you behave with others get judged for it depends on how much money you have. If you are rich, you can forget all human considerations. Earlier, behaviour of a person determined his standing in the society but now it is dependent on money s/he has.
Today people get away or think they can get away with this behaviour because no one cares how they behave or have behaved in past. Where are the checks and balances which governed behaviour earlier? For all its inadequacies, in earlier times, society did operate with a better code of conduct.
I think this is as much about upbringing as it is about a culture of lawlessness. I read this in Freakonomics and found it pertinent – if people feel can get away with petty crimes, there is a sense that even greater crimes will go unpunished. This is why we don’t just need to address bigger, public crimes such as this, but smaller instances of lawlessness. for that, your police has to be more than a revenue collection agency with targets.
Not that I’m saying that this is the only issue, but I would be surprised if this is the only such instance. It’s the same escalation in violence that took place in Bihar over the years, with kidnapping becoming an industry, and among the first few thing that Nitish Kumar addressed. It didn’t mean that crime was addressed in its entirety, but there was a comparative improvement in security. By no means is Gurgaon as bad as Bihar was, but there needs to be a crackdown on even the things that we’ve begun to accept as the norm.
“or is there a genuine mis match between upbringing that tells you that ‘might is right’ and that ‘you have to fight for what you have’ – and society that is based on the rule of law.”
But isn’t the rule of law itself emphasizing that might is right ? Isn’t it what the govt. is doing using police, army, courts, prisons et al ? They use their might to set others right. Will there be someone going to jail voluntarily because he is asked by the court. He would obey the court only because the court can use its might (i.e, the police) to imprison him otherwise.
Again, again State/Law cannot set one example and expect people to follow something else.
I agree that upbringing has an effect in the sense that it would dissuade one not to follow the rule of law or the example of state that says “might is right”.