29.12.2012 | New Delhi
Increasing violence has plagued India over the last few decades. The Delhi gang-rape victim, who succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012, is the latest casualty. Media coverage hypes crimes in metros, but there are equally grotesque killings happening all over the country. An elderly couple was burnt alive in their bungalow by the workers of their tea plantation. This happened in the state which sent the Indian Prime Minister to the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament. Times may have changed, but the primary reasons for such heinous crimes remain the same – a widening gap between the haves and the have-nots, and utter contempt for law enforcing agencies.
The reforms of the 1990s have meant urban India has more money to spend now. Also, the double income single families have shed inhibitions about showing-off their wealth.
Lifestyles shown on television serials raise people’s aspirations. The India-Bharat gap is widening.
The continuing migration of rural men to cities leaves a vacuum that is filled by the lumpen elements masquerading as Maoists. The hinterland has been home to what the British called ‘criminal’ tribes.
When the rural man comes to a city he is blinded by the wealth on display. He has left his family — parents, siblings, wife and children — behind and there are no moral compass to guide him. Then he sees the unscrupulous prospering and enjoying life. His conversion to the Dark Side, as Star Wars would say, is complete. Alcohol and loose morals mix sure recipe for disaster. The law enforcers are either too busy in protecting VIPs or in recouping money they spent in getting the position they occupy. Transfer and posting are a lucrative business in official corridors.
This leaves the country as an Indian Bumpkin would say, Ram bharose (at the mercy of God).
