Sunday, April 21, 2013

Dear Delhi,

What’s happening to you or what has happened to you?, why are the women or children specially girls are not safe in the city?, One thing I always wondered is, if this is the same state of affairs across the country and Delhi being the capital of the country these incidents are coming to light more often?  

Why is it that the public have to enrage and then only the police get into action? and I do appreciate the police for their swift action in getting the arrests done. But the irony is that the Delhi police, on one hand refused to register a complaint of the missing child and once the child is found in semi conscious state, they manage to arrest the culprits in no time. That too the culprits had fled Delhi to a distant state. So, form what I can see the efficiency exists in the Delhi police, all they need is motivation either in form of a carrot or a stick.

One cannot blame the police alone for not preventing the incidents and making Delhi more safer, because the victims involved were a 5 year old and another one is a 10 year old. Both of whom were molested by their neighbors, people whom they and their parents trusted to an extent. Of course one can blame them for not registering a complaint of the missing kid when they were asked to and not showing sensitivity once the child was found.

One thing I would definitely blame is the fast track court, its been almost 4 months since the bus incident and one person has already apparently committed suicide. So, where is the judgment, I am waiting with baited breath. Or the fast track just means it would be a few years instead of the usual few decades. For me the bus incident is a open and shut case and a judgment can be passed in a day, let alone months. 

Of course the mouths of our leaders better be sealed, do they even know that the recent victims are not women or teens but children?. Our esteemed PM said he was deeply moved, then what? is there an action or law or some such sort or should I be satisfied by the fact that he was moved?  

The thing that is bothering me the most is that of the 3 incidents that came to light in the last few months, there are a few in their teens and some in their early 20s or so. It tells me that there is something wrong with the way we as a society are handling the younger generation. Where have we gone wrong? In the case of the 10 year old girl, what happened to the golden rule “do not do something to others that you do not want them to do”?  or what we call the sense of belongingness, the kid was your neighbors daughter for gods sake.

One thing that is common amongst the cases is, all the culprits were under the influence of alcohol, so if the government can do anything other than just saying “ we are moved” is to do something about alcohol availability and sales. Oh, sorry that will be impossible due to the lobbying groups.

On the last note, after the last two incidents, I am in agreement with Sri Sri Ravishankar when he says, for all these atrocities to stop we need to uplift people by educating them on the spiritual path.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Democracy or Lobbycracy

The recent defeat of the gun control bill to make background check mandatory in the US congress has made me wonder, do we really have a democracy or we are living in an illusion of democracy.

All through this year, all the news media that I follow have been reporting that more than 90% of Americans are in favor of gun control and are in favor of background check and the only organization that is firmly against is the NRA which has an active membership of close to 4million people.

So, if most of the American people wants one thing why is the elected representatives are against it?, aren’t they worried about their re-election (ideally that’s what should happen if democracy were to be working in its full sense). But what I am witnessing is that senators are worried about the lobbying group (read NRA) than the people who elected them. Another way of looking at it, the media reported it wrong and only the urban elite who form the 10% and not 90% want the background checks Smile

To think further, the bill at question is background check. People are scared of being in a federal registry of owning guns. But aren’t you in some form of registry when you own a car, when you get a drivers license or for that matter when you get a speeding ticket, granted not everyone will have any of the above. Its mind boggling that anybody can walk into a gun show and buy a gun without probably even have to show any id before buying while you need all sorts of documentation before one can buy a car (insurance and all such).

To an extent, I feel people are getting paranoid for no reason and it is a shame that the senators are so scared of the NRA that they refuse to talk about Guns and Control in the same sentence.