दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

Indians had been very poor in preserving history. Forget Valmiki, the Aadikavi! There is even controversy over the birth place of Tulsidas, whose Ramcharitmanas happens to be the most popular and respected religious book (by number) in India. The country and its Hindus have not done anything significant to save the places related to him. It is painful to hear and read how every single development project is either delayed or sacrificed because of political or religious reasons.

According to TV channels, from Jammu to Kerala lakhs of VHP workers, joined by Bajrang Dal, RSS, BJP and ABVP activists, blocked road and rail traffic in protest against a project that appears to be one of national importance to an engineer like me and others and inconvenienced the working class. In Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh, the protest took a communal turn.

It all happened because an affidavit was not correctly worded: ”Valmiki Ramayana and Ramcharitmanas admittedly form an important part of ancient Indian literature, but these cannot be said to be historical records to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters and occurrences of events depicted therein.”

The Sethusamudram project is meant to dredge an 83-km-long canal linking Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar to reduce shipping distance by almost 600kms. For environmentalists, the project would destroy marine biodiversity and increase the risk of natural disasters. To the politicians trying to keep the so-called Hindu vote in their favours, the project would wipe out Adam’s Bridge or Ram Setu, built by an army of monkeys led by Lord Ram to rescue his wife from Ravana.

I am sure if Valmiki, Tulsidas, or even Ram whose all acts were to keep his people happy and prosperous, appear today incarnated again, will give their verdict in favour of the project.

The Sethu Samudram Ship Canal project will enable vessels to save on time taken to circumnavigate the Sri Lankan island while going from west to east. It is a commercial proposal as other famous canals in the world such as the Suez or Panama. The project will save millions of rupees every year for the country. Why should the politicians obstruct that with a hope that it can get them the vote of a community that is so much divided in thousands of castes? Let them drop their myth.

And if the political parties can make an institution such as the Archealogical Survey of India change its version, how can the people hereafter believe on its inferences?

Unfortunately, the professionals are not trained to be politically prudent.

I was recently reading an article in the economists on nuclear power. It says, “Nuclear power was accepted by politicians and the public alike, so there are few delays due to protests or planning problems.” And France today are having the largest number of nuclear power plants in the world about which the leftists are raising so much hue and cry.

Why can’t the politicians take some lessons from other developed and developing nations and stop exploiting this right of democracy for a wrong antinational cause?

Instead, the project can get a nicely coined name with Rama to keep the memory of His Bridge alive for the centuries to come.

Some 55 years ago, I was in my village in a summer vacation. It was a hot summer. As usual, all the male members of the family and some fellow villagers were in the courtyard of the house that was sprayed with water in the evening to make us sleep comfortably. Suddenly, the whole village was on its feet. Someone had seen a truck going on the bank of the village canal. It was something unusual. He took the truck as one full of thieves going for a robbery to some village nearby. The news spread like wild fire. A huge crowd went ahead and dug the bank of the canal so that while returning the truck would fall in that. And so it happened. When none came out of the truck for sometime, the brave enthusiasts waiting at distance went near the truck. There was no one in that. The driver had run away in darkness.

In the morning, someone came and told us that truck was carrying coal for the village next to ours. I reminded of the incident while reading the recent cases of the mob’s ‘instant justice’ in Bihar.

For quite sometime now, the news from Bihar is becoming more and more shocking, damning, humiliating, and to a great extent beastly.

It started with Bhagalpur. A minor chain snatcher was brutally beaten by the mob. I saw the beastly pleasure on the faces of the scarcely dressed people of all ages in the crowd on TV screen. Even the policemen who came there tried to give some exemplary punishment to the culprit. He tied the alleged thief to his motorcycle and dragged the bare bodied on the road. All that was when a video camera was on.

In another incident, three motorcycle snatchers had their eyes gouged out by an angry mob in Bihar’s Nawada district last Sunday.

On Monday two children were beaten up and paraded in the streets with their heads tonsured in Nawada town, because they allegedly stole few packets of detergent from a shop where they were employed. As reported, ’13-year-old Mochu and 12-year-old Budhan cried and begged forgiveness but to no avail’.

The people are taking law into its hands. “In yet another instance of mob brutality, ten alleged thieves have been beaten to death in Dhelpurva village of Vaishali district in Bihar.” It is an extreme case of instant justice by crowd and failure of police machinery. A CID investigation can’t provide the solution.

Why is it happening? Is it because the people are frustrated and have lost faith in police and judiciary? Is it because the people don’t have any thing to do? Do they try to get some way entertained by these acts? Does it happen because the people are illiterate? Is it because the education today does not emphasise on becoming a good human being with some minimum compassion first? Can any number of police stop this to happen? Does it require some Gandhian mass social reforming approach?

When the Nitish Kumar government started its inning, perhaps the first important visitor to the state was Guru Ramdev. Some other Gurus also visited. As I remember, Nitish Kumar made Ramdev the brand ambassador for Bihar. Perhaps the state requires more of Ramdev and his disciples in all the cities, towns, and villages to conduct the value building programmes as basic requirement. Some value building must be part of education. It is strange that all these are happening in the state of Buddha and Mahavir.

However, the regularity of such incidents is no doubt the indicators of the total failure of the administration at all levels. It got reflected in the statement of even the chief minister when he himself says after hearing Dhelpurva story, “incidents of crime have increased and police are not paying attention.” How can he improve if he doesn’t become aggressive and open to suggestions? Today he is in position to appoint the best policeman of the country (may be Kiran Bedi who recently was superceded by her junior) to head Bihar law and order administration. Why is so keen to keep the men from his own state who are having very poor reputation because of their caste bias. Why can’t he remove the black sheep if he thinks them as hurdle? Is it not getting obvious with as many as 1,600 people turning up at his Janata Durbar to complain against police?

It is unfortunate that all TV channels are making it more difficult for Nitish Kumar. Let us look at the NDTV reporting. “Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may have promised to rid Bihar of crime when he came to power in 2005 but the crime graph in the state seems to be indicating otherwise, especially when it comes to incidents of brutality.” And then NDTV reporter goes to Lalu Yadav who squarely laid the blame for the incident on the Chief Minister. ”There is no law and order in the state of Bihar. The government has failed completely. The police also stand by and watch. There is complete anarchy in Bihar.”

Why should media go to Lalu for a comment on everything that happens in Bihar and publicize his remarks that are never serious? Whatever is happening today are the cumulative results of the years of mishandling of law and order in Bihar. And the Lalu’s clan had ruled then.

Bihar needs some innovative handling of the situation. Only the chief minister and his team can do that. It can’t improve its image without that.

It used to be heartening when the former President Kalam pleaded regularly to take to mass planting of trees all over the country. Our scriptures say that planting trees are surest way to get rid of one’s sins and reach heaven. It was exciting news to find that the UPA government is set to launch the ‘Green India project, that aims to afforest more than 6 million hectares – around 2% of the country’s total area – with the help of people in the villages.’ In Noida one can see ‘Green Noida, Clean Noida’ slogan written all over the township.

With all this background, it was shocking experience to have received a shocking letter ref: Noida/PE (M) III/2007- 1286 dated 29.08.2007 from the office of project engineer, Noida Authority (NA) on September 1. (All residents of houses in sector 41 that face the road between sector 41 and sector 39 received almost similar letter or with one with little variation through speed post.) The letter says we have made encroachment by planting saplings in front of our houses. The NA attached a nice photograph of the respective houses too. The letter ordered to remove the encroachment in three days. If we didn’t remove, the authority would remove it and charge the cost.

We came to live in this house in sector 41 of Noida in June 1998. There was hardly any house in our row. The land in front up to the road was lying barren. We had a facing of a huge ground in Sector 39 that was the public defecating ground of all construction workers in this part of Noida. (It remained so till the Noida Authority built a huge prison like boundary wall.) With wind, the plastics and other rubbish used to come up to our houses, and with the foul smell, it was difficult to keep the main door open or to sit outside. And the vehicles on the road further added to the dust generation. We kept on complaining and suggesting for creating fencing and planting trees to conceal the horrendous scene every morning. It was much later that with the help of the horticulture department of the authority, I got planted trees all along the road on the side of Sector 41 A and B blocks. Later on the Noida Authority fenced the side with barbed wire and planted Bougainvillea. However, it didn’t do the same on the side of sector 39.

As we got some inspiration from the mission ‘Green and Clean Noida’, we planted some trees and shrubs too, as clear from the photographs. The idea was to see some greenery when we sit in our balcony and restrict the dirt from the roadside. We don’t consider planting of trees was and is a crime and encroachment by any definition rather it is a national necessity. We have certainly not encroached on Noida Authority land by this act of ours. We don’t claim any right on the trees that we have planted.

In the meantime, some years ago the road was widened. We never objected to that even though we lost some trees in the process and Yamuna, my wife who does take care of the plants, felt really bad about it.

We wonder why should the project engineer issue a letter such as one mentioned above. Why should the Noida authority not encourage the residents to get trees planted wherever it is possible without causing any problem to the community at large instead of threatening those who have done that?

And now a new threat has come. We hear that a wall will soon come up passing through the middle of the greenery that we have created. We don’t know if we will be able to save our trees. Unfortunately, NA and its officers don’t bother to inform the residents of its plan in the manner they sent encroachment notice. And a rumour says, someone who envies the location advantage of our residences that has an open space in front, is behind the erection of wall.

We wish someone saved our greenery and the trees.

PS: Some young residents from Block B approached me today morning. We, almost 20 men and women, went to CEO, Noida Authority and requested him to stop raising the wall. Even though he was too busy, he listened and assured to do something. We wish he could order the suspension of construction of wall that will be second prison wall within 40 ft in front of our houses.

Farzand Ahmed’s The Missing Kids in the latest ‘India Today’ presents a dismal picture of the law and order situation, related to kidnappings in Bihar. I may ignore Rabri Devi’s concern for “sushasan” (good governance). But if I go by media and information that I keep on getting from my own sources in Bihar, the menace of kidnappings of the children in particular is showing no sign of ending. It is not that it is not there in other states but in Bihar it has become a trade and means of taking revenge and making quick money.

A month ago, I received an email from one whom I have come to know because of my blog http://www.drishtikona.com, with an attachment from a vernacular newspaper giving a story of kidnapping related to someone in my village. I called my brother who lives there. It appeared he was really concerned and excited about the incident as it happened in my village. After going through Farzand story, I contacted my brother again and heard the whole story of the kidnapping of the village. It ran like a novel. As it is now known, the news of the kidnapping was a made-up one that never happened but created. It originated in the enmity of two closely related but warring families for vested interest out of hurt egos.

Yesterday I came across good news of the ‘abducted boy rescued within 24 hours in Bihar’. With the help of a common friend, two employees of a private firm had abducted Chhotu, a 6-year old son of a jawan to make a fast buck and realize heir dream to own a sleek motorcycles. The police had acted fast and smart and could put one of the abductors behind the bar.

And then to make the menace more complicated, Farzand provides another interesting aspect of Bihar’s kidnapping story. “According to an independent study conducted by the Crime Branch of the state police, more young girls and boys are kidnapped for marriage than for ransom. Such marriages, common in some north Bihar districts including Muzaffarpur, Begusarai and Samastipur, are called pakadua shaadi. Out of the total cases of kidnapping recorded between January and June this year, says the Crime Branch analysis, 419 were for marriage and only 48 were executed for ransom.” While I do believe that the police in Bihar have failed to solve the menace of kidnappings, but can the police solve it, if it continues the way the people of all categories and classes in Bihar are using it as tool? Don’t the people of Bihar require something more?

But it doesn’t mean that kidnapping is not a serious law and order issue in Bihar. “An ‘updated status report’ on the action taken on the cases of abduction of children makes a sensational reading: between 2001 and June 23, 2007, a total of 2,068 children were kidnapped in Bihar. While the police succeeded in recovering 1,690 children from the clutches of kidnappers, 304 are still not traceable. The report also highlights the macabre fact that over 74 victims were slain by kidnappers. The state capital tops with 36 killings, followed by Bhagalpur (16), Muzaffarpur (13) and Darbhanga (nine).” How can a government call it an improvement in its performance?

The whole story is just a gory tale of poor law and order situation in Bihar. Farzand says, “A number of mafia dons, who have entered politics, control a well-knit ‘syndicate’ to carry out abductions. Of all the crimes, kidnapping-for-ransom is the safest as the victim’s family does not normally involve the police. The gangs earlier used to target only wealthy farmers but then found that kidnapping and extortion of professionals like doctors, engineers as well as contractors, businessmen and the children of the wealthy was far more lucrative.”

And I again say it requires a tough mindset to hit at the root of the law and order problems. Just as terrorists don’t belong to any caste and community, these kidnappers-for-ransom and murderers don’t belong to any political party or community. The society, the community in particular must disown them. Nitish Kumar must not be content with his ‘a good, honest man’ image. He must be ruthless and follow the steps of Chanakya whose chair he is occupying. With majority in the assembly, Nitish must come out with a POTA like act for kidnapping industry of Bihar or get some really good outsiders as his police chiefs who can work without a caste bias. And the judiciary too must also come out to punish the culprits fast and in the severest manner to eliminate the menace. Bihar doesn’t have a future without a total restructuring of the police administration.

Simultaneously, the state must work really hard to improve upon the human development index with better education, healthcare, and employment that is very basic to get rid of many social problems.