Weakening of human relations, beginning from family unit upward, is steadily gaining strength. Society is not as cohesive as it used to be or should be. Relations among nations are hardly up to the mark. Crime has taken over. There is total paralysis of authority. Mafia in almost every sphere of civilized life rules the roost. Unchecked population growth brings numerous problems. Governments find it impossible to control crime. Economic problems force individuals, societies and nations to be aggressive in one way or the other. A fight for survival at any cost is on. The consequences are putting the serious problems on the back burner.

Maintenance of law and order in a civilized human society is the duty of the police. It is not trained to deal with beasts like the juvenile lad who inflicted maximum violence on ‘Nirbhaya’. The legislature had never anticipated that perversion could stoop to such beastliness as has been exhibited by the juvenile. The result is that all - judiciary, legislature and the intelligentsia are just helpless spectators and the young devil that deserves death is going to be let off with minor punishment, making a mockery of the law. What sort of monster he is likely to grow into when he comes of age in days that can be counted on finger tips, can be anybody’s guess.

From inadequately equipped police, whether it is legal powers, weapons or latest technology, the nation expects the crime or for that matter rapes to be controlled. The number of citizens each policeman is expected to protect is ridiculously high. The government hardly does anything substantial to modernize the police and reduce the ratio between the police and the public as our politicians badly lack the will, interest and resources to do it.

Corruption permeates the police ranks as it does with all other spheres of the society. The pay packages of the police ranks are insufficient to allow them to lead a respectable life. The byproduct of this deficiency is illegal gratification wherever it is possible. But they, the police, constitute the main target of the media. They are more afraid of the political masters than their conscience or the obligation towards the people. They have to bear the brunt both ways, of the people, including the writer who too has hardly anything to boast about by way of chivalry or bravery.

If at the time of commission of a crime, anybody ventures into the scene of action, he is sure to face the unpleasant music at the hands of the police and the family friends and relatives. In the bargain, he is most likely to get injured or killed by the criminals or crime partners. Then the police too are likely to entangle him more than his due in the never ending legal battle. All these hassles make the common man a coward. It is safer to be condemned for a few days than be dragged unceremoniously into the never ending legal battle. The prevailing circumstances have made human values irrelevant. Why have any scruples; why not take the easy route to continue to drag our disgraceful existence?

When quick justice is not guaranteed or even assured to reasonable limits, why should the police and the doctors attending to the victims of violence of the criminals be over enthusiastic in doing their duty sincerely? In most cases, they would not like to touch the victims with a long pole. Their apathy is understandable. The growing army of unemployed directionless youth finds it easy to snatch chains of women, demand wallets of law abiding citizens at knife point, kidnap and rape girls or women; kill kids if ransom is denied at once on their bidding. These desperados don’t mind being government guests and fed in jails for some time. Rather quite a large number of these criminals look forward to being caught and going to jails for free food and shelter. The life of most of the poor is financially insecure. There is widespread unemployment and even daily bread is not sure to come by. The option that remains is crime.

Generation gap is one of the worst maladies of the modern times. Breaking families release frustrated hordes of youth to invade the society and deprive the people of their sleep and mental peace. To most of these vagabonds, life hardly means anything except an aimless indulgence of their whims which tend to be anti-social and inhuman.

Nobody is accountable for his/her actions. The police have little say in shaping the society in such matters. The unscrupulous producers of TV programmes and films glorifying violence and making it a power, status and symbol of manliness and indirectly the criminal heroes, known as BHAIS in their parlance, would never want to have a share in the spread of crime. There are a handful film and TV programme producers who mean well. They are an honorable exception as human beings in the civilized world always are. They continue to contribute their mite but their insignificant small number hardly matters.

Is anyone anywhere on the globe doing anything to counter-balance the shine that has been attached to immorality, crime, violence and beastly acts that are a scourge to humanity? Here I would like to quote a few lines from Lord Macaulay’s address to the British Parliament on 2 February, 1835: “I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief, such wealth I have seen in this country such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country….”

I am sure if Lord Macaulay were alive and again ventured to travel the length and breadth of the country and compared what he had seen then and what he sees now, he would go mad. I wonder why we do not go mad; why the people who run the government and the people who offer themselves to be governed do not go mad. But of one thing I am sure, “We Indians have an inexhaustible stock of pertinence and can go on waiting till the Doomsday.”