The moral authority of the human society now has no legs to stand upon. A new tendency made an appearance in the human society - everyone for himself and herself. Selfishness became an overpowering human trait and the teaching, 'Service before self' just remained dormant on the pages of books of religion and morality.

Decline and fall

With the decline of social authority that gradually led to its fall, the moral structure also collapsed. Criminals considered themselves above law and they could buy that system of dispensation of justice that separated the outlaw from the law-abiding. The ill gotten wealth made them so arrogant and drunk with illegitimate power that the real seat of authority, government of the day cowered. Corrupt practices of the lowest order had eaten into the vitals of men who ran the show and they became absolutely hollow and too feeble to resist criminals, leave alone bringing them to book.

The judiciary pleaded helplessness to punish criminals unless witnesses deposed under oath and the prosecution proved the charges beyond any shadow of doubt. Sadly, the judicial process could never be carried to completion because witnesses failed to turn up in courts of law because they were too scared of the muscle power to stand face to face in a court of law. Witnesses for the prosecution were subjected to threat, inducement, promise or bribery and they failed to depose on oath before the judge what the truth was.

Thus the system of criminal justice failed to deliver the goods and put criminals in prison. Criminals went scot free, roamed around in streets and the law-abiding citizens sat subdued sans police protection in a remote corner. Neo-rulers made money in millions and had to travel abroad day after day to stash illegitimate wealth in benami accounts in Banks of Loot in a remote corner in a foreign country like Switzerland. The aam aadami or the much talked about common man suffered privation and rarely ate two square meals a day.

With the result the crime graph went up and up but the morale of the people went down and down. The bank balance of the corrupt politician swelled with the ill-gotten wealth but the state of the State became more and more pathetic day by day. The aam aadmi , in whose name the country was looted by its own political leaders was in no position, physical, mental or spiritual to rise in revolt against the daylight robbery in his house committed by its own leaders.

The fall of Bastille and the French Revolution were a distant dream in the land of Ahimsa. The untold suffering and misery went on and on. The Ryot (peasants) suffered untold misery and privation as he and she rarely had two square meals a day. Sickness, education of children, festivities on Dussehra and Diwali were like building castles in the air. The rulers were the legislators and ministers who had spent a fortune in getting the party ticket and influencing the ballot through bullet, if need be, made illegal money as the return for the massive amount of money he had spent on the process of occupying the present position of power.

Punishment playing truant

It is the constitutional duty of the State that it employs its police, para-military and if need be even the military to apprehend and punish the perpetrators. The citizenry will lose faith in the government of the day if it fails to carry out its basic duty of providing protection to its citizens from the lawless elements. If the law-abiding citizens continue to live in a state of permanent fear of the outlaw, the citizenry will succumb to the threat of criminals. It may be added that at present the government of India develops cold feet when it comes to hanging Afzal Guru to death. It is sad that they look into terrorist-care for retaining power but not for making the nation strong by eliminating  terrorists.

Crimes continue to be committed but punishment is not meted out to the terrorists and criminals due to electoral politics where religion comes in play in a big way. The truth must be highlighted, no matter how bitter it may be. To conclude, one may say that India is rather weak in its handling of the problem of terror-cum-crime. May be, a change in leadership at the Centre brings about the necessary change in nation’s attitude towards terror.