Immorality strikes again. The culture brigade is out is full-force. The threat to good old Indian values looms large. On TV, I witness men dressed in white burning effigies of Shilpa Shetty and Richard Gere. The men seem enthusistic, even gleeful at their task. Somewhere nearby (I presume) because the camera pans to her, Shetty stands by with actor Shiney Ahuja on the sets of her film Metro as the Shiv Sainiks bring the shooting to a temporary halt. While on an AIDs Awareness project “Seena Taan Ke”, Gere had apparently kissed Shetty to drive home the point that AIDS/HIV does not spread via kissing or casual contact. But really who cares about HIV, adult choices, or whether it’s nobody’s business other than the parties involved in the kissing, when it’s a question of saving precious culture ?

Another story, same day : Hindu Rashtriya Sena members ransack Star News offices in Mumbai to protest (??) Star News reporting a story on a Hindu girl and her Muslim boyfriend. The camera pans on broken car wind-shields, and windows. Lots of people milling around. General hubbub.

“About 40 to 50 men wielding hammers came into the reception area and started smashing window panes,” said Yash Khanna, the head of communications at Star.

When asked by an NDTV anchor, on TV, on what the police would do to punish the perpetrators of the crime, the spokesperson from Star (and I’m not sure if it was Khanna) said that in his opinion the police would do what they always did – nothing.

Both these reports I heard and watched first via NDTV this morning, and I presume so did many other desis, all around the world. If I didn’t know any better, on seeing all this blatant mockery of law and order, I’d think that India was a hotbed of intolerance and crime. That no normal life could go on where the policing authorities commanded such little respect or faith. Where the state has such little gumption that any group of people could ransack public/private property, and openly declare their bigoted views, and perpetuate violence against people who thought differently.

How dispiriting is it to see (and for me, so far away) to see people break/burn public and private property, seemingly happy and enthusiastic, and apparently unafraid of getting caught or of even minor repercussions ! How dispiriting is it to hear the victim of a crime say that he believes the police will do nothing ? It is the death of national pride (and pride in any nation) to see miscreants and abusers of the law roam free and unafraid – on TV no less. Are laws only for the lawful ?

Crimes happen everywhere. Intolerance is wide-spread. But it is when criminal activity goes unpunished that faith in the system nosedives. The solution isn’t hard, if one wishes to implement it. It won’t take a huge addition to the police force to do it either. Justice is remembered by how and when it is implemented. You don’t have to be at the receiving end of the stick to know how it feels. Justice is easily implemented by example :

Catch a few of the goons who indulged in a widely-reported criminal activity. Punish them publicly. Publicize the implementation. Follow through. Prosecute, prosecute, prosecute – thoroughly. Make them pay. Make it hurt. Let the punishment suit the crime. Publicize, publicize, publicize – widely. Repeat exercise if anyone else tries the criminal activity again. Repeat again if necessary. After a few cycles, repetition won’t be necessary.