Numbness of Bystanders is Fatal for Indian Law and Order!
Reading about the recent lynching incidents in Assam, Uttarpradesh, Maharashtra and now Rajasthan has moved me.
A country like India where democracy has turned into “Mobocracy” and Hindustan has turned into “Lynchistan”, things are surely going wrong way.
The most shocking thing is the numbness of bystanders. People are actually doing nothing while watching such brutality happening in front of them. People have turned a blind eye to such incidents. No one comes forward to stop such misconduct of law and order.
But is it something new to us? I would like to recall the infamous Nirbhya Rape Case from December 2012.
In the chilly winter night, after a gang rape and fatal assualt to two youth, the culprits threw them on the roadside to die.
The male victim half-naked and soaked in blood, requested every passerby to give them cloths or call the ambulance. But the bystanders just looked at them with great amazement.
Nobody helped them unless a passerby came forward and informed Delhi Police.
What happen after is history and it is imprinted in our minds. But we can’t forget how our numbness resulted in 13 days painful treatment and death to the rape victim.
Every now and then, we hear this from social activists and police officers that reporting a crime as a passerby is our moral duty. And it is not like Indians were this way always.
Our corrupt system has turned into such oblivion heartless people. The man who offered first help to Nirbhaya, Rajkumar Singh is a retired army personnel and was working in a private firm in 2012. In aftermath of the case, he was being called to court proceedings so many times that he had to resign from his job.
Now, can you imagine the plight of the person, who in his sincere effort to provide medical help to rape victim, lost his everything. The culprits of this case got death sentence after whole 6 years but the one who tried to stand with the victim got the punishment instantly.
The court proceedings and trials are time taking and gruesome. Also, the societal regressions drag people back from it.
The police’s role is also questionable as they might be very insensitive to the family of victims, their witnesses and even the victims.
Seeing this pattern, Indians refrain from getting into any trouble caused by helping others. The crimes like lynching are mostly committed by closely related groups, they approve of each other in term of religion or beliefs. In both cases, anyone has no right or power to fight against the wrongdoings of mass.
But if we put ourselves in the shoe of the victim, it is devastating to see people keeping mum, when their support is the least they can give. Today we are seeing these lynching, rapes incidents happening with people who are not at the top of the heap.
What if we see a Hindu being killed just because a group of agitated people found another fabricated story on WhatsApp?
What if the rapes started targeting our boys along with girls? Are we waiting for that time?
Any event occuring with such great frequency is a threat to the society. It doesn’t matter what happened or when it happened, all crimes are serious. When you report a crime, in some cases, police need to talk to other people who may have witnessed or been involved in the crime. If you see a crime being committed, it’s your duty to stop it as soon as possible.
As I always say,
You are not neutral, you are coward if you don’t take a stand.
The same goes with bystanders. We don’t walk away from the crime scene, we walk away from our responsibility. And even if you can help one person, you are helping the world to restore faith in goodness.
