Hemant Abhishek
Barely had the law caught up with the perpetrators of the brutal Delhi gang-rape that another shocker from Mumbai was reported.
While the administration and the police force glance sideways when asked who is to be blamed for such a failure in checking crime, the common Indian simply fails to find a protector who can shield from cross-border terrorism and internal enemies of the nation like the Naxals.
`India ka Agenda` - an episode of the Bharat Bhagya Vidhata series - this week took up the biggest bane of modern India - lack of safety.
Stressing on the fact that Indians, especially women, had never felt so unsafe in the country, Zee News Editor, Sudhir Chaudhary, questioned if a sense of security was too elusive a dream today.
Opining that every Indian has been granted the ‘Right to Life’ by the Constitution, chairman of National Commission for Minorities, Wajahat Habibullah, said, “Our country is in a phase of transition and people have begun asking questions rather than suffering in silence. Any citizen can approach the Commissioner of Police or the District Magistrate of his/her area to know about the deployment of the police machinery to keep a check on crime.”
But how does one approach the police officers when the fact is that they scare the citizens the most? Former Delhi police commissioner TR Kakkar, said that though times had changed cops still come across as ‘suppressive’, hence the tag `police ‘force’ has stuck since colonial times. “The common man is more scared of the police than criminals, because the police force is used as a tool of suppression by those in power,” said Kakkar.
“People feel scared to approach the ‘khaki’ uniform. Perhaps if the colour of their outfits is changed to a mellowed hue then the changed appearance will help change the mindset that commoners have towards the police force,” he added.
The rising rate of crime against women is alarming. And much more alarming is the manner in which politicians and opinion leaders blame women for inviting trouble. Addressing the issue, Chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women, Barkha Singh, stressed that an immediate attitudinal change in the society was the need of the hour.
“In an independent nation women should have the freedom to dress like they want to,” she said and added that it was shocking that in today’s age people expected women to cover themselves from head to toe and avoid ‘looking for trouble’ by dressing provocatively.
(The episode airs at 8:30 pm on Sunday on Zee News channel.)
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