Friday, December 25, 2009

Ruchika Tragedy and the Indian Elite

Once again we find a powerful police officer responsible for the death of a young girl. By now, given the fact that the Indian media, like the people of India in general, have a short memory. How many remember the fact that not that long ago the IPS officer, and the father of 2 girls R K Sharma I PS was found guilty of hiring Tyagi gangsters from Meerut area and having Shivani Bhatnagar killed. People of India have come to expect from politicians and police officers a large degree of criminality and it is time we checked this. Because the people of India can be persuaded by emotion, cash and liquor it is time for patriotic and freedom loving people to come together to inflict punishment on criminals who use their high office and political clout to evade punishment. The high voltage media campaign does not help because even after the Priyarashini Mattoo, Jessica Lal, Nitish Kataria and the BMW cases we are not seeing a reduction in the number of cases in which powerful politicians and their associates escape the long arms of the law. It appears that only when the last witness against Lalloo Prasad Yadava is killed will the Fodder case come up before the Bench. More recently, in Madurai where 3 journalistss were killed in the Dinakaran office when it was attacked by DMK criminals led by "attack "Pandi and others, all the accused were acquitted and one of the prime accused is now serving as a Union Minister. There is just no point is thinking that politicians and powerful bureaucrats and policemen can be brought to justice. Justice must be brought to them in one form or other and only then will things change.
I was shocked at the brazenness with which S S Rathore IPS swaggers. The arrogance displayed by this criminal is breathtaking. He was responsible for driving a young and budding tennis player, Ruchika, to suicide after he raped her and threatened her family with dire consequences if they persist in prosecuting him for the crime. He subjected the entire family to humiliation and disgrace and this resulted in the young and impressionable girl killing herself. S S Rathore IPS is a police medal awardee and this itself shows that the Government of India honours powerful criminals if they are useful. Stripping him of the medal now will be only of symbolic value as he has already reaped the benefits of the ill bestowed medal. My question is simple: How do such criminals rise to the top and get away with their criminal behaviour, even rape and abettment to suicide. The answer is the politician-criminal officer nexus. Devil Lal's son of Meham fame, Om Prakash Choutala (a well deserved name for a Haryana politician) seems to have covered up for S S Rathore IPS.
I do not think that the common India citizen will ever see the fact that the politicians elected by the common man has all the traits of the common Indian citizen--criminality, venality, prone to moral turpitude and corruption. Therefore there in no point in saying that justice will finally triumphs. Only when we take it upon ourselves to punish wrong doers will the politicians fall in line.