Have we lost it...?

Two cases have emerged, which would shock and appal even the most hardened of souls. The serial kidnappings and subsequent killing of children in Noida, and the murder of an 11 year-old child by his friends serve to remind us what a disturbed world we live in. That no matter how much we may advance in technological terms, in the context of the mind, the intellect, we are more backward than even the primeval man.

The Noida kidnappings were at one moment mysterious, and yet so long as the skeletons of the children had not been found, there still existed a semblance of hope that the children would return to their homes, maybe not unblemished, but definitely alive. But the discovery of the skeletons must have dashed all these hopes. The local law enforcement authorities predictably failed in their duties once again, and the end result is that too much innocent blood has been shed.

To my mind, rape and sexual abuse have always been the most horrendous and horrible of crimes that an individual may perpetrate. Even murder pales before it, because at least in the case of murder, the victim is granted death, thereby releasing him from his agony. But a rapist offers no such solace, no such reprieve. He impales not only the body, but also the soul, the mind, and leaves not a person, but an empty shell in the wake of his cruel passions. Such a crime is not just reprehensible; it is plain abominable.

But nothing compares with abusing children. I mean, how can someone be so depraved as to blemish an innocent soul, to so torment that which has been so often described as God’s most beloved, with such a satanic act? Paedophilia is perhaps the worst that a dissolute mind can conjure from the depths of Hell. It is still possible for adults to emerge out of the shock, out of the pain that rape may induce, but it is impossible to imagine that the ordeal that the juvenile victim faces could vanish or even be reduced in the face of the passing years of Time.

I say, hang these degenerate criminals; there can be no notion of mercy in such cases. I have always been a strong proponent of capital punishment, but can and will permit the judiciary’s decisions to grant punishments other than this in crimes such as murders. But when it comes to such crimes, crimes which don’t just break the law, but also threaten the very normalcy of society, there can be no reprieve, because such felons do not deserve any kindness, because to do so would be to rub salt in the wounds of the victims and their families. We cannot afford doing that, not now, not ever.