Nemo me impune lacessit...

The Noida Ripper’s case is becoming more and more sordid by the day. Theories are flying back and forth. Some would have it that the culprits were part of a larger human organ smuggling racket, while others contend, on the basis of photographic evidence found, that child pornography is the real story behind the curtain. And politicians are dropping to unimaginably low depths, what with cash compensations to grieving parents and comments about the crimes being a ‘small and routine’ affair.

I sometimes find it odd that politicians can be so very detached from reality, so removed from public emotions. I mean, no sensible person, no reasonable individual would ever state the crime as a small and routine matter. Come to think of it, the patrician who uttered this beauty must be regretting this faux pas, because he ends up achieving quite the inverse of what he must be intending to do. Perhaps he meant to say that while this was a serious matter, the police wasn’t taking this to be a small and routine matter either, or maybe not. Notwithstanding his intentions, the message that the world got, and that too from none other than the brother of the Chief Minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh where the crime took place, is that crimes of such a serious nature are so very mundane. I shudder to think what would count as a serious crime in the eyes of the notable patrician.

Many saw with glee and amazement the fall of Laloo Prasad Yadav’s cliché in Bihar last year. Reasons for this event were numerous, right from the growing awareness of the people to the disinclination of the people to give a corrupt administration another breath of life, to the desire for change, and that too serious change. Maybe this all contributed to a great extent, but there is one thing that I feel turned the tables against Mr. Yadav. His cliché’s government failed to ensure public safety to such a basic level that even children were no longer safe from the arms of organised crime. Kidnappings were commonplace. Children were seized in broad daylight, and kept in captivity for weeks together.

In the end, man is a primitive being, given to the primeval instincts of survival. No human will bear in silence harm being done to his loved ones, and those who permit such harm to be done bear his wrath. The phrase of “Nemo me impune lacessit” doesn’t evoke strong emotions for nothing. And when a government shows itself of protecting even children, I am confident that no sentient soul would ever dream of reposing any faith in it, and so it was, and the result is there for all to see.

Why I chose to relate this particular tale is rather simple. Uttar Pradesh is similar to Bihar, and given reforms that have taken place since last year in Bihar, maybe even worse than it now. This incident puts into context the appalling state of affairs as far as law and order are concerned. The verdict seems inevitable; what remains to be seen is whether those who will emerge victorious will do anything to learn from the mistakes of the past.