The dark, other side of Delhi rape: Lawbreakers as elected lawmakers

The anger and the outrage is palpable, hanging thick in the winter air. If the feudal overlords who pass themselves off for democratically elected and selected guardians of freedom, liberty and justice had a knife, they could cut through it. Unfortunately, the only time they use the knives is when they run into the political Gordian knot of coalition adharma – a cut here, a slash there to sacrifice ideologies and integrity at the altar of self-serving political power. More on that some other time.[caption id=“attachment_566633” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Against the administration. PTI[/caption] As the 23 year old survivor of the chillingly heinous rape and attempt to murder battles for her life in Safdarjung Hospital, the political class is most likely busy adjusting its glass bangles while taking morning walks on green lawns to aid their decayed yellow hearts, minds churning schemas on how to extract the maximum political mileage out of this gruesome incident. Taxpayer funded morning walks, in a manner of speaking. Fence eating the grass, in another manner of speaking. Other than that there has been complete……. ……Silence. Resounding in our ears. Save for some hollow words from the likes of Sheila Dikshit, Sushil Kumar Shinde and of course the omnipresent Manish Tewari who has a reflexive urge to demolish arguments and wash his hands with an unfunny beyond-my-pay grade line of defense on most occasions, we have not heard of anything concrete from the government. Administrative measures will undoubtedly be announced soon [or have they been already?] – a few police officers transferred, some suspended, a judicial commission here and a free-biscuit-gobbling committee there. The chicanery-and-deceit standard operating manual each time the establishment gets cornered by the civil society. How about cleaning up their own house? Looking INSIDE the horribly desecrated temples of democracy – the lower house, the upper house and the state legislative assemblies. Leaders and role models, bah! Ladies and gentlemen, even as my fingers fly across the keyboard, there are: • 42 MLAs who have declared charges of crimes against women, lodged in the dark underbelly of various legislative assemblies [Source: ADR report. Click here to access the names of these 42 gentlemen, who happen to be elected repress-entatives] • 2 MPs with similar credentials, strut around the hallowed portals of the Lok Sabha • 260 candidates with similar charges were given tickets to contest assembly elections in the last 5 years – Independents [72], INC [26], BJP [26], BSP [18] and SP [16] were the usual suspects. They never let us down, these political parties, do they!? • 40 candidates with similar charges were given tickets to contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2009. I understand that not all these charges will pass scrutiny in the course of the due judicial process, but to think that all of them are innocent till proven innocent calls for a leap of faith that is stunningly laughable. A closer look at how long the “judicial process” lasts keeping these gentlemen firmly in purgatory before the doors to heaven open up for them, may be quite revealing. Revealing about how jurisprudence is sometimes the closet that hides political skeletons. One set of laws for the powers that be; another for the ordinary lowly citizen. Next time Meira Kumar, Sheila Dikshit and others decide to tap into our credulity by tugging at our heart-strings, the question to ask them, and others like them, is: what are they collectively doing to set their own HOUSE IN ORDER. In the mean time, a silent prayer to keep the lady currently battling for her life, safe,,,,,, as a man, and as a human being, and as a part of the society that has morphed into a safe place for savages thanks to the rot that has seeped down from up above, all I can say is sorry,,,, may she come through, and become the symbol that leads to changing mindsets and eradicating this social malaise. [Drop me a line on shining.path.notperu@gmail.com for the full report in pdf format, if you wish to acquaint yourself with the necessary facts on the MPs and MLAs]