DEVELOPMENT IS ABSENT WHEN CRIME IS NOT CONFRONTED – BY SHANTONU SEN

To be  a Liberal , after May 16th 2014 is being lonely. Most people are rooting for the twin agenda of  development and hindutva. It is both or either and the mood of the  majority in the country  is that polarising  of the country ,if  that is what   will follow, spare us lectures or debates. This spectre has haunted the country far too long and let us bite the bullet  say even those who after an agonising  internal struggle decided to join the present band wagon.

The lonely tribe of liberals of India must shut their mouths? That would be in their interest. They will be spared the fate of the Pune techie. Or is it a very harsh thought to link the votaries of development and hindutva with the lunatic fringe among them who acted so irrationally in Pune.  This debate is endless and is meaningless as the real danger is clash of the odious and revolting  elements among the various groups that have sprung up espousing the contradictions in the society .It is this that needs attention. The iron fist of the law against hate and disruptive crime where is it? .The ominous  crimes  whether the one in Pune, or Badaun or Herat or  Garo Hills or Muzzafarpur or  the ones happening in various parts of UP, Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan reflect this state of affairs is on the rise  and the law is complacent or complicit or both. The harsh truth is  then that polarising of our society is not only inevitable but it will grow with some rapidity. There will be  fissures that  will become  pockets of groups of  outlaws . They will criminalize their society    and  all  types  of crimes including disruptive and terrorist crime will occur. Development  cannot, simply cannot  take place as their rule of   crime is not confronted.

Crime must be confronted up front . A police force which is not compromised can take up this challenge. A civil administration which can think and act as the law of the land requires it to do can provide  that much support to them. The magistracy that is unbiased and uninfluenced by political rulers and their administrative  fellow travellers  will be  a  real  wall in creating a law order force that will confront this  crime most appropriately. When the crime that will pull down measures that help development is planned and  later executed    is it not their responsibility  to separately and in combination with each other to confront    it ? A Government that has scored  a near bulls eye in the polls  with the  promise of development cannot falter now in confronting its most dangerous  nemesis , that  crime world that is brewing dangerously.  That Law ,Justice ,Order are primarily State Subjects is  known but if development is at  stake, a solution , and a meaningful one at that, will have to be found . The promise of development and hindutva  may well remain a mirage   otherwise.

The solution that is possible to implement   should  itself be acceptable  to the state where it will be implemented. One possibility is investigation of the crime that by definition has harmed a development exercise either on going or projected be taken over by a body similar to the Election Commission.Whoever assigned the investigation will thereafter take insructions only from this body. Prosecutors will conduct the  proceedings in court in this case on instructions from this body, Courts trying such cases will also be separately constituted by the High Court for dealing with such cases. The powers of this body to set up intelligence groups in all the districts where such crime have a propensity may be examined or this responsibility be specifically  vested with the SIB( State Intelligence Bureau) and they be directed  to cordinate such intelligence of crime that impacts development  with this body . There will be hiccups in any new arrangement , quite naturally too, but with time and practice they can be resolved….Shantonu Sen