15th August 2015, we celebrated 69 golden years of being born in independent India.
The very same day, sadly, a family mourned the death of 35 year old Ved Mitra Chaudhary, a Lance Naik, Indian Army, who tried to rescue a girl from clutches of few miscreants in Meerut, U.P. The unfortunate story goes as under:
13th August 2015, a girl goes to her father’s shop. Just then a young army jawan reaches there to buy milk. Little did this man know that he would never be able to get milk for his family that unfortunate day. He finds a goon trying to molest the girl, and this brave heart, without thinking about the consequences, plunges in to save her. He is beaten by this goon, following massive thrashing and grave assault by more goons, leaving him seriously injured. He is taken to the hospital, where he succumbs to injuries; this brings an end to the journey of life of this brave soldier.
Be it protecting the borders of our nation by defending it from the armed forces of enemies, or protecting the people of our country from others, soldiers never think twice before fulfilling their responsibilities. That’s what they swear in while taking oath. But who had thought, this man would be killed protecting a young girl from his own countrymen? Who had thought that he would die serving his nation, but like this? Where is the morality of people going? What is happening to our nation is what I am forced to think.
The girl was repeatedly molested for the past 6 days, but she chose to keep quiet with the fear of being blamed herself!! I was extremely shocked on reading this piece of news. What was more shocking was the reason for her silence. An aspiring civil servant officer, she feared voicing her concern thinking that her family would blame her and stop her education. Had she raised her voice before, the incident would not have happened. The accused would have been put behind the bars and a soldier would have been saved to serve the nation for some more years. But the destiny had a different show for him.
Who is to be blamed for the incident? The goons who killed him? The girl who did not complain before? Her unsupportive family who unknowingly, forced her to keep quiet? Poor policing measures in a state like UP, situated in the heart of our country, due to which these goons succeeded in thrashing the unarmed man openly? Reasons could be many, but the bottom line is a soldier was killed and nobody stood up to save him.
The political leaders do not even leave this incident to play around with. The opposition leaders have condemned it and demanded justice.
This incident happened and it went. There was hue and cry in the area and the people, perturbed by the incident, demanded speedy justice for the family of the martyr. But in the past one week, hardly have I read any news following up the conviction of those murders, or any stringent steps being taken by the government. Just because this unfortunate event does not form one of the juicy news items and doesn’t attract political drama, does it mean that the media houses should not follow up on the progress of the case?
This incident has left our country to deal with many unaddressed issues. The ever prominent issue of crime against women; growing poor safety measures for the citizens of our country; and most importantly, the disgusting and illogical thinking of people of our country, which holds that girls themselves responsible for crimes inflicted upon them.
Not even two weeks have gone by; yet another case of eve teasing has been reported. This time a fearless young girl has taken a stand for herself. She was abused by a young man riding a silver bullet, while crossing crowded street in Delhi. The girl raised her voice. She was surrounded by 20 people on the street, but nobody stood by her. She clicked his picture and spread it on social media. The picture went viral, shared widely received many likes. But I ask myself is it sufficient to just share a post on Facebook? Is it not our responsibility to nip these nefarious minded people in the bud? Is it not the need to stand up when injustice is happening right in front of our eyes? Those 20 people did not have the audacity to stand for that woman. What a disgrace!! Hats off to the woman who, without thinking about the consequences, took a stand for herself!
In both these cases, the cause is common – eve teasing. In the first unfortunate incident, the kind helping hand pays with his life. And in the second one, no one comes for any help and the girl takes a stand for herself. I have mixed emotions when I write this bit. Do I rejoice about the fact that at least someone, the soldier came out for help of the young girl in the first case or do I feel sad about his death? Do I rejoice about the fact that the woman in Delhi raised voice for herself or do I bemoan the fact that nobody took a stand for her at the time she was being abused by the biker?
What shameful state of affairs our country is stumbling into. A quagmire of growing crime, mute spectators, dire consequences, India is swamped by it all! On one hand, a girl is afraid to even talk about being eve teased with her parents, while on the other, a girl stands all by herself and creates a post and spreads it all through social media.
I think we are caught somewhere in between, wanting to move towards change, some have themselves started the March towards change, for our betterment, change for our safety; but some unfortunately, are still clamped in the clutches of negativity.
We need to rise for ourselves just like this girl in Delhi did. We need to rise for India for a better and safe country to live in. In the words of Matt Wyne, “People will be more likely to help you if they see you’re trying to help yourself”!!
