“The punishment suffered by the wise who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of bad men” … Plato.
The name of the author many may not be knowing but one of greatest thinkers, philosophers from ancient Greece & his wisdom was then also ahead of time & always such men have paid the price for having that curse so did Plato & his later life went in captivity by the then Roman govt! Plato was always looked after suspiciously by the rulers as they were afraid that his philosophy and knowledge will make the citizens aware about their rights which no rulers like & fun is, even few thousand years down the line yet the situation has not changed though we don’t have many Platos' now around is also a fact!! The reason for this philosophical start is an incident which now has become a national issue & thanks to social media as this incident may soon become even international too!! Yes, it’s about a minor boy's drunk driving, taking the lives of two young people who were on a two-wheeler, in Pune. Entire media in every medium is full of stories related to this incidence & no wonder who’s-who has joined the band-wagon not because he or she has any real interest in the lost lives but most of them are there to show their presence & many are using it as an opportunity to settle scores! Whatever the purpose may be as even my sharing also may be put in any of these categories & I won't blame if done so, but do mind, the incidence wasn't first & definitely the last but what we are going to learn out of it, if we want to avoid such loss of lives in future!! Keeping full sympathy for the deceased young one’s parents as no words will be bringing their kids back yet my only wish while writing this piece is some kid’s lime may be saved & some parents won’t have to face this grief! And this is applicable to the parents of the boy who was driving the Porsche too as they too are parents & guilty or not (read as right or wrong) but no parents think they are doing something wrong while growing their kid yet wrong things happen by the kid & then the blame game starts, is my point of sharing! And on top of it, I too am a father of grownup kids & I understand (I think so) problems while dealing with this genre & the expectations we have from them & society has from us as parents!
Those who knows about the incidence can ignore the starting brief but those who doesn’t know (which are more important for me), on 18th May, Saturday evening a young boy celebrates his 12th result with his friends, consumes alcohol (which is a normal thing for most kids of his age now, a bitter social fact) & drives luxury car of his dad by which he has come for the party & over-speeds on eastern suburbs of Pune & at 3am (past midnight)collides with a couple on their bike, which also are returning from their respective party, the couple dies on the spot & the boy is caught by the crowd & after taking some beating is handed over to the police. The real story starts from here, the boy happens to be a big businessman’s son (that too a builder), is a minor with no driving license & on top of it the luxury car he was also doesn’t have got an RTO licence plate or registration. The police registered an offence & pressed charges under respective penal code, till here everything was as per what happens in normal such cases but the real story started after this stage & all hail broke loose, is my subject of sharing! As post that what followed has not just left the deceased youngster’s relatives in shock but entire society felt that shock & the outcry got build just the way it has happened in Nirbhaya case (Incidence in Delhi few years back) rather thanks to Insta, this time it went over the top & even the candidate for Prime Minister has to take its relevance & commented. Hon Dy CM of State who holds the charge of Home Dept has to conduct a media conference to address the masses & Hon Police Comm of city who is considered as a tough cop when it comes to handling crime has to say, he will publicly apologize if the charges pressed by the police found wrong! Wow, just wow, one must be wondering what has happened & how a case of two person’s accidental death in a city where every day at least four or five people lose their lives in an accident got so much attention, is my subject of sharing!
Well, the reason is, the way system moved post-accident & the outcome as not only the accused drunk boy found not drunk (source of a medical test) i.e. no trace of alcohol in blood while the reels on social media showed the boy drinking in a permit room with his friends till late night. And when police produced the boy in front of Juvenile Board that too within hours of arrest which was Sunday, the Hon Court granted the boy bail on basis of writing an essay of 300 words about accident, & fifteen days to be worked with RTO for traffic management & some psychological therapy as well there are some other conditions too which are yet to become public, so I can’t comment on it! But the news of the boy whose driving has taken tow lives which also were some parents dear kids getting free even before their dead bodies were handed over to the families & that too on the conditions like writing an essay as punishment started an outcry which no one ever imagined, as I haven’t witnessed Chodo Bharat movement but now I realize how that feeling must be, as everybody on every platform was outraged & the anguish can be felt about the system at large, is my subject of sharing!
So, what system (read as govt) did wrong that public was outraged at this extent, the answer is, first, everybody could correlate the youngsters who lost their lives with their own family as with nearly half a million two-wheelers in this city every family’s some member is on road at some time of the day & this can happen with us also, is something hard to digest! And on top of that the picture which got painted & the bail to the boy in mere hours’ time, everybody has their own stint with govt system (especially Police) & all knows how a common man gets treatment there & this I am saying with due respect to my many friends in Police who are good human beings & good officers too, yet high time why police has such image in people’s mind (same for builders)! And then the verdict as agreed the learned respective judges must have used the law as per the provisions but why these provisions are never used when the culprit is from common man’s family & why so fast here & in millions of the cases people have to go through the infamous “Taikh pe Tarikh” grind, was another reason behind the outcry! And the real fun started later which reminded me a wonderful game we used to play in our childhood, named as “Mamacha Patra”. In this game (which is to be played with minimum resources the players are supposed to sit in a row back to back & the one who is running around them with a piece of paper or cloth in his hand chanting “mazya mamacha patra harawala” (my uncles letter has been misplaced) & the players sitting used to respond by shouting “aamhala nahi sapadala” (we haven’t found it) & the boy used to drop that letter on any of the siting persons lap who is considered as lost the game & has to perform a task as punishment told by others! This is what started between the agencies (read as govt) as right from who served the accused boy alcohol when he was a minor to how such bars are operating post their closing time limit to how the Porsche car was on road with our registration to the VIP treatment given to the culprit & deceased youngsters parents getting harassment from the inquiry officers as what the couple (which were friends) on the road so late & what was their relation with each other types questions (as per relatives of the deceased) to how the system acted so fast & even on Sunday the boy was produced in the court & got bail; I think here, the system failed to understand the basic law of society that justice, when delivered with same speed & manner to all is the only is accepted by the masses even if it may be a law!
Now the entire system is behind showing how they acted rightfully & it was other department’s duty which they failed to perform & the Mama’s Letter game is on in full swing. My point is when this all is going to stop? As every day on every traffic signal or on roads residents of this very city break every traffic rule & that’s why we are in top three in the country in fatalities of the road accidents & if the citizens are at blame, then the Police (read as govt) can’t just shrug their shoulders saying they have inadequate man-power to take strict action on blatant drivers of all these vehicles, is my point of sharing! At the same time, we have every law & system in place but every segment associated with system takes pride (and money too) in breaking or bending hat system than trying to protect it, in nutshell the entire society is blind, deaf towards the duty towards the society itself & it includes most of the personalities which have been active on social media for this incidence, is a fact, what are we going to do about it, is my subject of sharing!
Lastly, what made me sad (read as sick, frustrated, angry & disturbed) was the comment by the deceased youngster’s uncle, “now we are not sure whether to send our youngsters for their career in this city which we thought is safest for them!” Guys, this sentence & emotions in it, is an alarm for everybody in this city who has been benefited by the prosperity the city has given to us & high time to redefine our concepts of not just celebration but our attitude towards life & society! Do mind, the USA may be a country of riches but it's Bhutan which beats the USA on the scale of happiness of the citizens as at the end happiness is the outcome of peace of which safety is one major pillar! We all are son/daughter/ sister/brother to someone & so is someone to us & we all will be angry as well sad if we loss someone close to us from above list & if we all collectively decide & act then only, we can reduce the accidents which will not be at least tagged as murder, for sure; adios with this note!
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Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
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