I often wonder, what is it in man that lies, murders, steals makes him commit the most inhuman crimes. Lately I was reading the biography of Kiran Bedi , and I was inarticulate, by the way the prisoners of tihar jail were treated. It was really shocking to read that the guardians of the society , failed to distinguish between a sensitive human being and a pile of flesh and bones. It was not the lack of hygienic facilities , or the brutal punishments that shocked me , but the treatment of women prisoners. There were at least a dozen reported cases of molestation, which seemed to be the only punishment applicable to women prisoners. Though, this was a tort in itself, the incident which left me aghast was a case which I’m quoting directly from the book:
“In the evening some unfortunate women inmates from this branch (tihar) were forced to come and stand at the outer gates of the prison and customers brought for the privilege of fondling these women through the bars of the main gate”.
Kiran Bedi rightly said “if there was a hell on earth for women, this was it.”
It is really a shame that all this was happening in a country, which ironically is called a motherland, where goddesses like Durga and Kali are worshipped, but one sign of relief is that this took place years before, and now things have changed thanks to Dr.Kiran Bedi, who was appointed the IG (prisons).
Today, such is the situation, that not a single day passes by, when there is no reported case of human torment. Last week there was a horrifying revelation, of a serial killer, mandinder singh by name, who had mercilessly murdered innumerable children, whose skeletons were discovered in his backyard. These incidents, compel me to ask “where are we heading”, there has always been a huge cry about the “brain drain”, but we should now concentrate on “culture drain” taking place, which not only makes the country weak, but for a country like India where culture is the pride of all Indians, it would lead to disaster.
These people (tormenturs) are mentally unfit, and their mind is not at peace. A few decades back it was only in the western countries where such inhuman activities were heard of, and India was at peace. But today the tables are turning. ‘Yoga’ is the “in” thing in the western countries , and thus today such crimes have reduced, thereby proving that yoga does sooth the angry, frustrated, mind, but ironically the place where yoga was bigot, has lost its peace today, the once god fearing Indians, today are fearless, they are too busy in pursuing their career. They have become dangerously ambitious and all they know is themselves.
Strangely, in a country like India where people like mother teresa, Gautam Buddha , preached that the only shortcut to god, is by helping those in need, the poor, the helpless, the disabled .Today people are no way near to follow these wise sayings. Hedonism has attacked the country in a very short time and at an alarming rate. 30 % of tihar inmates were foreigners , who were caught for the possession of drugs and nearly all of them are still under trial, they were abject when Kiran came, as they had no one in India, from whom them could seek help, worse still their lawyers had drawn large amount of money from them, and then disappeared in thin air. This is the treatment they get in the land, where people are supposed to treat guests like God.
If we do not do anything about our society now, it will be soon too late, and we will loose our identity. There is an urgent need for the Indians to realize the “culture drain” . We must preach Indian culture , to all specially yoga and meditation to all agitated minds around us, else soon we will have people from other countries who after expertise in this field, would preach the same to us. \
