National News Service, Kolkata: The tall claims of the ruling clique that West Bengal is a an oasis of peace is becoming like a mirage in the desert. We see a simmering shadow but when we come up close we see the peace receding.
Today Dhananjoy Chatterjee was hanged, his crime no doubt dastardly, but why was he selected for the ultimate penalty.
Seventeen religious persons burnt alive in broad daylight, they were neither armed nor rioting, till date no arrests, no convictions, there are very few civilized societies where such crimes can go unpunished*.
[*Editors note: 17 monks of Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha were burnt alive in broad daylight on 30th April 1982 (Bijon Setu, Kolkata) by the anti-social elements of Communist Party of India.]
Bantala, social workers sexually assaulted and brutally murdered till date no convictions.
The same supreme court which did not deem it fit to spare the life of the above named convict, commuted the death penalty of a rapist and murderer of a six year old child to life imprisonment.
The people West Bengal once prided themselves that the woman were always safe, now abounds with instances of depraved behavior by those whose duty is to represent and protect the people.
Jyotirmoyee Sikdar won a gold medal at the Asian Games , the State of West Bengal went mad with joy, after all this State does not have much to show. Gifts, monetary and in kind, land etc were lavished on her. The net result being that she was incapable of any further achievements.
Time goes by, she a political novice is elected member of the Lok Sabha, by the highly oiled CPM election machinery, not even six months has elapsed her husband is arrested for running a brothel on a piece of land gifted to her to build a house for residential house, which was a bar.
Who changed the status of the plot, who granted the bar license, why did the guardians of the law closed their eyes for four long years while these activities were going on, again like a mirage all these questions will disappear.
Is it possible that Jyotirmoyee knew nothing of the activities of her husband for all these years, and those witness who say they saw her sitting in the bar must have seen a mirage, or maybe all the gifts she received has blurred her vision.
What will happen to Jyotirmoyee, precisely nothing, after all she is playing on the right team.
There is a saying when a non communist is caught in a brothel they are depraved sexual perverts, when a communist is caught at the same place he was there for the benefit of the people at large, and when the people are mostly sheep, they can get away with anything.
We now come to the valiant guardians of the law. A man with his family comes to West Bengal, because it is late decides to wait in the waiting room of the station. The guardian of the law an RPF constable steals the money and rapes the wife.
A constable in a police station few years back rapes a footpath dweller, after a hue and cry he is arrested, a constable rapes a deaf and dumb woman in a prison van.
Two constable molest and attempt rape in Siliguri, they have been suspended but not yet arrested.
The net result vigilantism, where the law should dispense justice the people have lost faith, they have taken it into their hands. The woman awaited the RPF constable at Barasat Court and assaulted him, that the people rose in anger is a good sign that they are awakening from a deep slumber, but how much more time before these turn into kangaroo courts.
The oasis is a simmering mirage far far away, but how much more time before this turns into a nightmare, and a horror movie.
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