The recent drama involving the arrest of the 287 party-goers on the midnight of the 4th of March who have assembled in a farm house near Sinhagad to join an alleged Rave party points to the overzealousness of the Pune Rural Police on cultural policing the educated people rather than policing the criminals freely roaming in the rural sides under their nose. While there is no justification for this waywardness of the youths which included a few young girls, the police action appears to be high handed, if not atrocious.
The action of the rural police in rounding up the 287 party-goers on the midnight of the 4th of March is questionable on a simple ground that as to why they did not prevent the rave party from materializing when they had prior intimation about it. The primary duty of the police is to prevent any crime from being committed rather than allow the revelers to swell in numbers and then arrest each and every one of them whether or not they had consumed the banned drugs. This shows that the Police had premeditated to trap the youths for a far less serious "crime" of partying. There are so many other areas of policing in rural areas which cry for the attention of the rural police which has demonstrated exemplary skill in promptly arresting and stigmatizing the 287 youths. This promptness is curiously missing in their routine investigations and policing.
The Indian society is fast undergoing a cultural transition of sorts. The policy-makers have to acknowledge this reality instead of feigning ignorance about this. The legal and statutory provisions have not kept pace with this change of social mores and cultural shifts. The neo-Liberalisation and the call-centre culture have imposed a new work culture and life-style for the Indian youths. Many parents are stoically reconciled to this "Painful Transition" without any alternative. The laws, however, have not changed a wee bit to accommodate these changes.
A progressive state must not hesitate to reflect the social changes in its social legislation. In stead of seeking an informed debate on the imperatives for revamping of the outdated laws, the state is busy with banning more and more controlled social acts, conveniently forgetting that a regulated act is easier to be controlled than an altogether illegal act. For example, a licensed Dance bar will be easy to be controlled rather than the mushrooming clandestine dance joints. A licensed discotheque can easily be regulated than the rave parties organized by a fly-by-night operator. But then the governments appear to be afraid of the cultural Czars.
Therefore, the state must not hesitate to immediately set up a committee to seriously look into the needs for suitable amendments to the social laws and allow more room for the individuals in tune with the changed times and the societal changes unleashed by the neo-Liberalisation. Let us accept the challenges posed by the social changes rather than running away from it before it is too late.
1 comment:
The child is the father of man. To go alongwith this saying, the youngsters caught in the rave party are not just youths. They are the future mafias. Their behaviour during police custody will vouchsafe the fact. With the arrest of these youths, activities of the drug mafia and other anti-social activitists have been revealed. This country can survice as a nation only with a strong moral standing. The past of the country is a testinomy to the fact. For a country like India a strong economy with a high rate of moral standing will ensure its existence as a global political power. Very recently the Republic of China has announced special pay packages to its officers and staff for maintaining a high degree of moral values.
My respectful salutes to all the police officers for their zeal to maintain the moral values of the land. May in their tribe increase.
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