Public Memory, Gang Rape & Terrorist Attacks.

Following has been unwritten Standard Responding Procedure(SRP) of certain sections of our society whenever some terrorist attack or bomb blast happens in our country. The same could be (and is) applied on incident of rape.

Public: We will light candles & shout slogans.

Police: We will catch the culprit as soon as possible.

Politician in Power: We will suspend the responsible policemen. We will not allow this to happen again.

Politician in Opposition: We demand the immediate dismissal of this government.

Press: We will drop all other stories, continuously show the protests & organize debates in studios.

Activist: We will file PILs in the courts.

After every terrorist attack all the above respond in the same manner. After much uproar everything dies down till next terrorist attack happens.

Now the same set of response is seen after the Delhi gangrape case. Hope, that like terrorist attacks, such style of response doesn’t becomes a practice after every case of gang rape (God forbid such incident happens again)

An European philosopher once said, “Public memory is short lived” & his thought gets confirmed & illustrated every time we respond to any terrorist attack.

Here, I would like to quote music maestro Zubin Mehta (Times of India, 31/12/12) who reacted on Delhi rape case with words- “I am fuming, but I see a very healthy sign of public objection, public demonstration. I hope it will not die down. I hope it will not be a one week thing.”

I share the fear of Zubin Mehta. We need to be focused & result oriented. We have to check whether the bottom line satisfies us. We have to break the regular pattern of our reaction. We have to act both collectively & individually to deal with a social evil.