Kajal Chatterjee

There exist many electoral constituencies in India  dominated by the people of Scheduled Caste, Tribe, Dalit and oppressed background and the posts of MP, MLA and Panchayat pradhan are reserved for them. Yet in those very areas, the inhabitants of backward vintage continue to get discriminated or deprived by their very own politically-powerful brethren!

In the Maoist belt of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh or Chattisgarh; the vulnerable lot are often brutally tortured or murdered by that very outfit which claims to be the “guardian of the oppressed”!

Females are also facing numerous atrocities since times memorial. But it required males like Raja Rammohan Roy or Vidyasagar to dedicate their whole life for the cause of upliftment of women. In contrast India have seen certain Chief Ministers and politicians of fairer sex who have uttered insensitive remarks following incidents of sexual atrocities against women and remain indifferent to the woes of the rape victims!

It is high time we learn to appreciate that being good or evil, benevolent or torturous can never be the monopoly of any particular religious, caste, racial, colour or sexual group. Rather it is the individual who is good or bad.

So instead of looking backwards or “paying the erstwhile /current exploiters in their own coin”, the State should adopt strict measures to nip all norms of torture in bud. If we learn to be truly progressive and modern, the practice of “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” and “might is right” need to be replaced with the liberal light of democracy ie absolute equality of all. There should be no discrimination.Remember it was the practice of Sati which got prohibited, the widowers were not directed to jump upon the pyre of their deceased wives! Again the widows were accorded the right to remarry, no steps were adopted to ban remarriage of widowers! Engagement  in vendetta cannot be the solution to address previous wrongs and injustice.

It must be remembered that life marches in the forward direction. There lies no utility in invoking sins committed in the past. However we should definitely draw our lessons from the past, eradicate our faults and move on.