A packed bus was moving in between Sonapet and Rohtak (Haryana state) on 30th November 2014, in which two girls from Rohtak also were travelling. On the way, three men tried to molest these girls. All the passengers except a pregnant woman remained in the bus, enthusiastically watching the proceedings. The incidents took a reverse sweep as the sisters bounced on the molesters with their belts flying around. The goons were finally driven off. It is not the report of these Haryana girls moving to Delhi to receive President’s Honour for extra ordinary bravery that caught my attention but the broad comment of a news reporter on Indian citizens.
He called for an extensive introspection of a citizen’s civil sense. In a nation, in which every student repeats ‘India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and sisters’ on a daily basis and has a background of morality which is filled with the energy of Vasudeva kudumbakam’, the reporter asks us how the fellow passengers could have been so indifferent and complacent while two Indian girls were fighting for their lives and human dignity. The reporter continued saying that we see five types of persons here. The first is the goons who tried to molest these girls, next is the passengers who are indifferent; then comes the driver and the conductor - quite negligent, then the pregnant woman - a patriot or a fellow having some civil sense and finally two victims fighting for their lives and human dignity.
All these readings prompt me to ask again and again, “Is there an Indian in this India?” There would be many who may answer, “Yes, I’m one.” But I’m sure that they too may not have another one near them to count in that category. If ever there are such Indians, I still doubt if they know that life on earth is in pairs and without causing another one of his kind, existence itself is in question. Have we chosen to be the last Indians? I remember a strange comment that a school boy passed, while visiting a museum. He stared at a few skeletons exhibited there and said, “Looks the same.” Less Indians may mean to this School boy that the majority of citizens in this nation live in the abundance of having something. I assume that it is the passion for possessions that keeps each Indian always looks dissimilar.
Joseph Mattappally
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