Good robbers, bad politicos

The surrender of the two cousins, partners in crime, has made the investigators’ job easy and while the duo is awaiting the law to take its own course in awarding punishment, what the architect of the crime, 23-year-old Kiran Kumar, said on the TV before giving himself up should make us think about the state of affairs in the country.

“I am fed up with the way the system is functioning these days. Politicians are thieves who loot us for five years and I become a thief just for a night to show the world the growing inequality in the country. If given a chance, I can serve the society better than any politician.”

Easily, it could be dismissed as a cinema dialogue and such monologues were aplenty in dozens of films produced by the regional and Hindi cinema. Even courts on the silver screen had heard, putting judges in a quandary over what kind of punishment should be given to the man (invariably the hero of the film) who turned enemy of the rich and powerful to reduce economic inequalities and bring about social change.

Rarely, do we see in films of such genre court sending him to jail for the cause he believes in and for the ‘unlawful’ act; to save him from being imprisoned, the storyline is twisted or the heroine will come to his rescue with such irrefutable evidence that all charges will vanish into thin air. Even though the Hyderabad heist followed the reel-to-real path and was executed as dramatically as in a film, to see the end we have to wait, may be, a few years. Nevertheless, law is law and as Mahatma Gandhi used to say, means should justify the ends. Inequalities exist everywhere; they are endemic to every society at all times and they continue to grow as long as there is human civilisation. Killing, robbing, looting, etc., are no solutions to end the socio-economic differences; on the other hand, they only fuel anarchy and chaos.

But, once in a while, youths like Kiran bring to the fore some naked truths through their shocking acts. In this case, it is political rot that has set in and how the young have lost faith in the present crop of political leaders and the kind of image the political class has created in the minds of youths who are often dubbed future leaders of the country without roping them into the system. More importantly, it is worrisome as well, justifying thefts, robberies, etc., citing greediness of politicians.

Though, fundamentally, everyone knows that it is wrong to emulate a bad person and allude own actions to him; still some see justification that doesn’t stand scrutiny before law. This is a grey area that woos youthful minds filled with idealism, honesty, altruism, selflessness, and such other good traits. Sooner or later they will realise that that have walked into quicksand whereas those who live on promises have their last laugh.

The analogy brings us to the point where it is time to look at the disastrous effects the kind of politics being practiced in this country have on the young generation and how degenerating effect they have on it. Sadly, over the years, the world’s largest democracy has got the dubious distinction of being harbouring all -cracies except the true rule of people, by the people and for the people.

Needless to say, it is imperative to restore faith in the political system and those who run and manage it have to ensure that it is not misused or abused for self-benefit. If it is not done, Robinhoods of all hues keep bobbing up in every town and city.

promedia_madhu@yahoo.co.in