Thursday, July 24, 2008

DoubleYou. Tee. Eff.?

This report sent shivers up my spine. Are we in the 21st century or what?

Ask Kanchan and Krishna Waghela from Bhiwandi in Mumbai. The couple are still going around the villages hoping someone would give them back their daughter who was abducted from Mumbai and brought to Dharji village of Ahmedabad district in February, before she was sold to some unknown person. They had their daughter back for a few minutes last June, before she was snatched away in front of them.

This happened to people living in a suburb of Mumbai. I as a parent, would never feel secure about the safety of my child, living in a country where this could happen. I do not have the resources to check if the report is factual and if such things actually do occur in this day and age, but it sure scares me.

I remember the movie Hey Ram where the Lalvani character narrates to the lead hero Kamal Haasan how his daughter was lost while he and his family were trying to flee the madness surrounding the partition, from Karachi. 'Bheed mein station par uska haath chchoot gaya..' and he lost her forever to the chaos of partition. Lalwani wept uncontrollably and as a father of young daughters, I wept in my heart too.

The above report also reminded me of another movie I saw 25 years back. In Ashanti, a US citizen working as a medical missionary in Africa is abducted during a raid by slavers. The color of her skin makes her indistinguishable from the tribes folk and she has to endure all sorts of humiliations.

If the above report is true, whatever progress India has achieved in any other areas becomes meaningless, because a society that can not prevent this from happening and cannot bring the perpetrators to justice, is still in the dark ages and has no right to take pride in any of its achievements.

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1 comment:

Does it matter said...

I had not seen this, and it is so shocking..

Cannot even believe this is India.

Yes, there is nothing we have achieved. All the 8%-10% growth and the IT success story, all meaningless. Ask the Waghelas, if any of the growth jargons hold any meaning for them.

Without even the most basic of needs - security - being provided, what kind of society, people, government, country are we.