‘Silly glare’
N.V. VENUGOPAL
All I can say in my defence is that I was reunited — all too briefly — with my dear wife after a long stretch away on military duty, that the weather was balmy, that the environment abounded with bonhomie, good cheer and life. All that and also perhaps, the now famous Shilpa Gere act.
What really happened — the crux of the matter — was that while waiting for our son to retrieve the car from the overcrowded parking lot, in a moment of weakness, seeing my loving wife looking at me with that particularly wicked look of hers, I bent down and gave her a short and sweet kiss. For a moment, the whole world was cut out, we were in a world of our own — but all too soon, the real world came pouring in and how!
Rough hands tore us apart, I was “pulled away” and surrounded by a large group of red faced men, while at a distance, I could glimpse my wife similarly surrounded by her sisters. The two groups were surrounded by a large circle of onlookers.
‘Roughing up’
After some degree of “roughing up” — my sleeve was torn, my nose bloody and I could barely see out of one eye — a policeman came over the horizon. With the arrival of the representative of the law, some semblance of order seemed to descend — at least the regularity of the cuffs landing on my head and body diminished considerably, though the noise level rose a couple of decibels while the public sought to update the gentleman on the reason of my present plight.
Soon, the gentleman hove to and addressed me sternly. “Why did you do it,” he asked, coming straight to the issue at hand. The crowd closed in menacingly — I could see chappals in hand.
All rather unfair, I thought. After all, was not this the land of Laila-Majnu, of Heer-Ranja and more recently of Shilpa-Gere? And then I played my trump card. We are married, I yelled and my loving wife held up her tali for all to
see.
Doubly crushing
A few cameras appeared to be taking in the scene and a few young persons of the fourth estate appeared complete with note pads and pencils in hand. My heart soared at the sight of these champions of democracy. After all, had they not protested from the pulpits of their editorial columns against moral policing and the “Silly/hyperactive judiciary?”
All this and more burst forth from my depths in an emotive appeal for their help and support. Their reaction therefore was doubly crushing.
“Have you taken leave of your senses — you a respectable and senior army officer?” asked a young woman of the press. “Surely you know our social customs and sensitivities,” she said. “You have a licence, I can see that, but that does not permit you to do what you like in public. Look at the young boys and girls into whose young heads you are putting decadent and entirely alien values. Look at the embarrassment you are causing to the common man. This is not our culture, it is not our Indian way of life. Surely, you, a defender of our country, must realise that.”
I caught sight of my son in the background and he appeared to agree with the young woman too.
I was not ready to give up just yet. “What about Richard and Shilpa,” I cried out. “Did you people not protest against their unjust persecution and prosecution?Did you all not raise your individual and collective voices against moral policing in that case?”
There was silence and then an earnest young man of the press spoke up. “Whatever we the press said then, what happened then and what happened now, was wrong. It was wrong because it violated the sense of decency of the general public. A society is formed by the voluntary surrender of certain rights and the acceptance of certain duties and responsibilities by each individual who forms part of it. Conforming to the concept of decent behaviour in public is an important aspect of social behaviour.
“While our society has grown to accept a lot of things like live-in relationships and liaisons outside of marriage and does not intrude into these purely private arrangements, public behaviour must not offend general sensibilities. Breach of behaviour is a violation of the rights of the general public, of their sensibilities and of their free movement and interaction in public. It is akin to a motorist claiming his right to drive on the right (wrong) side of the road.”
Finally, it is the constitutional duty of our law enforcing agencies, the job of the fourth estate and the responsibility of every citizen to protect public sensibility, social customs and to ensure decency in public behaviour and transactions. I surrender to these sentiments — and I hope that the press does too.
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