On September 29, Saturday, a Bhubaneswar based Odia TV news channel
showed a disturbing footage from the temple town of Puri. A group of people who
looked like hooligans and anti-social elements were attacking a fuel station
with sticks damaging the machines and other articles. The allegation against
the gas station was that it was selling adulterated fuel. The TV channel
described the attackers as common people who were venting their anger as no
action was being initiated against the petrol pump despite repeated complain
with the authorities.
This is not the way one should behave in a civilized society and in a
country practicing democracy. If a fuel station was indulging in any illegal
activity and the authorities refused to entertain complaint against it, the
locals can drag the pump owner to the district consumers’ forum or court who
are well armed to deal with such matters. Indulging in violence is no answer.
In fact, boycott is the best way to deal with errant and irresponsible
fuel stations and for that matter every business establishment. If no citizen
or consumer of a town would go to a fuel station indulging in adulteration then
it will have no other option but either to mend its ways or close its shutters
and go home.
In this context one should recollect the Indian freedom struggle and
what Mahatma Gandhi had done. He had asked the people to boycott goods produced
and sold by British companies. He had never asked people to go and attack the
shops that were selling those items or factories producing them. People
followed the Mahatma word by word and the result was everybody to see. The
action left the British economy in tatters.
It is, nevertheless, a
different matter that in today’s India the Mahatma’s words and actions carry no
value. The Indians have eaten away and forgotten the Gandhian principles and
philosophy. The country observes and celebrates October 2, the Gandhi Jayanti
or the Mahatma’s birthday only for name’s sake and of course to enjoy a
holiday. The Father of the Nation must be shedding tears somewhere up there on
every Gandhi Jayanti day instead of feeling happy.
The TV report also claimed that the angry
locals demanded action against district Superintendent of Police(SP) and the
officer in charge of the police station in the area as the men in uniform had
resorted to lathi charge to disperse the rampaging crowd. Nobody should forget
that the police has a mandate to maintain law and order at any cost. Hence the
demand for action against the SP and the OIC was unjustified and invalid.
The police rather should watch the TV footage, identify the persons who
had taken law into their own hands and register cases against them as per law.
They should be punished adequately. The law breakers have no place in civilized
society.
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