Speak Up: Delhiites have short fuse

Notorious for being the crime capital, Delhi saw three back to back brutal crimes triggered over minor issues. If in one case, a young boy was forced acid down his throat because he didn’t stock some dairy item in his shop, a father-son dhabha owners were duo were shot dead for providing a cooler. The Azadpur lynching too saw an angry mob turning into kangaroo court and trying to “deliver justice” in their own fashion. In most of the cases that happened in the past week, the accused were strangers to the victims. The Azadpur lynching turned out to be a classic case of unknown persons taking to task a thief even as others watched on line mute spectators. The accused didn’t leave the man after thrashing him mercilessly and continued to unleash their anger at him till he died. In the remaining two incidents, the accused felt slighted when the owner of a shop and an eatery reasoned with them.

While the police have solved most of these incidents, the common thread running through all of them remains the same —an instant provocation. None of the crimes could be pinned as premeditated and narrate a telling tale of a society that is sitting on a short fuse. Psychologists claim that a number of reasons including no fear of law and bloated ego lead to such crimes. According to psychologist and counsellor Taruna Trehan, highly stressful life has made people impatient. “Everyone is under tremendous pressure these days, which has made all of us short tempered. We fly into a rage at the flimsiest of reason. Blinded with the rage, we lose our sense of logic and reasoning and as a result such crimes happen.”

She further adds that in some cases, people don’t fear the law too. “They know that even if they are caught and tried in the court, it would take decades before they are convicted of the crime. In the sub conscious they may be repenting but their conscious mind is aware the wheels of justice churn way too slowly and they have all the chance of getting away with, which emboldens them,” she states.

..& ANALYSIS

• Anger management issues are spilling over into normal life with a lot of people taking law into their hands. The police and the government must take up programmes doling out tips to lessen aggression in people, as also telling them about the repercussions of acting on provocations.

VOICES

I personally feel that people don’t fear law, which is the reason crime is committed at such a large scale. They feel they can bribe the authorities and get away with any penal crime, and this reflects how our authorities behave. We have seen many a times justice is denied if the person has good connections.   
— Akansh Gulati

I believe that the lacuna lies in involvement of civil society when it comes to standing against people who take the laws into their own hand. A simple altercation over debt payment or regarding a seat in the train has costed lives of individuals while the public has done nothing more than speculate. There has possibly been an absence of humanity amongst the spectators and unwillingness to involve themselves using peaceful means. This has ultimately led to apathy resulting in death.
—Tanvi Vartak

People tend to take justice into their own hands because of their lack of faith in the system. Hence, such disastrous and heinous acts take place. The laws aren’t at fault, the procedure of their enforcement is.
— Manek Singh

As they say empty vessels make noise. So is the case with Delhites. There are lack of good job opportunities that lead to such catastrophes. The government should make it a point to create better quality education and also generate more jobs so they don’t get time to fight for silly things are better occupied in life.”
—Simran Mehta

I think it might be because of psychological issues or frustration in their personal life. People who do this, don’t understand the importance of life, hence there are high chances that they are emotionally unstable and are threat to their own life as well
— Anikaa Murarka

This is an extremely atrocious incident that shows how reckless people, especially in the capital have become. We are not taught to behave nicely to people. People don’t care about each others’ convenience; we take pride in keeping egos, which lead to such issues.
—Akshita Dua

EXPERT SPEAK

The reason behind this is that people do not have patience and lead a stressful life. Due to this their reaction is swift and violent. Many a times it has been seen that trivial issues under the influence of alcohol and drugs take an ugly turn and small fights become a violent crime. People should try and lead a balanced life and healthy life and also include yoga and meditation in their day-to-day routine
—Madhur Verma, DCP, Crime and PRO, Delhi Police