A crime capital

Chatteratti and glitteratti were not words that were media jargon when my generation was growing up. In those days the people who symboli...

Chatteratti and glitteratti were not words that were media jargon when my generation was growing up. In those days the people who symbolised energy, who broke away from the norm, who experimented with new ideas and were innovative, who broke through staid conservatism, were deemed celebrities and became the icons of a city. Lively cities were referred to as cosmopolitan8217; 8212; they absorbed change, they encouraged diverse opinion, they supported mavericks who needed a platform to kite fly.

As young people, we aspired to be like those we admired who had broken loose from the boring rigidities of middle class conservatism in thought, life and living by creating a new idiom based on the same basic values that they had been brought up with. To be radical was fashionable. Breaking loose was fun. One was proud to be a rebel. Delhi, in the not so distant past, was one such city. In the sixties and seventies, people from Bombay would describe the Capital as an overgrown village, dead and dull with no hep8217; citycentre. True, because New Delhi, the section of the city which they visited, was a refugee town without a distinct character and lineage. It did not have its icons, its heroes, in those early years. Old Delhi did. It remained alive 24 hours a day, infused with all the energy levels of great cities anywhere in the world which is why it attracted the Western travellers of the sixties. The first generation refugee wanted nothing to do with the real nerve centre of Old Delhi. New Delhi began to spawn a new breed of people, the glitteratti and the chatteratti!

Delhi has changed. As the seat of central power, the icons it throws up are the politicians and those in authority 8212; they are the celebrities8217; of today who have replaced the poets and painters, the theatre persons and writers, the dancers and musicians. The political brass, which have over the last few decades become increasingly dependent on the business community for their survival, have spawned as their celebrity acolytes, big and small businessmen 8211;people with money to boot and buy.

In the seventies a strange phenomenon overwhelmed the city 8212; security. Gun-toting cops protected corrupt politicians and their habitats. The breed of VVIP was fashioned 8212; new icons who believed they were larger than life characters with the law under their direct control. This was the beginning of the corrosion of Delhi, its values and its ethics. These people were the first lot of migrants, transient politicians, who just took over.

The real people of Delhi have retreated into their cocoons in a bid to restore their sanity. The icons of the past live on here but away from the overwhelming onslaught of the brash, arrogant, cocky lot, hoping that this unsavoury aberration will pass. Money and power are protecting each other in this city and the two are running amuck proving to the citizenry how illegitimate life has become. So far everyone has gotten away with acts that we would never have dreamt could happen in our wildest fantasies. To call Delhi a crime capital is anunderstatement.

Today, the enforcement of civil and legitimate business norms and behaviour is seen as foolish business practice. After all, if you defy the excise law, the fine is a mere Rs 1200. That is the take in the first five minutes of the opening of the bar! Maybe if the fine was Rs 25 lakh, the proprietors would try to be legit. The rules are redundant and the enforcement ridden with corrupt practices. The authority has become so utterly debased that to live a straightforward and decent life has become impossible. To bribe one8217;s way through has become the law of the land. When events get totally out of control with shootouts and suchlike, the civil authority begins to react, more often than not, in a knee jerk fashion. Ban booze, close down eating joints, stop all further licences and so it goes on.

The solution is not to ban bars and late night restaurants, but to enforce the law and protect the citizen. After all, people the world over wander about eating and drinking in their cities throughdaylight and darkness. How are we any different and why should we not have our share of good healthy fun? In the sixties we did. Those who had liquor licences served liquor, the others did not. If establishments had to cease business at midnight, they did. Service stopped like it does all across the world. Those who had all night licences stayed open all night. It was all very straightforward and normal.

Story continues below this ad

Today, it has become a free for all with encouragement from the authority who live off the illegalities that are rampant. What would happen to their hafta if legitimate business was restored? The livelihood of hundreds would disappear. Therefore, if the rot has to be stemmed, it has to begin with the administration. Officers who turn a blind eye to those who are breaking the law must be suspended. The cleansing has to start with the authority first. Recent events in Delhi have been hair raising. What has been exposed is the wide range of illegalities and criminality which nurture each other. Like theunderworld has its own special code of conduct so do those who prop each other up when consciously indulging in illegitimate activities motivated by indescribable greed. And, to what end.

It is invariably a child or relative of a businessman or a politician who is involved in criminal activities, because they are brought up to believe that they are above the law8230;daddy or uncleji or chacha will bail them out with either clout or money, sometimes both. How come the children of painters or poets, writers or musicians are not part of this strange band that stalk the streets and public places of the city? The majority is clearly appalled and nauseated by the criminality of those in powerful positions and will salute those who get up and fight for the corrective.

The other criminality that has besieged us are the mad killings across the city which seem to stem from the rapidly widening disparity in urban India between the haves and the have-nots. The rich are flaunting their wealth like neverbefore and the urban poor are far worse off than they have ever been. It is for the privileged in our society to invest their surpluses in areas that add value to the greater good rather than in obscene, extravagant, often unaesthetic opulence. Delhi does have a serious problem and we cannot condone the wrongs any more. We cannot conveniently ignore the horrors being perpetrated around us. Silent participation must transform itself into an active crusade if Delhi is to become, once again, what it used to be.

The writer is publisher, Seminar