On Sunday evening while at Panaji’s Kadamba Bus Terminal to board the shuttle service to Mapusa, what was witnessed was so very chilling and horrifying. An infuriated troubled mother with a 10 year old daughter was fuming and running all over in search of the thug who molested her little girl. The mother and the little girl had boarded a bus and while the mother stepped out to buy a bottle of water, a maniac got into the bus and quickly brazenly molested the girl and ran away.
It is sickening that such appalling things are happening in broad daylight and that too in public places. For the little girl, that trauma encountered may be a lifelong scar that she may never forget.
The increasingly varied types of crimes should be a matter of concern. We all need to be alert and cautious at all times against such heartless and crude culprits. Safety of all and specially the defenseless little children is paramount. The authorities must do all in their power to prevent such serious crimes and track down such culprits to ensure they feel the full force of the law.
Social and moral values seem to have gone for a toss. Our lawmakers should be role models and lead by example. But sadly, when we have several of them facing serious charges including that of molestation and rape with integrity of some in public office at an all-time low, what better conduct can we expect from the common man on the street?
Mahatma Gandhi advised us that ‘All good thoughts and ideas mean nothing without action. The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. It is for us to make the effort. The result is always in God’s hands’.
When the Rule of Law collapses and jungle Raj prevails, Divine intervention is our only hope.
