From Editor’s Desk
The Thursday’s ugly episode could have been prevented had the administration woken up by the Wednesday’s mob fury. The message of the Wednesday’s situation was loud enough for the administration to understand how highly charged the atmosphere was. It is a very sad thing that the situation was allowed to remain the way it was even after 24 hours of mobism. In fact, lethargy, dearth of ideas, callousness, insensitivity and inefficiency have won over the concerned authority and hence the failure to take pre-emptive measures.
The Thursday’s case has thrown up one important thing—we realized we have a reason to feel insecure for we realized now how incompetent our authority/guardian is. In the multi-ethnic filled society like ours an alert and competent administration is a must. Slight spark can spiral things into serious complication. Complication comes when things are not addressed on time.
Throughout Wednesday thousands of people were taking their ire to the streets. They were baying for blood of the alleged rapist Sayed Sarid Khan. Cases of vandalism were also witnessed. Even 24 hours later there was no sign of the administration pulling up its loin to contain the situation. The mob continued to have their way on the second consecutive day. The police and other security agencies remained mute.The administration has owned the responsibility of the breaking down of law and order. Its mere excuse was the ‘students in school uniform.’ Here, we don’t advocate that the security force personnel should be put in the state of trigger-happy. By the time the people have stormed the Central Jail it was too late for the authority to contain the situation. The administration could have taken up measures much ahead i.e. before things got charged up to the stage of the storming of jail. The authority could have killed the snake without the stick being broken. That is, without the civilians and students being hurt the situation could have been contained.
Thursday’s melee is not going to be the last. We are in an era of complexity and complication. The administration should evolve accordingly. It should be able to rise to the occasion at any given point of time. Finally, this column would like to advise the administration to rebuild its already damaged reputation and credibility so that the hoi polloi can repose their faith on it.
