Chintito
The Child is not that Important
Chintito
A child girl worker (illegal by law and immoral by ethics) falls from a multi-storied building in her bid to escape from her tormenting employers (Clap! Clap! Bravo! How educated they are!), and lives to tell the tale, the media gets busy but for a day. The story, the police, and the well-to-do (and perhaps powerful) employers are all forgotten. A news item in one newspaper mentioned that the poor girl did not even know from which apartment/floor she escaped. Did that statement not call for a little more investigation? Surely that hellish apartment is in that building, and how big can that be? Surely the neighbours too should have come forward and spilled the beans. But the fact is the child is not that important.
Nearly thirty children die from renal failure after taking toxic paracetamol syrup produced by Rid Pharmaceuticals. It took about a fortnight or so for the names of the owners (Clap! Clap! Bravo! How educated they are!) to surface in the press, but why? Should not the media have interviewed the apparently powerful owners and the producers of the 'poison' immediately after discovery of the heinous crime? Warrants have been issued by separate courts but the perpetrators of a most criminal act who used lethal and cheaper chemicals instead the approved and costlier one have been able to pull the wool over the eyes of the media and the police. Do the Rid owners and producers not have friends, relatives, and acquaintances? Surely they too should have come forward and spilled the beans. But to be honest the fact is the child is not that important.
A child girl gets gang-raped in a paddy field or wherever by influential people (Clap! Clap! Bravo! How educated they are!) of a locality. It is news, big news in the print media, but for a day or two. It is not always so big in the electronic media because there is no picture or video footage showing the face and the body of the victim. Oh! If the heavenly child only knew! Television channels and newspapers should mask the disturbing images (even if they are available and necessary to be shown) but others continue to violate this simple civic sense, if not anything else. The perpetrators of a most cowardly and criminal act, apparently more powerful than the law, moves freely in their locality and the law-enforcers are unable to see them because they have wool in front of their eyes. In fact, there is so much wool in this sector that we should never be short of sweaters in winter. But most importantly the fact is the child is not that important.
A boy is abducted or tricked to become a jockey in some Arabian desert or a girl made to go through worse humiliation at the hands of paying masters (Clap! Clap! Bravo! How educated they are!). The jockey affair is apparently over, and some of the boys have come back home to their parents. Some don't even know their parents; they were so young when taken away and it has been so many years. The girls may have returned (or not) but oh! Lord in what state of mind. But how many persons responsible for robbing a child of his/her best years have been put behind bars or apprehended? Should they not be made the horse and ridden if only for sheer humiliation? The media and police have not always been able unearth this dreadful crooks. Whether it is for lack of intention or that the perpetrators of a most cowardly and criminal act are apparently more powerful than the law and civic society we shall perhaps never know. But truly the fact is the child is not that important.
Some derailed Army officers and jawans (Clap! Clap! Bravo! How educated they are) on 15 August 1975 most brutally killed ten-year old Sheikh Russell along with his dad and mom, bhaiyas and bhabis, and others. Three decades and a half have passed. Not all the killers have been apprehended, although their address and telephone number are not difficult to find, at least as per media reports, which every now and then mention their location by city/country. Some of them even ran our embassies for several years. The trial of the perpetrators of a most cowardly act remains in limbo due to the ajeeb 'embarrassment' of some adults (Clap! Clap! Bravo! How educated they are!), who are in the job for their so-called reputed conscience, who perhaps had children or have grander ones as old as the child whose only guilt was to bear the prefix 'Sheikh' in his name. Surely they could have done the little bit of justice (alas!) that was expected of them, because the case involved the assassination of an absolutely innocent boy, whose death was not accidental, but part of a long-drawn, ill-motivated plan to erase an entire family. But believe me the fact is the child is not that important.
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