The Forbidden Fruit

Life has become so cheap that it can be snuffed off just for anything and by any one for the flimsiest reason.
The scorching summer heat over the sub-continent takes a heavy toll of both humans and cattle alike due to dehydration and depletion of essential minerals in the body. Survival of the fittest as depicted by Charles Darwin seems to eliminate the unfortunate few who cannot withstand the brutality of either Man or Nature.
The Chilling incident which unfolded in a small town of Harishchandrapur, a district in Malda -west Bengal on 9th May 2011 will stand testimony till eternity for lynching a small girl aged 9 years for a petty ‘crime’ she so innocently committed.
The sight of juicy watermelons laden aboard a truck in addition to the parched throat courtesy, the glaring summer heat induced the girl to pilfering the fruit.
Unfortunately the act was witnessed by the driver of the truck who along with his accomplices tied the hapless girl to a tree and then mercilessly beat her up with bamboo sticks. The little girl succumbed to the injuries inflicted soon after.
Malda district of West Bengal is one of the impoverished and most of the people barely manage to have 2 square meals a day. Does this act induced by acute hunger and thirst quantify to be a crime? The minor age and the innocence of the kid too was at stake.
This incident is just one of the many that happens routinely in one of the largest democracies of the world and is brushed under the carpet as the Victim is living hand to mouth and has no platform or support to fight against the oppression.
The photograph of the dead girl with deep anguish writ all over her innocent face would have moved the most hardened person to tears. It was perhaps even reflecting the calm serenity of death which released her from acute Poverty, from the clutches of starvation, from living a life which often pondered when the next meal would arrive.
If God is hell bent on giving her a re-birth then I earnestly appeal to him to at least give her a life which will not coerce her to commit a ‘crime’ and lose her life over a goddamn fruit.
Stealing is a crime and the perpetrator should be dealt with stringently.
This being the case the politicians who have stolen, misappropriated, embezzled billions of dollars should be handed the most apt Punishment commensurate with the extent of committed offence.
Our Country has always boasted of separate laws –one for the common man and one for the elite.
In unison we wish that the waves of change that is engulfing the Country at the moment would be instrumental in abolishing the glaring disparity/lop sided development pervading the shores of our ONCE great Nation.