OPINION

As crime continues to grow, and criminals turn tech-savvy, police investigators across States face a tough challenge to bring the law-breakers to justice. The situation is, however, undergoing a revolutionary change. The Digital Police Portal launched by the Government of India as part of the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), in August this year, will not only help police sleuths track the criminals fast, but also help the victims seek redress online.
  
The total IPC crimes in the country increased from 28.51 lakh in 2014 to 29.49 lakh 2015. According to the Union Home Ministry’s latest annual report (2016-17), the share of IPC crimes to total cognizable crimes in percentage terms was 37.2 per cent in 2011, and it increased to 40.3 per cent in 2015. The crime rate, which shows the number of crimes per one lakh population, too increased from 497.9 in 2012 to 581.8 in 2015.

We are in the midst of the festive season. The west has had its fill in Ganesha and the Navratra-Dandiya, the south has had its share of Onam and Dusshera, the east has celebrated the Durga Puja and the festivities in the north would reach its crescendo with Diwali. Ever since the opening of the economy in the 1990s, these festivals have also come to be about shopping and aggressive trade. With technology bringing in online traders, the courier boys with huge Santa Claus like bags are common feature in urban areas.
 
These modern day Santas, unlike the original, however, often are of rickety frames. The shadow of these Santas, burdened by the huge bags, replicate the state of our economy. Amidst the loud talk of the country being feted with end number of government schemes, the fact of the matter is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being questioned – when would the ache din (good days) come?

Goods and services tax has suddenly become a bad idea in the parlance of the Opposition and its ally economists. It is being described as a step taken in haste. The government is being accused of not taking proper account of the difficulties that are being encountered by the businesses; especially the smaller and the medium sized ones in India.
 
The critics point out the complexity of the procedures and rules along with the declining fortunes of that sector. The small and medium enterprises are suffering, it is being asserted, on account of business to business transactions. Furthermore, the implementation of the GST has been undertaken without putting proper instruments in place. For example, the SMEs and the larger players as well find that the Goods and services tax network hardly responds to the load of transactions and allows only a limited number of returns toward the end of the set deadline. There is a collapse of the system. In addition the exporters are uneasy because there is blockage of funds.

India’s decisive battle against cleanliness and hygiene has got a fillip through ‘Swachhta Hi Seva’, Cleanliness is Service, which draws attention to making sanitation a shared responsibility. Embedded in the idea of this top-up initiative to the already ongoing ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ (SBM) is a clear invocation for the masses to shun the entrenched notion that cleanliness is but the task of the ‘others’ who have historically been  performing it on behalf of the rest of ‘us’.  
 
Nothing could be closer to the Mahatma who on numerous occasions in his checkered life had demonstrated a clear but distinct relationship between sanitation and service, by presenting himself as a living example that ‘everyone be his own scavenger’. Convinced that he will not allow ‘anyone walk through his mind with their dirty feet’, Gandhi had held the broom firmly in his hands through his life without missing a single occasion to extend his ‘service as a scavenger’.
From the Phoenix in South Africa to Sewagram in India, Gandhi’s ashrams were lived-in examples of what service meant in the quest for cleanliness. More than an act in symbolism, cleanliness was perceived as a noble service in which all the ashramites used to engage on a daily basis. It is evident that for the Father of the Nation the service for swacchta was a social tool that he used to cut across class and caste barriers that hindered cleanliness. It has continued to remain relevant till this day.   

Its Puja time and it’s unfortunate that the celebrations should get mired into a controversy on when to immerse the idol of the Goddess. For us in Delhi, the matter may have got rested with the Kolkata High Court decree and the executive order of the Mamata Banerjee government which followed.

But people’s sentiments on such matters of faith do not necessarily ebb and soar with court decrees and executive orders. They become part of the folklore and leave indelible mark on the local psyche.   

 To buttress my point, let me recall the 1989 Lok Sabha polls, which had come with an unusual dichotomy in the voters’ mood. While there was unanimity in their anger towards the Congress, led by Rajiv Gandhi, the reason for anger varied from region to region.

By 1987-88, the mammoth mandate which Gandhi had received in December 1984 had started to erode, at least in public appreciation if not in the numbers inside Parliament. His Finance and later Defence Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh had walked out on the issue of probity in public life.