Educated menace-mongers

As much as toxic air and vehicular emission are problems gnawing Delhi and regions around, another major social disorder that came to light was the episode that broke out at Tis Hazari court complex in Delhi last week. The VIP culture deeply entrenched in a common Indian's psyche and the unsurprising aspiration for it causes many a violation of law and order every day. That the law is for the other and one is above the law due to whatever flawed understanding of oneself are the patterns of thinking that lead the common man to assume a smart move—or not so smart as the clashes that broke out at the court complex indicate: a law-abiding citizenry is not a weak or powerless one. Our erstwhile colonial masters are a fine example at that. Nor is the belief true that meekly following the rules must be the method of the uneducated. The incident has, on one hand, some of the finest educated citizenry of the country who also happen to the receptacles of a considerable amount of legal knowledge but who fell short of imbibing the simple attitude of abiding by the law. This also raises a pertinent question on how we see education: an accumulation of fancy qualification that will likely warrant a fat pay check or just simple understanding and mindfulness of common day-to-day affairs that that make life less hassle-free in general. Arguing that the police are misusing their power and that both media and police are trying to spoil the case, the media calling lawyers "goondas" are reflective of the severely missing quality and spirit of education. There could not have been a more ironical and more unfortunate live demonstration of what an educated society ought not to be like.