English: brightly-coloured sprinkles. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Five days ago a young woman was gang-raped in a Delhi bus. This was not only a sad event but also a deplorable event. It has changed the life of several people – the girl, her family, the boy who was with her and his family, their friends, the perpetrators of the crime, their families, their friends and of course hundreds and thousands of ordinary people who have been talking about it for the past few days, agitating publicly, working hard to make a difference.

Every incident is like this pile of sprinkles : initially there is a great impact ( as shown by the dense cluster of sprinkles) which gradually peters out ( as can be seen those scattered farther away). No incident can therefore be seen as isolated and without ramifications and consequences. In an attempt to curtail and prevent untoward incidents which are violent, violative and disruptive to peaceful co-existence, man has devised punishment. In keeping with the adage as you sow, so you reap,

All good deeds are not rewarded and all crimes are not punished.
Reward is not the motivation for good deeds.
Punishment is not the deterrent to crime.

People who do wrong do so either because they are so inclined or so compelled just as people who do good do so because they like doing good or have no option but to do what they do.

Essentially, lessons are never learnt until they are truly learnt. I ca never forget an incident that happened when I was around 5 years old. I was in kindergarten and was attracted by something golden shining on the floor. I picked it up fascinated by the way the light shone off the brass tack and kept it in my pocket feeling it from time to time and feeling pleased with my secret. A little voice played in my head ” Don’t pick up things that do not belong to you,” but I dismissed it as ” oh what does it matter? I don’t know who the tack belongs to. Besides it is such a tiny little thing. It won’t really be missed.”And of course I was only 5.  I doubt I had any issues with morality and ethics and code of conduct. I went home that day and kept the secret to myself. When I changed out of my clothes, I carefully kept the brass tack behind one of the books on the shelf, pleased with my secret and more with the thought of getting something past my mother’s eagle eye. A few days later while running around in the room I felt a sharp shooting pain in my heel – I looked down and found the brass stack  stuck onto my foot. Hearing my cries my mother ran in and quickly took the tack out and put a tape to stop the bleeding. She asked me how the brass tack came into my room. I quickly confessed to her my “crime” of bringing home the tack I’d found on the classroom floor.  She of course told me ” How many times must I tell you not to take things that do not belong to you? You should have given it to your teacher, not brought it home.” Suffice to say, that was a lesson I’d learnt which has lasted me a life time.

The rapists MUST be punished but passing strict laws will NOT stop this crime from happening again and again. Considering the fact that the rapists will rape again and in any which way, I doubt castrating them stop them, nor will incarceration. So perhaps the best solution would be death by hanging as that will ensure that the world has 5 less criminals to deal with.

But I do not think making stricter laws will stop people from rape, just as strict laws have not stopped people from rash driving, thievery or any other wrong doing. Let’s be honest was Rajat Gupta the first person to do insider trading? Do people even remember who Sanjeev Nanda was or for that matter Abhishek Kasliwal?

Human memory is really short lived and laws do not stop crimes. What really would help is speedier dispensation of justice which in the ultimate analysis is in itself a joke. A dead man cannot be brought to life after the murder is hung.