Hiren Pandit: Former UP member and Awami League leader was brutally hacked to death at his house in Barguna by the miscreants of the opponent. During the murder, the killers jumped on their chests after the gruesome killing, newspaper reports revealed. Locals said that the killing took place after a clash due to the ongoing dispute between the two groups who contested the last Union Parishad election.
In Netrakona’s Barhatta Upazila, a miscreant youth has been accused of abusing her elder sister failed and then hacking her to death. The events are shocking, heartbreaking, and extremely brutal. We often see such brutal behavior nowadays by some people of different classes, professions, and age groups. Brutal murder is one of the types of social crimes prevalent in the society. Criminologists once prioritized age and type of crime when distinguishing between juvenile crime and adult crime. But nowadays it is difficult to distinguish the type and scale of crime. As a result, social and legal measures to prevent juvenile delinquency must be rethought. Again, we have to think about the crime of juvenile gangs.
A person cannot indulge in brutal behavior unless he is mentally disturbed. When the individual fails to adapt himself to the various conditions and systems of society, a different condition develops in him. Then abnormality is born in the person. As a result, the person can involve himself in any criminal activity. Brutal behavior cannot be excluded from this in any way. The family and society cannot avoid the failure of children and adolescents to adapt to the different environments and surrounding conditions of society.
Bengalis were once known as a generous and passionate nation. They would be blessed if he could benefit the latter. We had known this for a long time. We were coming to see it. But now we see the opposite in reality. Now we have lost tolerance and patience. The rate of education is increasing so much, what is the benefit? It is time to consider whether we are being educated and are heading towards more barbarism. The question arises whether any kind of education is not helpful in building our sense of values and humanity, or whether it is of any use.
Humans were once considered to be the best creatures in creation, separated from other animals or everything for judgment and conscience. But do people have judgment now, do people use conscience? Do people think about how much moral slippage, and conscience slippage is happening every day? People’s human qualities are constantly being abandoned, people’s morals are disappearing, and people’s ability to judge good and bad is disappearing.
People’s compassion towards people is disappearing, and love and kindness are slowly disappearing from people. Humans are losing their human qualities and are gradually behaving cruelly not as human beings but as beasts. Why is this happening? In the course of time, as civilized people, where the sense of humanity is supposed to increase, the sense of humanity is decreasing, constantly decreasing. But why? There should be more human qualities in people, but it is not so visible now. Nowadays one has to be constantly wounded, it is hard to believe one’s eyes when one turns the pages of a daily newspaper. The mother is killing her child by poisoning herself. Son is dying due to his father’s stick or weapon. Girls are killing their parents for independent life; boys are killing their uncles. Brother is killing brother; children are killing parents for little land or money.
It is undoubtedly possible to say that everyone will be at the same point about the conscience that is determined by the judgment of good and bad but will be at a different point about separating good and evil, that is, there will be different opinions on determining what is good and what is bad. This difference can be depending on the person, society, area, time, event etc. The work of conscience is to assist human beings in making appropriate decisions by judging future thoughts based on the present, giving it to the good and bad, advantages and disadvantages, capabilities and inabilities, and principles, but the actual decision must be made by the being itself. Each one of us likes to talk about ten years of peace, harmony, brilliance, principles, truth, about success, and even to hear these things; Even at work, it is good to give yourself to these things, but when you see that your bag is not being filled as much as compared to other people; that’s when consciousness becomes like a diamond and what was presented for peace or something positive, is overshadowed by a sick conscience.
But, do we think about conscience? Now we are busy competing to see who can go as low as possible. We don’t think about how much moral slippage or turpitude is happening every day, in the race of life, everyone is busy with how to move forward by leaving behind who is involved, the slippage of conscience does not matter to us. Be resourceful at any cost. We are constantly sacrificing the human qualities that we have, for the acquisition of wealth, for the sake of luxury. Morality is disappearing from among us, our ability to judge good and bad is disappearing.
All around, only murder and jealousy are blinding people. People don’t have time to think about only revenge, trying to earn money, children, family and what they are doing. We cannot understand that if children and families do not play a positive role, money alone will not do anything. Killings over trivial matters have become routine matter. But why is this happening? It wasn’t meant to be. The story of the Bengali nation’s solidarity is very old.
During the war of liberation, we have seen that people are desperate to save a wounded warrior! Where is the concern and sympathy lost today or is being lost? All death is painful, all pain is pain, still, why the nation that won the war of liberation is such a degradation of humanity and moral slippage, it can never be accepted. Even after that, there is some incident or there is a death that breaks the rib of the chest and crushes it. Nothing can be erased from the mind. A small quarrel with a friend while playing cricket and that’s another friend’s life. Neighbors are brutally killed for petty quarrels. Uncle is killing his nephew.
Why is animalism growing among us? Where is the end of this social unrest? Human-animal instinct is gradually increasing. This degradation cannot be eliminated by legal framework alone. For this, the necessary social movements and civil society should come forward in this regard. Our human values have sunk to rock bottom. We don’t even hesitate to take innocent lives like children to save our personal interests. Why did this happen?
It is time to consider whether we are heading towards more barbarism day by day. No form of education is helping to build our sense of values and humanity. It seems that we are gradually going back to primitive times. It is important to think deeply about the matter. It will be difficult for a nation to straighten up once it falls over the edge of the hole. Due to all these reasons, the number of talented protestors who are idealistic and honest and principled is decreasing in our society. We have our backs against the wall in terms of moral and social degradation.
Let us give children and adolescents a family, an environment and a society where it is easy for many to shape themselves or adapt. Then they will not develop mental disorders and despair, which will not compel them to act brutally like murder. Social institutions and organizations have a lot of roles in creating such a mental world among children and teenagers. Because the existing institutions and organizations are not able to play an effective role in society due to the existing conditions. Our law enforcement forces play a role in crime prevention. Many remain unable to play an effective role. Crime and exemplary punishment based on it cannot create a precedent to deter new crimes. We have been considering the family as an institution. There are many other things under this organization that need to be worked on. Relationships like parents, husband-wife, and brothers-sisters should be considered as the basis and move forward.
What we have to do to prevent all these atrocities and barbaric behavior is our great crisis in the present time not to attend to family relations. We take care of many things, but we seem to neglect the care of relationships. Lack of relationship care creates physical and emotional distance between family members. Some family members distance themselves from the family. Children and adolescents fail to adapt to other family members or to anyone outside the family. Then they develop mental disorders. Gives himself to the world of addiction or some brutal crime.
Let us turn to the front again, get educated in moral education and use our morality properly, prevent moral and social degradation and awaken our sense of humanity and move Bangladesh forward. For which 3 million martyrs have sacrificed themselves, countless mothers and sisters have lost their dignity. We focus on building a beautiful Bangladesh, we can build a beautiful prosperous Bangladesh.
Hiren Pandit is a columnist and a research fellow