Blueline and the bleeding bodies – One more encounter with the truth

Crying faces, bleeding bodies, heart rending wails echoed Delhi sky once again on Sunday morning. This time the mishap took place on Mathura Road in Badarpur, near Aligaon crossing. The killer Blueline again created havoc by ramming into 15 people waiting for bus on the pavement. It caused death to 7 people and left few seriously injured and many panic stricken. It is alleged that the driver was drunk. He lost control and hit people standing on the road.

What’s going on? It is not the first time when such rash driving and irresponsibility robbed people of their lives. These series of accidents are occurring at a heart wrenching regularity and stopped to become just a matter of concern. But has become the hovering fear of death, ready to gripe any one from us. Who knows who will be the next victim? Whether one will get back home safely or not? And when boarding and deboarding Blueline buses itself becoming fear of invisible death, one's helpless boarder is always in danger to become a victim of cruel destiny, without any guilt of his or her own.

Buses are one of those amenities which are meant for people’s convenience but these accidents have brought forth the gruesome pictures of human error, negligence of moral duty and ignorance. Consequently, they are now posting most prominent threats to human lives, bigger than any of its kind in all probability.

Drivers and conductors often seem to be short-tempered, excited and indulge in speed competition with one another, apply sudden brakes to the buses and make passengers to suffer due to their whimsical and careless driving.

Delhi government has taken few concrete steps to stop these accidents. But still these life taking incidents are happenings.

It is important that the driving hands must be experienced. The man on the driving seat must be balanced, careful and vigil towards his duty as a driver. Driver and conductor must have friendly approach besides having professional ethics. Sufficient time must be given to passengers while boarding and de-boarding the bus.

On the other hand, traffic rules are being set to be followed but these accidents have implied clearly that rules are being violated by the Blueline buses. Moreover, speed-governors have also been tempered with by most of the buses. In this context, the government must take strict action against these violations. Deployment of PCR vans are not only the solution. The intentional crimes must be awarded with more stringent punishment, at par to that of ones for causing mental trauma, unintentional killing and anti-social behaviour.

Of course, we people also ought to be conscious of our rights as passengers and pedestrians.

BOGUS VOTING AND THE ‘NO-VOTE’ PROVISION…

For the ones’ fed-up with the political parties and their relentless bogus propaganda, a safe and logical option that crops into the mind is an allowance to cast ‘No-Vote’.

The same option also helps one to avoid being party to a ridiculous affair called ‘False Voting’ where someone else candidly votes in your name. And effortlessly ruin your chance and right to elect your representative. The process, needless to say, generates little confidence in the mind of voters to follow the democratic process, and hence the chosen ones, as obviously, are not always the ones most suitable for the post.

Talking about bogus voting, an estimated account of 40 per cent errors are noticed in electoral polls in many urban areas, and bogus voting in towns exceeds 20 per cent. The modus operandi of bogus voting includes purchase of votes through money and liquor, preventing poorer sections from voting, large scale impersonation, purchase of agents of opponents, threatening and forcing agents and polling personnel to allow false voting, booth-capturing, bribing polling staff and police personnel etc… and many more. However, for the practitioners of the ‘might is right policy’, this solemn act of mocking hapless democratic sovereignty does little favour for a vast country like ours. Where electoral landscape comprises remote areas of forgotten lands prone to encroaching and infiltration.

Leave alone interior areas, considering the situation that just about 60% of Indians vote (Indian election stats), surreptitious acts of false voting do not spare urban areas too. So to be true, let the reason be any thing, taking chance of our gradual loss of faith in voting process, beneficiary stands out to be the one un-wanted by the most.

So why to let these unscrupulous individuals count profit? During voting, one who is sure to stop any political candidate’s progression should caste ‘No-vote’...provided he or she is allowed to entertain the same option through voting machine.

Consequently, that little blue dot on ones’ finger would carry a true message, than being a warning sign of an unknown power hungry idiot gaining entry to political hierarchy through raping democracy.