Moral degradation of so-called master of all living beings

Basanta Baruah

(baruahbasanta14@gmail.com)

Man is regarded as the master of all living beings. It is because they have a conscience. After all, they have reasoning power. But the brutal murder of Animesh Bhuyan at Nirmal Chari Ali in the Jorhat district has once again put a big question mark on the self-designed crown of a master living being. "Is man the master of all living beings?" It's indeed a challenging question today.

The recent case of mob lynching in Jorhat has indeed raised many questions. The recent mob lynching case is not the first case in Assam. Human being has been facing the brutality of a section of the devil of our society from time to time.

No one can forget the brutal mob lynching case of Jhankar Saikia at Diphu in 2013. He was beaten to death by a group of auto-rickshaw drivers in front of his father.

On 31 August 2019, Dr Deban Dutta, the resident doctor of Teok Tea garden hospital was beaten to death by a mob following the death of a tea garden worker at the hospital. Dr Dutta had been serving those people selflessly for a long time and even after his retirement.

Suspecting to be child-lifters, a mob of about 40 people killed Abhijit Nath and Nilotpal Das at Dokmoka in Karbi Anglng district on 8th June 2019. One can't forget the lynching case of Sanatan Deka, a vegetable vendor at Kamrup in Guwahati on May 23, 2020.

On 29 May 2020, Debasish Gogoi, a B. Sc. final year student and his friend, Aditya Das were brutally beaten up by a mob of about one hundred people in front of his father and sister following an incident of road mishap at Gabharu Pahar near Mariani in Jorhat district. Debasish Gogoi succumbed to his injuries at Jorhat Medical College and Hospital.

Lastly, on 29 November 2021, Animesh Bhuyan, the AASU leader was lynched by a group of about 50 people at Nirmal Chari Ali in the Jorhat district following an argument over a road mishap. The mob also brutally attacked two others in the incident.

A series of lynching incidents have been occurring in Assam for the last few years. Human beings have lost lives in the hands of other human beings of the same flesh and blood. It seems that taking life becomes an easy task for a section of people today. Other's life has no value for this section of people. All these incidents have proved that people have lost humanity, morality and value judgement. They become selfish and materialistic day by day. It's because, in all these cases, no one came forward to save the victims. It's truly upsetting that a large number of people instead of making effort to save the victims from the culprits, remained busy making a video of the incident. They have no feelings, no emotions, no conscience at all.

When the Jhankar case and then Nil - Abhi case occurred in Karbi Anglong, it was seen that a section of people criticized the entire hill people to be uncivilized and barbarous. When the Gabharu Pahar and Teok tea garden mob lynching cases occurred, a section of people tried to criticize the entire community making various negative remarks. But now the lynching case of Animesh Bhuyan occurred amid Jorhat, the cultural capital of Assam, that too at daylight. How will the people assess this lynching case now? Whom will people blame for it? It's clear therefore that criticizing some specific communities for such kinds of crimes can't be said an ideal concept at all. Instead, it should be regarded as moral degradation of a section of a human being.

It's indeed a matter of shame for the people of Jorhat that such a barbarous murder occurred amid Jorhat town at daylight. The barbarous murder of Animesh Bhuyan has indeed put a strain on the dignified status of Jorhat. The most surprising thing is that no one came forward to save Animesh. Nobody made the least effort to rescue him from the culprits.

It's true that the adjacent area of Nirmal Chari Ali where the incident occurred, is truly a commercial place and most of the wholesalers are located there. Big and small traders come and go there, not other than commercial purposes. No one wants to involve in any unwanted incident. So, people try to avoid such cases. But the question is that if everyone takes the same mentality, will such incidents disappear from society spontaneously? It's crystal clear that if people don't change their mentality, there is no doubt that such cases will occur in our society again and again. One thing that must be kept in mind is that we are human beings. We regard ourselves as the master of all living beings. So, it's the duty and responsibility of every sensible human being to stand up and raise their voice whenever such incidents are about to occur. Some collective efforts should be made and inform the police as early as possible. Moreover, there should be some committees or unions in every place to handle such cases. If such cases occur, all of the locality should come forward unitedly at once to stop these and inform the police immediately to restore peace.

It's often seen that in every region there are some specific places which are known for bad names or devil people. Indeed, all the people of those places are not the devil. Only for a few devils, all have to suffer from those localities. They create such a bad image of the area that nobody wants to go there, nobody wants to make any deal with the people of those areas. It's truly unfortunate. Sensible people of such places should take the matter seriously and pay heed to make these places better to live in. Most of the local police stations know every nook and corner of the locality. They also know which places are highly sensitive or who may create terror in those localities. So, the local police station can indeed play a vital role in converting these so-called bad places into peaceful places to live. They should take the necessary steps to remove the title of so-called "Local Dada" from society.

Unfortunately, Assamese people have lost their lives at the hands of Assamese people. More unfortunate is that all these are happening at regular intervals. So, it's ripe time to ask our conscience whether we are human beings or so-called human beings. If we are human beings in a real sense, we should act like human beings. We should have morality, we should have value judgement. We should possess all the human qualities that make us superior to other living beings. At the same time, moral education, awareness programmes and some collective efforts are indeed needed to remove all these from our society.