Click to play videoIn a sordid crime drama that has a shocked nation transfixed for a week, a dentist father was on Friday arrested for brutally killing his 14-year-old daughter and his domestic help in a bid to silence them over his extramarital affair with a fellow doctor, police said.
Rajesh Talwar, who was apparently in an inebriated state, killed his daughter Arushi because she had stumbled upon his affair and had been discussing it with her friends.
According to the police, Talwar's objection to his daughter's alleged close relations with the servant Hemraj, 45, finally prompted him to kill them both.
The shocking and baffling case of this murder in the suburbs of the Capital leads us to the question of the day that was asked on CNN-IBN show Face the Nation: Are Indian family values breaking down?
On the panel of experts to debate the issue were senior advocate Pinki Anand, sociologist at IIT Delhi Amrit Srinivasan and Editor of Marie Claire (India) Shefali Vasudev.
Moral decay in society
Anand, who has dealt with many criminal cases, said, “This case is shocking. It’s not that nothing of this sort has not happened in the past, but they are few and far between.”
The dual murder has led many to ask if dysfunctional families are rampant in metros or is that too much of an exaggeration?
Not agreeing or disagreeing with the argument, Srinivasan said, “What needs to be looked into is the NCR region. Nithari, too, is in the same area. One of the reasons given by the police in this case is honour killing. Now it’s a peculiar mix when one thinks of such cases with contemporary and professional people like the Talwars.”
Meanwhile, Vasudev said that if this case has got to do with family values then “we are wrong.”
“This is a psychological issue, a deviance which is linked to a sociological issue. There have been changes over the years in the Indian family, but this is not a symptom, this is murder,” she explained.
As the debate gathered steam, Anand had an important point to make.
“First of all I completely disagree with this whole thesis of Hemraj having a relationship with the girl. What I heard is that the doctor had a word with the lawyer and then this confession came about an alleged relationship between Hemraj and Arushi. In fact it is irritating how whenever a girl child is involved in a case it always takes the angle of her having an affair. It happened in Dhananjay Chatterjee’s case in Kolkata. So it seems like a good defence story, which is picked up before the trial starts,” Anand explained.
But is the angle of an extra-marital affair a good enough motive for murder?
Anand believed that it could be. “There have been various cases of extra-marital cases and murders arising out of it. There have been cases like the Nanavati case in Maharashtra, then Dr Jain’s case which was a well-planned conspiracy in the same kind of societal structure. The locking up of the daughter’s room at night and the father keeping the keys is a strong indicator that there was something much more than what meets the eye,” she said.
This is not a case, which is coming out of some remote corner of India, here is an educated person who is a doctor. Even the neighbours wouldn’t have a whiff of what might be in the offing. Does it not bother the society that such a case has taken place in an area and among people where it’s least possible?
“It is absolutely shocking,” Vasudev said.
“By the way, I am one of the neighbours. I live in Sector-25 and literally next door to the house where this murder took place. What shocks me is not the extra-marital affair, not even Arushi’s closeness with the servant, which sounds like the typical Ramu kaka tale of most Indian households, but that this can actually be the motive of a murder,” Vasudev added.
Lust eroding filial love?
Anand explained that it is true, to an extent, that the society has stopped thinking about the traditional value systems. “But it’s not as if it has been overtaken by lust. These kind of incidents are shocking but they are aberrations of the society,” she said.
So are we comforting ourselves with the fact that this is not about us, and this incident is just an exception?
“No we are not comforting ourselves with such thoughts. This is clearly an aberration,” Vasudev said.
Agreeing that there is a breakdown in family values, Vasudev explained, “The symptom in the Arushi case is not the murder but the parents who were planning a party in a pub on her 14th birthday. That is the difference in family values.”
The debate then meandered to the question if modern education paid emphasis on morality?
“Morality and law are two different things,” Srinivasan said and the added, “What is happening here is that a case is being set up to save the father. Why isn’t anyone shocked about the custodial arrogance of the parents? Locking up a daughter everyday is not usual. If she can go to a pub then why are they locking her at home? There is a criminal aspect to it, which they are hiding.”
The argument led the panelists to question if the police was trying to save the father.
Anand concluded the debate saying, “I am afraid there is some possibility of that because the alleged killer has a discussion with his lawyer and floats an angle and then the police is propounding that argument.”
Results of the question of the day: Are Indian family values breaking down?
Yes – 87 per cent
No – 13 per cent
CNN-IBN Editorial
The verdict that matters is the faith that a society has in its fundamental unit, the family. Let's not pass the buck and blame the pressures of a modern society or for that matter, the police for a shoddy investigation. The hard lesson is – society's criminal is often within. Stemming the moral decay in society is not unfashionable. It's just plain necessary.
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