Click to play videoNew Delhi: In Mumbai, a terrified little girl, 10-year-old Asma lies in a hospital in agony with fractured ribs, a broken hip and back after escaping a shocking eve-teasing attempt. Mumbai was supposed to be a safe city for women and girls but the attempted molestation, which has brought Asma almost to death's door, has shattered that myth.
The alleged eve-teasers say it was an accident and that they were just having having fun in their car.
Meanwhile, in Delhi, members of a violent biker gang were produced in court. In a Sunday night revelry, these young men on their motorbikes terrorised motorists and pedestrians, damaged public property, injured motorists, molested a woman, and manhandled a roadside food-stall owner.
The question that was discussed on CNN-IBN's Face The Nation with Sagarika Ghose was: Is India's urban youth turning delinquent?
On the panel of experts to try and answer the question were actor Rahul Roy; Editor Marie Claire (India), Shefali Vasudev; and Guest Lecturer Zakir Husain College and a Gandhian, Amna Mirza.
At the beginning of the show, 90 per cent of the viewers agreed that India's urban youth are turning delinquent.
Is Mumbai Changing?
Eve-teasing is something that has been confined to North India, but is slowly creeping to other parts of the country. Actor Rahul Roy was of the opinion that things have changed very drastically and for the worse in Mumbai.
"There was a time when girls used to feel very safe in Mumbai city, no matter what hour at night they were going out. But with the kind of reports that are coming in, it's obvious that things are not the same. I have a few friends who have had very nasty experiences at night when they were going out clubbing," he said.
He added that in a city like Mumbai, a celebrity should not usually not face any problems, but said that even known faces were not spared lewd remarks and obnoxious behaviour anymore.
"I think that it is an incredibly competitive time right now and at a very young age, people are trying to prove that they are someone important and that their opinion matters. This gives them an extra sense of bravado, but it's a shame that they do it with women because this is a nation which has always respected women," he said.
Too Much of Everything?
What is the reason that young men are turning aggressive and even violent in some cases like that of Manu Sharma (Jessica Lall murder accused), Vikas Yadav (Nitish Katara murder accused) and Biti Mohanty (accused and convicted of raping a German tourist in Pushkar)?
People are of the opinion that it is too much freedom and money that is giving these young men a sense that they can get away with anything, without a single thought for the law.
To this Shefali Vasudev said, "I think there is a sanction to the flamboyant culture, or as I like to call it, the Dhoom 2 effect. There is a lot of machismo, there is fun and there is a bike. So there is this bronzed attitude that one must turn out like someone cool. But I don't understand why is niceness or protecting women not cool enough anymore?"
She added that there was a fragility as far as the law was concerned and that there was no fear of the law. "Young men think that they will be cool and that they will get away with it."
Are Parents to Blame?
A lot of Indians now believe that a lot of the blame lies with the way parents bring up their children. Are parents bringing up their children only on money and not on values?
To this Amna Mirza said that the parents were not the only ones to blame. One needed to blame the entire system, the family, the schools and the colleges.
"The educational system is flawed. Today, in education we are talking money, we are talking trade, we are talking political systems, but where is the place for morals, where is the place for value education?" Mirza wanted to know.
However, Shefali contradicted by saying that morality was not the only thing that was important. What was equally important was the fact that it needed to be buffered by a legality in a country like India. "One has to create conditions to be moral. There is a flamboyant fantasy and everyone thinks everything they do is a script, which is being enacted out for the camera."
Is Mass Media a Contributor to Aggression?
So are movies like Rang De Basanti, which show that the system is so rotten that anyone call kill, maim and get away with anything to blame for the way the youth is turning today? Is there a deep-seated, violent cynicism that one sees?
Amna Mirza squarely placed the blame on movies like Rang De Basanti, which according to her, taught people to rebel but did not even once put in people's heads, the idea of reform.
"One cannot generalise everything that has been shown in the movie. The rebellion may have worked for that particular incident, but one must understand that the movie does not say 'destroy the system'," she said.
Why Can't Goodness Be Fashionable?
Halfway through the show, 93 per cent of the audience were in agreement with the question, saying yes, urban Indian youth were indeed turning delinquent, registering a three per cent rise from the beginning of the show.
Amna Mirza said that one should follow the Gandhi way and turn against flamboyance. "Gandhi would have told today's youth to limit their needs and live their lives with what they have."
She said that there were lots of young people who were living life in a limited way and serving society as they went along. She added that everyone needn't be a staunch Gandhian to do their bit for the society.
Shefali agreed with this saying that a lot of people lived their lives in the middle - some doing small things that were gestures enough to show they cared and had the right morals.
"There are so many workshops that are held for grooming, personality development, public speaking, so why can't we have some workshops for sensitivity?" she wanted to know. She said that the media should make people aware that having morals was cool, that being good and sensitive was fashionable and that being decent was the hip thing to do.
To this Rahul Roy said, "Goodness is simply put, very boring and most of the media does not want to portray anything good, they would rather pick on controversies. However, having said that, I think I squarely put the blame on the shoulders of parents, because if these things are going to be pardoned in your own house, then you are going to grow up thinking that what you are doing is okay."
He said that as a nation, most of us were spectators on the street and whenever something nasty happens, very few people actually come forward and help the victim.
"Why should we blame the police all the time? What about all those thousands of people who are on the streets at the time when something unlawful is happening? And even when the police takes someone inside, is it not people like us who go and pay the bribes to get the accused out?" he asked.
Are We Facing A Moral Crisis?
Is India living through a situation of a fundamental, moral crisis -- where young people think that being a good person gets them nowhere and that one may as well be bad and get ahead in life?
Shefali Vasudev responded to this question by saying that there was a crisis of freedom, a crisis of transitionary society and a legal crisis. "The polarised lives that we are living is contributing to this. However, I feel that we should use our freedom to get outraged just a little more. We should get angry, shocked and horrified enough to change."
She said that there was a value in being horrified and a value in introspecting. One should introspect and feel really bad about what's going on in society as a first step towards solving the moral crisis that the country is going through.
Final SMS Poll: Is India's urban youth turning delinquent?
Yes: 91 per cent
No: 9 per cent
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