The Hindu Business Line : Restoring values

A GRUESOME tragedy was enacted a few days ago in Chennai by four drunken youths in a car (which ominously carried the sticker "Venom Racing") chasing a young girl driving in a motorbike and running over and killing her at dead of night on one of the main arterial roads of the city. Its implications extend far beyond the fatality itself.

It is of a piece with the dissolute nature of certain sections of the upper crust of the society not only in metropolitan cities but also in the interior areas. Putting on a shabby appearance, smoking, partying, drinking and generally indulging in a rambunctious and exhibitionist behaviour, they delude themselves into thinking that the macho image has something to do with harassing and molesting the opposite sex. A thousand such obnoxious and deviant instances must be occurring daily everywhere in India, although, luckily, not all of them may end in tragedy.

It will be burying one's head in sand if one were to shrug them off with the old convenient catchphrase: "Boys will be boys!" The malaise goes much deeper and casts a reflection on upbringing at home and the quality of education in schools and colleges.

At the fundamental level, it is indicative of the failure of parents to bring up their children properly. I have known of affluent parents who willingly let their adolescent children have bashes in five-star hotels costing up to Rs 50,000 a single night.

There are also educated parents who wink at their sons joining student-miscreants and going on a rampage stoning buses and damaging public property. In such cases, their explanation for not controlling their offspring is that any disciplining by them would foul up relations for life!

A time there was when the school and home were extensions of each other, with parents and teachers meshing their roles to inculcate the right values in the youngsters. Now, educational institutions are big business run with an eye on maximising earnings and not on producing good citizens.

Instead of being role models, teachers themselves, in contrast to their old-time counterparts, set a bad example by resort to agitations and other kinds of disorderly conduct. How can they command any respect from their students?

Hence, a law-and-order approach alone will not help. All sections of the community, especially parents, teachers and elders, should join in efforts to restore values, and deal with violations with an iron hand.

B. S. Raghavan