Sir,

The recent murder of R.N. Kulkarni, a retired IB Officer, is chilling and shameful as it occurred in a country where each individual is promised to be treated equally and protected. Also, in a country to which he offered selfless and immeasurable service.

I particularly felt affinity to the stand-point of Mr. Kulkarni as I too have faced a similar situation regarding building violation near my house. Only difference is I had so much less exposure to laws and the system at 21 years of age and couldn’t do much except write letters and send mails after mails.

Learning from this is our only hope to pay homage to this upright officer. Firstly, it has shed light on the way our systems function. Our systems have become such that anything can be made to be in your favour as long as you have enough currency notes and VIP connections. Our system is always in a state of inertia unwilling to do its duties and ushering in change. This must open up our discussions on transforming our systems and think of innovative and sustainable practices to eliminate or at least manage and contain the ugly corruption.

A second issue that came to my mind is, would this murder be a big a story if the dead person had been a commoner, a poor teacher, an old couple, a daily wage worker, a student, a home maker? (This is not to take away the seriousness of the death of Mr. Kulkarni). Would the Home Minister of the State visit the aggrieved family then?

Lastly, being a student, a trained teacher and a training teacher-educator, I could not stop myself from wondering about the connection between quality education and the way events unfolded because the accused persons are educated and come from rich families.

– Kruthika M. Sharma, Mysuru, 15.11.2022

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