Taking stock of where the society in the land is heading to, as objectively as the manner of pursuing the task meets with its unqualified acceptance, one may have to indulge in talking about the difficult-to-control perverse behaviour of the land’s people, of course, taking care not to stereotype all of them in one sweep. Wishing for a population of the estimated order exceeding 130 crore to be 100 percent free from the aforementioned type would amount to asking for the ideal, given the presence of good, bad and also a mix of both kinds in the mass. The perceived proportions of these three types in the total head count depends on the standards of good behaviour or otherwise one sets for oneself. Hopefully, the latter type is far less numerically than the former type in the land. However, which of the two types impacts the society to the all-too-familiar extent more than which other type doesn’t need elaboration. Any lay person can get a feel of that impact by a tour of Mysuru city at any time of the day.

If one wishes to embark on an exercise of taking stock of societal health, one will do well to read the work of Desmond Morris, the British renowned ethnologist and popular author in human sociobiology, namely Man-Watching, a field guide to learn about human behaviour. The focus of this column, however, is on the manner of administration’s response to human behaviour of Indian diaspora.

Talking about behaviour of the land’s people at large in general terms may not reveal any feature of that behaviour not already known to anybody across all sections of society. Administration has the responsibility of reining in the sections, conspicuously roaming in the streets of Mysuru, particularly in well-marked residential areas of the city, which are proving a law unto-themselves. In this context, one is prompted to refer a report just published in a popular daily quoting the US State Department 2016 Country Report on Human Rights Practices highlighting the currently increasing numbers of episodes of rape, corrupt acts of bureaucrats, religious disharmony, frauds, Police excesses and violence disrupting normal life, capped by inordinate delays in delivering of justice due to court backlogs. Perpetrators of rape and murders, nabbed by the Police several years ago are being awarded nominal sentence currently.

Mysuru, shining in the glory of being rated as the country’s cleanest city, clearly a dubious rating, has begun to host a rising number of its residents openly defying every law of the land. The law-abiding citizens are disenchanted with the administration dealing with criminal elements with kid-gloves, having lost hopes of order returning in society, even as the world is watching.