Some days back there appeared in the morning national press a stirring little news. The fish vendors of Shantinagar Bazar in the city have formed a body to thwart extortion in the bazar. The organised vigilantes gave themselves a high-sounding and, nevertheless, inspiring name — the Mrityunjoy Squad — the death-defying activist team. That our society is now veritably a hostage to mastani or the extortionists' blackmail is in a big way the result of absence of popular resistance.

How is it that our people are stooping so low? There are three very obvious reasons. The ruthlessness of the extortionist criminals. They brook no challenge and with the barest sign of a threat to their sway they react harsh and big to drive panic into every heart in the vicinity. This is possible because they have whole gangs and hoards of arms at their command. Reason two relates to what has now become a very familiar word, courtesy the vernacular press, namely the godfathers or protectors. Three, the bullied and black mailed ones cannot unite and mount concerted resistance chiefly because a majority feel it is better to give a bit of a tithe than to be embroiled in a life-risk tussle.

The Mrityunjoy Squad has come past these barriers of fear and selfishness and dared the extortionist of the bazar. This is indeed so heartening! In the three days after the coming of the Mrityunjoy there has developed in the bazar a contrary approach that it was better to leave the extortionists to the police who are the right and adequate quarters to take on and eliminate the thugs. Resistance like Mrityunjoy develops only when police and such law-enforcing agencies prove not quite up to the criminals. Such as now. And then again when accosted by such a ruffian demanding money, you have all the rights in the world to say go to hell — without needing to keep some of your rights for the police to ensure.

Let Mrityunjoy go ahead, always careful not to overstep its self-imposed mandate.