A four and a half year-old child dies at Shimla in the Mall because the ambulance carrying him does not reach the hospital on time. The road is blocked by a throng of protestors from the ruling Congress and the BJP.

A panchayat in Haryana forcibly separates a newly born boy from his parents belonging to the same clan (gotra). Upper caste members kill a dalit who is acquitted by the court in a jat murder case. A policeman chains with his motorcycle a poor boy who had stolen a gold ornament and kills him in public.

A truck runs over four people of the minority community, which retaliates by fomenting communal trouble. On the face of it, there is nothing common in these incidents. They illustrate strong emotions. Yet, what strings them together are the society's insensitivity, the authorities' nonchalant attitude, and people's blind faith in tradition, which was wrong even when adopted.

It also shows the other side of the society. The social order is breaking up. The value system is weakening further. The common man is losing faith in decency because of hard, insecure life. The boy's death due to road blockade was described by politicians as "very unfortunate." There was no word of apology, no action by the authorities.

In the second case, two Haryana ministers defended the "tradition" and took the couple to task for having violated the sanctity of gotra. The state chief minister said he had received no complaint. The media focus made the police restore the child to the parents. They have left the state because they do not feel safe.

Haryana is the state where a dalit was murdered after acquittal. Thousands of dalits took to the streets in protest in the state and even in Punjab. But the hold of jats is so firm that the police are normally afraid to take notice of what they. Both the states are headed by jat

chief ministers.

The police highhandedness in the death of a poor child is nothing new. There is hardly any such happening, which does not underline the police brutality. What shocks me is the lack of accountability in the force.

The other day the SSP of Moradabad was caught on a TV network beating the innocent bystandards. He was not even in uniform. The state government promised to consider the case after receiving the details. The matter rests there. The police in Bhagalpur have decided to go on strike after the dismissal of two policemen. The punishment was, in fact, overdue. The case has been hanging for 16 long years. The police were a party to the killing of persons belonging to the minority community. Still many have gone scot-free.

Communal rioting looks odd in a society which takes pride in pluralism. By this time people should have imbibed the basic tenets of tolerance

and sense of accommodation. A truck accident should have been treated as an accident, not as an opportunity to settle old scores. Leaders of the minority community should have intervened before the riots broke out.

In fact, the riots spread to Allahabad. Here the majority community was at fault. Such incidents had taken place earlier. But the number was small and the occurrence rare. A study shows that in the rioting people attack one another to kill and not to leave it to injuries alone.

This indicates many things, but one thing sure is that there is no normal outlet of grievances. Nor are there any serious attempts made to bridge the gulf between the two sides. Of what use is the annual growth rate of 9 to 10 percent when people have no concern, no sympathy for one another?

Granted that the government cannot do much in a capitalist economy to stop the rich getting

richer and the poor getting poorer. But the state can at least ensure the rule of law. The West, with all its faults, does so. The rich have a civic sense. The top echelons of the society in India, the upper castes, the jats, or the small-time politicians get away with the violation of basic laws.

Devoid of values, they are like animals on the prowl. But for the media attention, even the few examples of excesses would not come to light. With the yawning divide between the haves and the have-nots, the quarrel over the denial to the poor is going to intensify. The lower half is getting increasingly marginalised. How to enable them to earn their livelihood with dignity is the biggest problem the country faces.

Many are getting desperate, and 112 districts in 15 states are havens for the armed radicals. However reprehensible the use of force, they see no other way out. Yet I find that the common man is still inured to values which he has inherited, and he does not ordinarily steal or appropriate the other man's gains. He or she prefers to suffer silently and does not take to arms.

The question is not whether or not the suicide of farmers in the country is increasing. It is whether the present system is driving them to choosing suicide (112,000 in a decade) in place of slow death. Even the palliatives in the shape of government grants have not been of much help. A study shows that the

money does not reach the needy. There is too much red tape and plain corruption.

UP Chief Minister Mayawati is too busy buying property in Delhi to initiate something concrete for those whose holdings are shrinking. Is it not possible for the government to establish facilities to provide common services like ploughing, tending, and thrashing for the crop? The corporate sector, if asked to step in, can do so. But that would mean its entry into the agriculture sector, and this does not augur well for farmers.

Economic steps to ameliorate the condition of the poor are too meager and too slow. At least, the basic rights under the constitution should be available to them. Yet, if faith in the fundamental values of a democratic society is to be preserved, every citizen, whatever his class, caste or creed, has to display a degree of sensitivity and support for the rule of law.

Without being aware of what is right, and without speaking out when the wrong is done, there may come a day when the realisation of what is wrong may go. There is a thin line dividing right and wrong, moral or immoral. Once that line is erased, people do not know where they stand, whether on the right or the wrong side. It does not need a revolution to change this attitude. Mere concern for others will do.

Kuldip Nayar is an eminent Indian columnist.