Killing gangsters

THE killing of a notorious gangster, Vicky Gounder, and his two accomplices by the Punjab Police should provide a moment of satisfaction to the law and order establishment. The police was on his tail ever since he escaped from the Nabha jail. The wanted men were killed in an encounter during which the police force too came under fire. Few tears will be shed for the man whose killing spree had terrorised the state. Gounder, whose given name was Harjinder Singh, once aspired for a sports career, which he gave up for a life in crime. An unhappy death for him had become inevitable.

The metamorphosis of men into gangsters is a phenomenon that has not been sufficiently explained. Joblessness, aimlessness among the youth, lack of opportunity, together with machismo attached to lawbreakers, all are elements that contribute to the deadly brew eagerly supped by youngsters starved of role models. Songs glamorising such persons, and the vast reach of social media too, help to transform gangsters into idolised outlaws. Gounder had many Facebook pages in his name, with “likes” in tens of thousands. Indeed, he shot into notoriety with his “dance” after the killing of a rival, as well as the dares he made to the police, with social media providing the platform to share all this.

Why criminals are allowed to get morphed to a level where they become “gangsters” is a question that has not yet been answered satisfactorily. They need to be stopped before they become a menace to society. The rise of gangsters in Punjab has also to do with the muscle power requisitioned by some in the political spheres. Just as there are no good terrorists, there are no good gangsters. People who take the law into their hands and live by the gun tend to die by it, and that too within a relatively short span of time. It is never easy or responsible to condone “encounter” culture. While Punjab Police is entitled to crow over Gounder’s violent death, it will do us all good to remember that too much dependence on gun culture takes its toll on tenets of a lawful society.