The Recent Delhi Rape

The heinous crime of the recent rape in Delhi has rightly jolted the slumbering masses to rise and make a loud protest. It has also sent shock waves into the dilly-dallying corridors of power to extract sympathy and assurances that they will and are taking appropriate measures. But the question is, will they? They have time tested tools to counter such voices of protest —‘public memory is short’; ‘give assurances and push the matter into the labyrinth of bureaucracy’; ‘divert the issues by endless political and intellectual debates’; ‘use the administrative traps to swallow activists and force them to spend all their energy in efforts to break out of the intricate webs spun around them’; and so on. The consequence is that assurances mostly remain just assurances. Is it not time that continued effective monitoring and follow up is done by some groups of serious and upright activists?