The answer to the title’s question seems to be yes if we go by what follows. A 3-col. story in today’s Indian Express drew my attention to pen this piece. The news goes like this. An elderly couple, Sayamma and Gangaram, living in Raykur village in Nizamabad district, were regularly visiting a court in Bodhan in connection with a case filed by their daughter-in-law. Despite their advanced age, the couple was committed to the case to see it to its logical conclusion.
On Monday, their physical frailty impeded their going into the court premises after the autorickshaw arrived at the venue. On knowing this inability of the respondents, the magistrate, Sai Shiva, took it upon himself to go over to the auto and enquire into the details of the case on the spot. After hearing both sides and assessing the circumstances, he concluded that the elderly couple was not at fault and dismissed the case.
As per their SOPs, the magistrate might have crossed the Laxman rekha, but he considered humanity more than the rules we frame. His empathy in treating the defendants is something that may raise one’s eyebrows, but it is very much in line with the thinking of what any common man would appreciate. He might have put himself in the plight of the elderly couple, irrespective of how he would give his ruling. He may go against, but here he went out of his way to come out of the court, one may never come across in normal circumstances. He knew that the couple deserved all the genuine sympathy due to their physical inability to walk into the court.
There are many instances if we go through some similar incidents from the perspective of other pillars, like the Executive and Media, including the Legislature. We do come across IAS officers going out of their way in taking decisions in public interest, even at the risk of rubbing the politicians the wrong way. Conversely, we do come across Ministers overruling the Bureaucrats in certain important decisions as long as it serves the common cause of the public. There are many instances where media people in their daily routine do go overboard to amplify genuine concerns of the public, and sometimes themselves participate in rescue operations during accidents, natural disasters. Newsmakers also make news in such instances.
When a frail 90 year old woman at Rashtrapati Bhavan was walking to receive the Padma award, the President Draupadi Murmu set aside the protocol, came down the stage, walked half the way to give the award to the awardee which created sensation not only at the venue but all over the world in social media. It is these small but significant steps of empathy that draw a judge, or a bureaucrat, or a legislator, or a journalist to acknowledge that in India, we have empathy and sympathy going hand in hand.
When an accident takes place, ten people gather spontaneously, and that speaks of how mahaan our Bharat is. Thanks to its population, no one in distress is left unattended as at least one or two swing into with rest giving all the work to their mobiles. So, apathy, empathy, and sympathy are intermingled with the kind of people we have in India.
