Why Do We Always Need CCTV?
Jagdish Bali
(The writer is based at Kumarsain, Shimla)
Though Satyameva Jayate Nanritam – truth alone triumphs, not falsehood – are the divine words accepted as the national motto of our country, yet on ethical scale, many of us, if not most of us, would perhaps never improve when it comes to practicing what we preach. We need night vision CCTV cameras while eating, sleeping. laughing and weeping, in examination halls, at bus stops, at railway stations, in restaurants – everywhere and everytime. Even if they are installed there, there are people who try to deceive or escape the eyes of this device. Some days back I was surprised when I stumbled upon a news story narrating how some senior scribes from West Bengal were caught on CCTV flicking silver spoons from a luxury hotel in London. Gone there to cover the West Bengal chief minister’s visit, these scribes might have found the silver cutlery more delectable than the luxury food being served to them. One nerd was so unscrupulous that he stuffed the spoons filched by him into other’s bag so that the other might be blamed if at all any question rose. However, he was caught on camera while practising his skill and was fined. The incident reminded me one of the incident that took place when I was doing my Bachelor Degree at Government College, Shimla. Once while looking for some book among the stacks of books at the Minerva Book House on the mall, I saw one of the a salesmen at the shop moved his eyebrows quickly twice and thrice to the customer who was holding a thick Oxford Dictionary in his hands. The salesman then signaled customer to go out. After a few minutes, camouflaging the same dictionary under the jacket, he sneaked out of the shop and followed the way towards the Sher-e-Punjab. Smelling some rat, I also followed him. Walking a distance of about 100 feet, the salesman found the customer waiting for him. The customer gave him two currency notes – one hundred rupee note and one fifty rupee note. So the customer got the dictionary with printed price of Rs. 450 for Rs 150. The customer saved Rs 300 and the salesman earned Rs 150 thus causing a total loss the owner.
Though shameful both the incidents are, yet many of us don’t feel any prick of scruple because they are living in the country where preaching in the day and thieving in the dark has become more of a way of life than an oddity or exception. These scribes, whom we ascribe as ‘fourth estate,’ might have thought at luxury hotel London that they were not under any scanner or they might have thought of flicking the spoons in such a way as might not be caught by the angle of the camera. Also, the salesman and the customer at the Minerva might have thought that nobody was observing them. Whatever they might have thought, but it raises a question – is conscience a big nothing? Is honesty and integrity a matter of advertisement? Do we always need CCTV to spy us?
Honesty cannot be a question of convenience. You can’t rob Peter to pay Harry and say you are honest. We need to learn that honesty is what we do in the dark. Honesty pays rewards in its own way – the greatest being a sound sleep.
Keep watching our YouTube Channel ‘Divya Himachal TV’. Also, Download our Android App
