Pathetic, To say The Least

HOW UNFORTUNATE TO LIVE IN ARBOREA AND SUFFER ITS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Arborea Luxury Homes, a residential housing complex on the Mussoorie – Sahastradhara byepass road, developed and constructed by Conscient Infrastructure Pvt Ltd Gurgaon, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, in the recent past. That, the owners and the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) have gone to the Consumer Commission, Dehra Dun and filed RTIs with the MDDA against Conscient, to redress the perceived wrongs, which they continue to live with, was reported in the print media sometime back. The owners have expressed their anguish and deserving umbrage at the litany of complaints, which they have regarding various matters of poor construction, structural defects, failure to deliver on the promises made in the sale’s brochure, maintenance issues, transparency in the accounting of interest free maintenance fund etc. Thereafter, followed two FIRs lodged with the Rajpur Poice Station and the Camp Office of the SSP, Dehra Dun by Brig and Mrs Neelam Dangwal, in the matter of an implied threat given to the veteran officer by a property dealer who lives in 9 Curzon Road and also has an apartment F – 402 in Arborea; and in the case of assault and affray with a lady by the gym attendant, on 17^th Oct 2013, in front of the complex facility.

   Notwithstanding this, what is more disturbing, shameful and a painful matter, is the poor and pathetic understanding of the latter incident of violence, which seized the understanding of the Executive Committee (EC) and made it to act in an inglorious and despicable manner by not being with and standing up for a fellow RWA member, in the horrific incident that has tarred the name of Arborea, when it happened on that unfortunate morning of 17^th Oct 2013, when a 57 years old lady, a Brigadier’s wife and a grandmother to a 9 years old grandchild was assaulted by an employee, the gymnasium attendant. Without showing any sense of due diligence and equanimity in their thinking, the President, General Secretary, Treasurer, Three Members and a Special Invitee to the EC meeting, while unanimously condemning the incident on 17 Oct, in a most strange turn around and volte face on their decision, completely alienated Mrs and Brig Dangwal by  not supporting them and refused to come together, in a show of deserving solidarity, on 18 Oct. The case was as transparent and clear as can be, assault on an elderly woman by an employee, irrespective of the circumstances which lead to it. But, unfortunately, in the stymied and facetiously loaded and prejudiced understanding of the esteemed members of the EC and the invitee member, it was opined that “It is considered to be a private matter of Brig and Mrs Dangwal and hence the EC does not wish to involve itself with the case” . It is a matter of extreme shame for the two women office bearers in the EC, who could not empathise with the pain and suffering of a fellow lady of the community, who had stood up for her self respect and dignity, in the face of extreme insolence and misbehaviour by an employee and was provoked and incited to slap him. And, at which, the gym attendant hit her back with his full force and might. The conduct, and wisdom or lack of it, of the men in this matter of assault on a lady; who comprise the EC and the special invitee to the EC meetings, is a very sad commentary on the state of the Arborea RWA, which has become so egoistic, insensitive, without moral and physical courage that, they consider a reprehensible act of violence against a lady member of the Society / Association, as a personal matter and not as a just cause to stand up for. It is most shameful that such men tenant office in the EC of the RWA of Arborea and another such man is called as an invitee to its meetings, for rendering profound and intelligent advice. Shame is a very mild and inadequate word to describe this act of such people, who have shamed the RWA and Indian Society at large.

 Mrs Neelam Dangwal, the lady who was assaulted by the gym attendant, has in the exercise of her judicial and civil society rights,taken all necessary actions to bring the guilty to book and have him sent to jail. Surprisingly, the vacuous and harebrained EC and the invitee member, in a most bizarre and ludicrous manner of becoming the investigating authority and the judge, a right which they never had and most gratuitously donned upon themselves, found Mrs Dangwal to be the errant party and hence completely disassociated itself from the matter. These men and women must understand that ‘Truth is its own Defense’ and does not require any evidence to either support it or else establish it. This is the travesty of justice at the routine and mundane level, when unintelligible, incompetent and mediocre people who do not understand the meaning of character and are without the requisite moral fibre to be just and wise, masquerade as self appointed adjudicators and conflict resolvers. The Indian society today is passing through a very precarious stage, wherein the ‘Khap’ style of justice prevails in the bucolic heartland of the country, in which they operate outside the boundaries and constraints of ‘Law of the Land’. The EC and its special invitee are no better or worse than the ‘Khap’. In fact, in the understanding of most people who respect women and show regards for their self worth and dignity; the despicable action of the EC and the special invitee is much worse than the self styled ‘Khap’ kangaroo courts, which are a disgrace to a civilized society in the 21^st century of a modern India.

One wonders, what has happened to the sense and understanding of all those who are literate but continue to remain uneducated. These are the upwardly mobile members of our society who are a stigma to its culture and heritage. We must surely protect ourselves from their shenanigans and not be carried away by their trappings of wealth and material indicators, which while providing them with superficial recognition, are no surety of their having the most rare of sense and which is ‘Common Sense”.

It is for the honourable members of the General Body of the RWA, to bring this matter in its next meeting and ask each and every member of the EC as also the special invitee, to render an unconditional apology to the House, for bringing it to disrepute and grave dishonour. I am certain and sure that given our culture and heritage, which idolises womanhood and respects women, wherein our literature and poetry eulogises a woman’s status in our Society by saying “ Yatra Poojte Nari, Tatra Ramante Deva”( where women are respected, the Gods live there); all sensible and unprejudiced people will uphold the dignity of a woman and castigate the EC for its disgusting, immature and pitiful understanding of their stand, as resolved in its Meeting of 18 Oct 2013.

I feel extremely sorry for the warped and pathetic thinking of all those who were party to this decision and PRAY FOR BETTER SENSE TO PREVAIL IN THEIR PERSON, FOR THEIR GOOD AND WELL BEING.

Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal

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