Rajkot man 'killing' his paralysed mother is a bleak testimony on our times
Sandeep Nathwani has told the police he was tired of looking after his paralysed mother.
A college professor has been arrested for allegedly killing his mother by throwing her off the terrace of their home, in Rajkot. According to the police, the victim, Jaishree Nathwani, had suffered brain haemorrhage in September, and was paralysed. Her son, Sandeep, allegedly killed her because he was tired of looking after her.
The police said the incident took place three months ago, and Sandeep passed it off as suicide. However, the police later received some inputs from an anonymous source, and checking the CCTV footage of the building, found Sandeep to have a role in the crime.
In the CCTV footage, Sandeep can be seen pulling his mother up the stairs. After some time, he comes back alone.
According to reports, Sandeep had told the police that he took her to the terrace as she wanted to perform surya namaskar. She then sent him to fetch some water, and jumped off the building. A security guard alerted him when her body hit the ground.
However, police have found from Jaishree’s medical records that she was unable to walk on her own and couldn’t have hauled herself off the terrace wall.
Later, during questioning, Sandeep broke down and told the police that he was tired of looking after the needs of his paralysed mother, and hence killed her.
According to reports, Sandeep has two sisters, and there had been tensions in the house over the marriage of one of them.
While the crime is yet to be proved, if true, it is chilling to the bone.
Children turning on their parents is terrible in any case - what makes one attack a person from whom they have in all probability received love, nurture and financial support for a good part of their lives? But harming them when they are weak, incapable of defending themselves, and dependent on you is the very nadir of human nature.
This is not the first time we have heard of horrid treatment meted out to senior citizens by their children. In 2016, a video of a woman assaulting her 70-year-old mother-in-law had shaken the nation.
Just a few months ago, the skeleton of 63-year-old Asha Sahani was found in her upscale Mumbai flat, where she used to stay alone. Her son, who was in the US, had not spoken to her for a year, and hence was unaware of her whereabouts.
In our own social circles, we know of people - perfectly well-behaved, productive members of the society - who ill-treat their parents.
So, what makes children misbehave with, abandon, or mentally and even physically assault their parents? In a country that celebrates familial bonds and where the “joint family” setup is still considered ideal, this specially signifies the utter moral and ethical degeneration of the society.
In the natural order of things, of course, people should want to take care of individuals who have brought them up, showered them with love and care. Mistreating one’s parents stems from the pettiest of human impulses - misbehaving with those you think are dependent on you, whether financially physically, or emotionally.
Clashes among members of a household are natural, especially as in today’s India, there is a stark generational divide in terms of people’s ways of life and mentalities. However, clashes turning into abuse is usually deliberate, a product of insensitivity.
Also, in our occupied lives, it is easy to lose sight of what is not gainful in a materialistic sense - caring for elderly parents does not contribute to a rise in our careers, wealth, or social stock.
Of course, the Rajkot case - and others like it - is far more than preoccupied insensitivity. They are a proof of absolute moral bankruptcy.
How does a son, tired of looking after his mother’s needs, think of murder as the solution? Instead of sending her to a nursing home, hiring helps to look after her, he decides to eliminate her absolutely, so that she is not a drain on his time, or emotional and financial resources. Greater moral corruption is difficult to imagine.
Reports such as the Rajkot case should serve as a shake-up call to us. We, as a society, need to examine why we are becoming so emotionally poor, blind to duties, turning against nature herself.
It is easy to dismiss this murder as an aberration, think of the people responsible as terrible beings, far different from us. But all of us need to question if we know of people who neglect or ill-treat their parents, and if we have ever called them out for it. If we know of elderly people living alone in our vicinity, and if we have bothered to check up on them.
The government, of course, has a responsibility to the elderly, and regular beat policeman visits, elderly helplines, etc, are steps in that direction. However, the administration cannot do much to people at risk from those closest to them, their natural protectors and care-givers.
If the Rajkot professor is convicted for murdering his mother, the verdict will not be on one man alone, but on the society as a whole.