INTENSIFIED CRISIS 37 stations, the rule of vast areas of cities and their slums by gangsters' gangs who are able to extort money from the people, all speak of an unprecedented crisis of the administration and society. It is not known by the common man that lakhs of tonnes of coal arc regularly looted from Dhanbad and other mining areas by the anti-socials in connivance with the administration. The energy minister of the Indira government was hauled over the coals in the Lok Sabha for his role in this connection, and he wisely refrained from replying to the charges. The stench of corruption pervades the administration and this again affects the non-political citizens, the silent multitude. While gangsters spread terror, while the police contingents sent to punish the people also do the same, while a sense of helplessness is being created in the face of rape, arson and murders, people's indignation is also rising, and from time to time police stations are surrounded by angry people many of whom lose their lives in this confrontation. These arc not outbursts of hunger; they do not arise out of high prices or other economic demands. They are against torture and rape in police custody or refusal of the police to register complaints and take action against murderers, dacoits and rapists. The common man is learning through his own bitter experience that the present government cannot guarantee his personal safety and security against anti-sociah or police highhandedness^ This is a new important feature of the crisis which is inevitably undermining the confidence of the neutral multitude in the government. A report from Gwalior dated 25 January 1981 gives an instance of the offensive against common citizens not yet involved in any political struggle. In a dark, dingy corner of a hospital ward in this sprawling city lies a middle aged man with swollen face and burns on his limbs and body—a humble worker in a sweetmeat shop set up temporarily in a popular annual fair. He rues the day he was caught in a ^man-made holocaust"; with his cloth ablaze and chased by angry policemen, he ran a long distance and plunged into a water tank. Two days later, there was a virtual revolt by a large group of policemen who held the administration to ransom for nine hours and forced the authorities to release on bail 11 personnel arrested in connection with the incident at the sweetmeat shop.