Video footage of a young woman being molested by a group of men in Guwahati was, thanks to our helpful news channels, flashed across the country for much of yesterday. There are two particularly worrying things about the incident. Firstly, it marks a new low in our ability, as a nation, to watch anything — irrespective of how shocking, gory or exploitative to the victims — without cringing or making a hue and cry about it. Secondly, it betrays a frightening lack of a moral code of conduct among those who decided to film that crime on mobile phones in the first place. The worst thing is how occurrences like these (all caught on camera) are becoming commonplace.

Not too long ago, a teenager in Delhi was molested on the street and the act captured on camera by a bystander who did nothing but watch. A famous story we broke a few years ago, on New Year’s Eve, saw another woman molested by crowds outside the Gateway of India. There were hundreds of people. They did nothing.