It was a tight slap on actress Kangana that left its mark!

An act that should be condemned, however much we try to justify the reason behind it. It was not done by some angry member of the public but carried out by one in uniform who was supposed to guard and protect citizens.

A guardian of the law broke the law.

But in that slap, lawbreaking has come full circle.

In the last ten years, hooligans, thugs, ruffians, and rapists have been shown the blind eye. Vigilante mobs have roamed the country, thrashing, assaulting and lynching those who followed another dietary preference to theirs. They've stopped trucks carrying animals whose taste they did not subscribe to, beat and killed owners and drivers.

They've looked into homes where women cooked and if their noses smelt smells their own kitchens ne'er produced, they seized those meals meant for the poor and hungry who couldn't afford what these mobsters ate.

They mobbed what was once a peaceful nation, rushing into places of worship where citizens worshipped in ways different from theirs, broke walls, burnt sacred objects, like crosses and altars, molested worshippers, thrashed priests, and with jeers and cries of jubilation, went to the next.

They separated couples in the name of love jihad, pulling women away from their lawful wedded spouses and murdered those men who dared fall in love with another from another faith.

They marched into hospitals, smashed X-ray machines, ransacked operation theatres, threw cancer patients from their wards, and thrashed and injured doctors.

They shot journalists dead, point blank, whose writings they cared not for, and scared the rest into silent submission.

They added these new 'slap' freedoms to their list of 'breakable laws' pinned to their sleeves.

They ran into college campuses, pulled out those who thought differently and battered them, whether they wore trousers or skirts.

They stopped cars on highways. Raped women travelling in them. They stopped screening films whose plots they did not understand. They followed tourists, and if perchance they did not allow a selfie with them, beat them up, groped their women, and left them wounded, bloodied, and, oft-times, dead.

"Stop!" shouted their leaders as the world asked questions. "Stop!" they cried as foreign presidents commented on how unsafe the country had become. "Stop, before it is too late!"

But it was too late. Because violence, once set free, obeys no handler. And when the one in uniform beats their own master or mistress, as was this case, then you know that with that resounding slap, violence had come full circle.

But hush! There is a second chance today: The people, even as they condemn this slap, also want other slaps to stop; lynching, police brutality, unfair laws, rapes and murders. And other violence created by the tongue; jeering, sneering, ridiculing!

Let the slaps stop...!