Dear Bapu,
I have always revered you for not only showing a new way of life but also practising everything that you preached.
It is no wonder, therefore, that most of your teachings are the foundation stones on which our constitutional practices and principles have been built.
However, sometimes I wonder, what your approach would have been if you were to have lived in the present era, of relentless and repentless terror, corruption and judicial torpidity.
Bapu, one of your most famous quotes has long been the cornerstone of our policy and law-making practices. It goes something like this: "Even if a hundred criminals go scot free, it's still preferable to even one innocent being unfairly prosecuted".
Please do not misinterpret my difference of opinion as disagreement with (much less, criticism of) your line of thought. I am anyway too inconsequential and your thoughts were and will always remain too good to be criticised. I am just wondering whether, having seen the light of the day in today's times, you would have wanted to continue your policy of tolerance and benefit of doubt to even the most evident of crimes and criminals - only for the sake of a policy.
I believe the assumption, typically sensitive and caring of you, was relevant for precisely the times you lived in. Back then, I cannot recall incidents when ingenious minds used their creativity negatively to make up lame excuses in favor of criminals.
Correct me if I am wrong, but today, things have come to such a pass due to the archaic give-benefit-of-doubt unless proven guilty (completely), that it has allowed our justice deliverance mechanism to go into unexplainable and unreasonable stupor, faster and longer than a Kumbhakarna.
I wonder how you'd react if you were to witness the gross abuse of the judicial process and policies in order to make open-and-shut cases (of inhuman, barbaric and most unequivocally condemnable acts) favorable for the accused party, all in the name of benefit of doubt, lack of evidence, delay in judgements' deliverance, etc. for years and years together.
The latest development is another case in point, where a decisive verdict would not only deliver justice but also provide a fitting message to the perpetrators of such crimes, about the consequences that they should be prepared for, if they dare to even think of committing any such heinous acts.
Why do we not deliver justice promptly in open and shut cases?
What do we get by waiting everytime for n number of evidences against an accused, who has all the time in the world to fabricate the case, threaten witnesses, pay up equally debased lawyers to abuse any caveat or loose ends in the law to his advantage, and delay the trial or even be released 'honorably'?
And again, I am not advocating that we do not behave in a statesman-like manner. I also know that there are diplomatic, political and symbolic reasons that also delay a verdict. But to see this happening in every case only gives the impression that the state itself is weak, paralysed and too indecisive to even deliver a just verdict promptly.
Well, forget promptness, most often, we are left high and dry hoping for atleast a verdict - Afzal Guru is still accused in the Parliament attack case of 2002. The Kataras, the Sabharwals, the Jessica Lalls, the Pandher-Koli victims, all have a story to tell - only to keep awaiting justice and expect their next generation to carry on the battle, hoping against hope.
Bapu, if you were around and you saw such blatant violation of civic and fundamental rights, and denial of justice to even the victims of open-and-shut cases, what would you have done?
Would you not agree it is high time we took the bull by its horns and ensure we DELIVER JUSTICE TO THE DESERVING AND THE HAPLESS VICTIMS, RIGHT AWAY?
Bapu, I guess you would have had to seriously reconsider the policy of trusting even a known criminal to be innocent if you could see the impunity with which criminals go scot-free, just for want of enough evidence (how much and when is it ever enough for them, anyway?!), and time-warped deficiencies in our laws and archaic policies.
Love you Bapu, but I believe the Mahatma that you always were, your soul too might really feel at peace only when we all shrug off this inertia of being indolent to arm-twisting by known criminals and offenders, and insolent to the frustrated, helpless victims.
One might somehow still be able to bear the victimisation inflicted by a criminal. But it is infinitely and exponentially more unbearable, unreasonable and unfair on those victims to see the criminal being exempted from punitive action simply for want of archaic laws and loose processes. And it is we, who are responsible for doing so.
Just as important as delivering justice to victims of known offenders (yet to be proven guilty only in the the soap opera of a trial in the courtrooms) is how soon justice gets delivered.
Justice delayed is justice denied, as well as faith dented - not just of the victims, but also of all those people who helplessly and frustratingly witness, read, observe and follow such developments.
Why be a weak state, taking years together to deliver long-due justice, which should take a month's time at best?
Bapu, did you ever want that people arm-twist the principles you laid out for our governance, in this way to suit themselves unfairly, and at the cost of the people who have already suffered enough?
Haven't we been witnessing that today, by taking advantage of the benefit-of-doubt and innocent-till-proven-guilty policy along with the inordinately long delays in judgements, known criminals and offenders merrily while away their time, while the victims and bravehearts who pursue the case seeking justice, are the ones actually suffering?
So eventually, instead of ensuring that even one innocent does not suffer, we have ended up making only the innocent victims suffer - not only once when they themselves bore the brunt of the inflicted crime, but many times over when they kept coming to the courts in the hope of justice and with the will to see the culprits being brought to book. Alas, only in vain.
So haven't all of us - since all of us are components of our corrupt, debased, and completely negligent system, the why-bother-if-it-doesn't-affect-me or why-take-on-the-system junta - actively or passively, only helped the criminals go off the hook, and made justice just a mirage for the victims?
Would you have wanted this to happen, Bapu?
I wish you could react to how things are today..
I wish you could show us the right way forward..
