Democracy!

I was watching television yesterday evening, and the breaking news was the
disappearance of the chopper in which the CM of Andhra Pradesh, Dr. YSR, was
flying.

The chopper went down in a jungle, off Chittoor. A dense forest of 3000 sq.
kms, naxal infested, and dangerous even for security forces to venture into.
Security agencies went into a tizzy. 6000 troops and personnel being
deployed to hunt down the missing chopper. Sukhois flying low altitude with
night vision cameras, army choppers flying with flood lights, tribals and
police on the march. NASA brought in to beam in real time images of the
forest to hunt for any signs of movement.

It was amazing the amount of technology that can be harnessed in a backward
country like ours to hunt down a missing CM. It is a matter of national
shame that the chopper carrying his contingent was overdue on its flight
worthiness certificate, and there was no SOP or standard op procedure in
case something like this happens. Security agencies were caught unawares on
what to do, and thus lost the golden hours when a crash site has not yet
disintegrated totally.

When so much of technology can be brought in to hunt some one very
important, then why can’t it be used to hunt down the naxals? The naxals or
the more popular name of Maoists are increasingly being heard of in the
media, holding vast stretches of the country on tenterhooks, with their
demands, revenge killings, and rampage.

Chattisgarh, Jharkand and a few other states have become their home turf. We
hear from the media that external forces hostile to India are training and
equipping them. The same is said of all movements that disrupt the way of
the democracy in our country. The guns come from abroad, their camps are
situated abroad to train them. But they all are Indians.

Some say that if they were Indians, then why they can’t stand up for their
rights within our system. Why must they wage a war that is extra judicial?

You could see that after every anti-Muslim pogrom, we have seen many years
of ghastly and daring terrorist acts. If any one in the government has any
wits at all, they should stop these pogroms from happening.

People are marginalized when they don’t get justice. Unless judicial reforms
become reality, there will be no peace in our country. Stop the injustice!

Everyone is aware of what happened to Mr. Narendra Modi when he was on the
show “The Devil’s Advocate”. When he was questioned on the Gujarat pogroms,
he was unable to answer. He had the look of someone who was being hunted for
his sins. He had a glass of water, and decided to walk out of the show. The
question that caused such a response was: “What did you do as the Chief
Minister of Gujarat to stop the violence?” The compare wouldn’t let him go
with the usual “we were doing our best”. He persisted and Mr. Modi couldn’t
stand up for his dignity. Mr. Modi was insulted.

I was reading an article about a man who has been in jail for 50+ years. His
family forgot, the nation forgot. He has got a compensation of Rs. 3 lacs
from the Government, but 3 lacs for 50 years of injustice is like wiping
someone’s ass with a coarse 200 grit abrasive paper.

Last week, the Moaists had called a strike in Bihar and Jharkand, and went
about bombing railway stations, tracks and mobile towers. Their demand was
very simple: “Take our comrades to court”. It seems that the police were
holding and interrogating two Maoist leaders outside the law. The Maoists
wanted them to be produced in court and remanded to judicial or police
custody. Now who is with the law and who is against it? The police
eventually took these people to the court, and the strike ended soon after.

It is that simple as this. People who don’t get justice form their own
system of justice. First, the hard core people will be the one’s directly
affected. It will be a small group of 4-5 people, then they will administer
justice on their own terms, then people join in who are enchanted by the
whole quickness and fairness, and then comes the popular movement. Violence is inhuman, but so is injustice. Violence breaks lives, but injustice can rip apart the whole society.
Thousands and thousands of troops are present in the naxal ‘infested’ areas.
They shoot, kill or arrest any person who is deemed a threat to the country.
But a corrupt official or sarpanch or corporator is immune to such a buildup
of hostile opinion and action. Is a revenue official who takes bribes any
worse than a naxal?

The naxal fights to rid the country of corruption. He knows why he is doing
this, but he doesn’t know how else to do it. He is just using the age old
technique of overpowering the system, when people like us would like the
system to change from within.

Where is our country headed? Judges are protesting against calls to declare
their assets. If they are good and honest why must they object?

Where is our country headed? A sensible government, headed by Dr. Singh is
not able to or willing to pass a bill banning politicians with criminal
records from representing the people.

Where is our country headed? A country of such immense potential is closing
its eyes to corruption in the name of progress and economic reforms.

Where is our country headed? When we believe that force is the only solution
to all social evils.

Where is our country headed? The mechanisms that must be protecting the
people and their rights are destroying the lives of people.

The Singur story is a good case in point. There are places where people are
not able to raise a single stick of carrot throughput the year. Industry
doesn’t come up these places. Industry comes up in places where there are 3
paddy harvests a year, monsoon or no monsoon.

  1. The WB government acquires land from farmers, through whatever means.
  2. The WB government hands over this land at a throwaway price to the
  Tatas.
  3. Tata’s build a factory on the land and manufacture small cars
  4. The people who gave up the land can be employed in the factory.



It is little comfort to note that a farmer, his own master, an entrepreneur
in his own right has to wear trousers and shoes and go to work for the
Tatas. Would a small scale manufacturer of shoe laces ever go and work in a
factory, unless he fails in his business?

How safe is it to assume that a farmer will be employable in a car factory?
A farmer who is uneducated will be sweeping floors and wiping toilet seats
in the factory.

Whatever has happened to pride? What has happened to self respect? Where is
our national pledge of upholding a citizen’s dignity?

People are being pushed around a lot in the name of development. Whether
this is a sustainable mode of development, no one knows. Social scientists
believe we are on course for destruction and anarchy. We are witnessing
signs of it already.
 

Rich Justice - Poor Justice

22 skeletons of children found in a gutter in Nithari, near Noida. Killed, raped later, hacked to pieces, body parts possibly stolen, flushed down the shit hole.

This hasn’t been a bizarre high school shoot out. Not the madness of one insane hour, but the cold, calculative, cunning series of acts over the course of 2 long years. All this happened in one little village. One of the countless villages that fall prey to the encroaching Indian city. Where landowners sell off their land to hungry realtors and become domestic servants a decade later.

The accused, a sardar, a person educated in the best school and college in India, with an adult son. Living estranged from his family. Possibly a person of some intellect by the sort of books found in his house.

The accused co conspirator, a young man, working for the former for Rs. 1800 per month. Bonuses for delivering children to the master of the house. Himself the father of a 2 year old child.

The area has reported 50 people missing in 2 years. 45 children and 5 more young women. All cases were reported to the local police station. There was no criminal angle worked in the whole episode. The women were accused by the police of having eloped and the children to have run away somewhere. In a different country this would have become a legendary story, like the tracking of Buffalo Bill.

In India, the bureaucracy, the judiciary and the police are still heaped in a feudal system of working. The value of a crime, a law or an infringement is seen by the material value of the person in society, rather than the wrong that the crime has perpetrated in society’s midst.

Thus a drunk Salman Khan can run over sleeping pedestrians and still be at large. Thus a Sanjay Dutt can possess arms, be proven guilty and still Bollywood will start a signature campaign to let him off, shamelessly.

After 60 years of calling ourselves an independent nation, widespread campaign was necessary to get justice in a case as simple as the Jessica Lal murder case. Shot right in the middle of a restaurant, but the case wound on for a decade. The best criminal lawyer in the country appears for the accused. The case is won and is considered a milestone in India. Why? The rich villain was caught at last.

There was this poll going on in a private channel – “do you think justice in India is different for the rich and the poor?” – 99% of the responders felt the poor get a raw deal when it comes to simple social justice.

If we still lived in the jungles, if somebody was hurt, the accused would be killed in retaliation. Though this may sound hoary, but this is precisely justice. Undeveloped man, in his raw, native style used to get justice with his own hands. But in a developed civilization like ours, there are still the ugly beasts that kill, and there are the vultures than eat the carrion, and there are the maggots that clean up the remainder, and there is the herbivore who is as hapless as on the day he was born. Yes, that’s you and me.