Pseudo-Democracy - The Jessica Lal Case

The Jessica Lal case - the same old story; a crime is committed in a bar in New Delhi in front of lots of witnesses, but when the case comes to court all the witnesses turn hostile. If you have been following Indian news for a while, this should not have surprised you. The Bofors trial, Laloo's Fodder Scam, the Tehelka Case, the Babri masjid trial, the Godhra incident - the list is endless. Incidents like these, time and again, remind us that we Indians live in the biggest pseudo-democratic nation, where the word 'democracy' merely finds its place in the Constitution of India.

Democracy cannot be implanted in a society just like a heart transplant or a kidney transplant - stinging examples are Afghanistan and Iraq. It is a conscious state of mind, where people are free to express their opinions without fear. It is a belief like religion and a feeling like love. Only when we are emancipated from the shackles of religion, province, social stature we would be free to express our thoughts fearlessly and then and only then we would be free to govern ourselves, other wise we would be dominated or governed only by people with power and money.

It's funny to read the response evoked by readers of the Jessica Lal trial on CNN-IBN, where a person alleges that the police and Judge accepted bribes,

"Definitely, the Delhi police must have taken heavy bribe and quite possibe that the judge too must have taken bribe in this case!"

What would the Police and the Judge do if the Witnesses don't appear in the court? The accused were acquitted only for want of a witness. Even the witness cannot be blamed because they are pressured by people in powerful positions. Awkwardly it's we, who gave the power to these people. Also there is no solid law to save the Witnesses or the Whistle blowers in this country. Quite often people who are entrusted with guarding the law turn predator upon the victims.

Another reader suggested a trial in the fundamentalist style,

"Trial like Mid-East. I mean, display the criminal (Manu Sharma here) in a four lane busy meeting place, and people should throw stones and hot water at him for the crime he has committed that he would never even think of showing his gun to anyone else!!"

If a person is punished in front of the others, do you honestly think that people would never dare to commit the same crime? If that was the case then there would not be any criminal in today's world.

Here's a funny one:

"I pray to the GOD to give us freedom and justice from this sleeping authorities and corrupt politics."

What would poor God do, come and provide the never-ending Saree of 'justice' like the one given to Draupadi? God helps those who helps themselves, it is as simple as that. Sadly, it is not the authorities who are sleeping, it's we, the people who are sleeping even after fifty years of Independence.

If we were never oriented to favour our caste, religion, province and favoured a person based only on his abilities to deliver the best for the country, we would not have such dogmatic people to govern us. Until then we will have to live with these scandals, scams and prejudices.