The Judicial System’s Poster Child

From some weird reason, our judicial system has decided that Ajmal Kasab is the poster child to show that our system “works”. How? By prolonging his trial endlessly.

Imagine that: there’s the CC TV evidence from 26/11 that shows that he was killing people randomly. He is not even an Indian citizen. More than 160 people slaughtered by this animal and his friends and our system needs 3 years (and counting) to decide whether or not this is a “rarest of rare” crime that deserves the death penalty. And then it’ll go to our President’s desk who will let it lie unresponded to for years on end.

Bravo! Yes, we are all convinced by how (and for how long) Kasab’s case has been handled that the system “works”.

Could our system not find better candidates to show that it works? Like speeding up Kalmadi or Raja’s trials? Like not allowing Yeduyarappa to go around hospital hopping? Apparently not. Taking 3 years brooding over Kasab with the possibility of commuting or overturning his sentence: yes, that’s what inspires so much confidence and admiration in most Indians.

Or are we trying to impress the rest of the world (aka the West) with this trial? I guess the judges don’t read the papers or surf the Net. Last time I checked, the US assassinates people it knows to be terrorists with drones. And in Yemen, the US even killed an American citizen (terrorist) deliberately with drones. So is it Europe they are trying to impress then? C’mon, no matter how this trial is done, the Europeans will call us the bad guys for just having the death penalty. You can’t win them over…ever. So why waste time and money?

Put an end to this travesty and kill the s.o.b. And save our tax money that is used to keep this pious believer alive.

Comments

  1. KumarOctober 22, 2011 at 9:36 PM

    India's legal procedures are no doubt frustrating. I always wondered whether justice has any place in law. I am still wondering!

    All over the world, people would like to create laws to ensure justice; and when laws come alive, become aware of laws taking priority over justice. This is a fact of life. In that sense, we can understand India cannot have a real justice system with our laws. That's OK.

    But the aspiration everywhere is that if around 70 to 90 per cent justice can be there through law, we may come to terms with the remaining 30 to 10 per cent can be issues for debate - whether law is able to perform its needed task and loopholes cannot be plugged etc. In the last 10 percent of the cases, in my opinion, injustice is guaranteed. We are human, so we can't push beyond this I think. Injustice is part of our lives. Let it be, what can we do?

    What I am really unhappy is that, in our country we are doing worse than the 70 to 90 per cent justice possibility. We are so trapped in the legal tangle that we seem to be happy to delay justice, in effect, deny justice. I am not sure if 50 per cent justice is a tall order here!

    All our legal experts will throw clever arguments against my view and they will also declare "Who is this person who is not even a graduate of law to talk about law?" They are mighty and many of us who raise pertinent questions are weak.

    No improvement is possible in the years to come too. This attitude is hopeless and negative no doubt, but we have to face the Truth, not gloss over pretenses. The only hope is this: Wholesome generations have to pass out before our conviction on our inability to transform - a deep rooted evil - (gets not eradicated but) gets forgotten!

    This I can tell: Let our authorities mumble excuses for now. But in the end, if the fanatic, terrorist and ruthless killer Ajmal Kasab goes unpunished, despite all the clear evidence against him, then, we all will know that we are failed nation who do not care for values, justice and life. And, we would be writing on every wall that we are cowards too.

    Don't know yet if this horror will come true. I can only pray, "God, save us from our own justice system as much as saving us from the terrorists."

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