A couple of days ago the Indian news channels went almost berserk when Amar Singh, an erstwhile Samajwadi Party leader was sent to jail.Amar Singh is a well-known figure in the Indian politics and people thought that he was so well connected that no one would dare send him to jail, no matter what he might have done.But this was proved as false and the magistrate Ms. Dhingra ordered that he be sent to the judicial custody, disregarding his plea for leniency on the ground that he was sick having undergone a surgery and a kidney transplant operation.
Of late, we are witnessing a strange phenomenon--instead of granting bail being a norm , denying it is becoming a norm. Nobody has the answer to the question :what happens if ultimately the person is acquitted? Who and what can compensate for his lack of freedom ? Perhaps ,we the people are not enough sensitive towards freedom. We do not value it enough . Amar Singh had been fully co-operating with the investigating agencies. He is a well-known person and is not likely to run away from the law and the police. He is genuinely sick and is living on borrowed kidneys.Why is it then necessary to keep him in custody?
Not only Amar Singh, there are many other well-known people who have been kept behind the bars for months together denying them bail which should have been given to them in normal circumstances because their alleged crime is not in the category of most heinous crimes.They have not been accused of having committed a murder; they have also not been accused of rape or of treason.They have been accused of having caused presumptive loss of thousands of crores of rupees to the Indian exchequer and in the process having feathered their nest or having caused unintended benefit to some of the corporate houses in which they had monetary interest.These are crimes indeed but these crimes are not such as to entail denial of bail.Then what is the reason? I think there are two important reasons---the gravity of their crimes has been blown out of proportion by the media-both print and electronic.And they are comparatively well-to- do people. In India, the spectacle of seeing the rich behind the bars is so rare that when an opportunity as such presents it self, media are far too eager to overplay it and people, who are the consumers of the media, are more than willing to lap it.That feeling of schadenfreude becomes more intense and consequently more satisfying when the misfortune strikes those who are rich and powerful.
But all this leaves a big question before us: are our destinies to be decided by the media? After all, it should have been media's pressure, direct or perceived, that may have prevented the judges and magistrates from granting bail in these cases. Can we therefore expect any justice in such circumstances? The answer is an emphatic NO.Most of the Indians, at least those who are capable of thinking for themselves, know it for certain that there is no such thing as justice in this world and it is only a ruse used conveniently by the rulers of all countries to befool the public. We should all ponder for a minute and ask ourselves: whether human progress, over the millennia has only meant media becoming a tool of power in place of a piece of stone--perhaps the earliest tool used by man to exert power.
Of late, we are witnessing a strange phenomenon--instead of granting bail being a norm , denying it is becoming a norm. Nobody has the answer to the question :what happens if ultimately the person is acquitted? Who and what can compensate for his lack of freedom ? Perhaps ,we the people are not enough sensitive towards freedom. We do not value it enough . Amar Singh had been fully co-operating with the investigating agencies. He is a well-known person and is not likely to run away from the law and the police. He is genuinely sick and is living on borrowed kidneys.Why is it then necessary to keep him in custody?
Not only Amar Singh, there are many other well-known people who have been kept behind the bars for months together denying them bail which should have been given to them in normal circumstances because their alleged crime is not in the category of most heinous crimes.They have not been accused of having committed a murder; they have also not been accused of rape or of treason.They have been accused of having caused presumptive loss of thousands of crores of rupees to the Indian exchequer and in the process having feathered their nest or having caused unintended benefit to some of the corporate houses in which they had monetary interest.These are crimes indeed but these crimes are not such as to entail denial of bail.Then what is the reason? I think there are two important reasons---the gravity of their crimes has been blown out of proportion by the media-both print and electronic.And they are comparatively well-to- do people. In India, the spectacle of seeing the rich behind the bars is so rare that when an opportunity as such presents it self, media are far too eager to overplay it and people, who are the consumers of the media, are more than willing to lap it.That feeling of schadenfreude becomes more intense and consequently more satisfying when the misfortune strikes those who are rich and powerful.
But all this leaves a big question before us: are our destinies to be decided by the media? After all, it should have been media's pressure, direct or perceived, that may have prevented the judges and magistrates from granting bail in these cases. Can we therefore expect any justice in such circumstances? The answer is an emphatic NO.Most of the Indians, at least those who are capable of thinking for themselves, know it for certain that there is no such thing as justice in this world and it is only a ruse used conveniently by the rulers of all countries to befool the public. We should all ponder for a minute and ask ourselves: whether human progress, over the millennia has only meant media becoming a tool of power in place of a piece of stone--perhaps the earliest tool used by man to exert power.
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