By Soumit Saha:
Ever wondered at why our judicial machinery leaks and squeaks when it comes to nabbing the powerful, politician, celebrity or anyone with power, but is rather efficient at making lives miserable almost anyone who’s a commoner with an ounce of accusatory evidence.
This thought must be prevalent in many a concerned minds, so why not voice it. The youth today needs to know this. It’s been more than 5 months that news is still revolving around Kalmadi’s arrest or his actual arrest. For all we care, if he was guilty or even accused, why not an instant arrest? I might be uninformed about how the red tape works when arresting any individual, but somehow Aarushi Talwar’s servant was already on the manhunt list seconds after her murder was reported, but alas! He was found dead a day later. What I want to point out is that if an accusation was enough to arrest a servant, our law enforcers seem to have taken a sabbatical when it’s time for biggies like Kalmadi. And if that wasn’t enough, their parents have been in and out of the CBI’s questioning cells for time immemorial but with no consequence.
Sadly though, our dear leaders Raja or Kalmadi haven’t even toured the CBI gardens up till recently. Sure it’s happened, but if that late, what’s the use? Why is the definition of prompt action come with a delivery date of months? BJP came out lashing that the reaction against Raja was “too little, too late”. I agree (though I don’t stand by BJP wholly), Kalamdi was given ample time to make the documents disappear much before his house was raided and what did the raids find — Nothing! If you give me that much time I could stash away millions by just burying it underground, and in his case they were just documents.
Back in 2001, Police was “fast to act” against Arif Jafar of Naz Foundation in stating that he has been arrested for “promoting homosexuality”; someone’s short-sightedness and prudish straight-laced thought could have only fuelled this act. Even if we set aside the whole intention behind a crime, an accusation against a person causing the exchequer an amount worth a GDP of a small country still wasn’t enough to even knock his doors asking for arrest.
After stating the above instances, I find myself stifled by the law machinery’s hypocritical ways. Why is this happening? Indians? Politicians? Uninformed citizens? British Raj? Where does our narrow-minded rigid, inflexible thinking arise from? No morals, no support for fellow folks and a law that’s fragile as an egg and equally easy to crack and defy.