When we were young - oh, how long ago! - we were told that 'crime doesn’t pay'. The long arm catches up with outlaws sooner or later, and none can escape punishment.
There were complaints about delayed (hence denied) justice, the rich and powerful having an advantage over the poor in the courts but there was general agreement that this state of affairs was the result of colonial rule and as India matured as an independent democracy, all citizens would be equal in the eyes of law.
This belief, at present badly shaken, is what sustained the rule of law ensuring that the majesty of law was not imperilled.
The recent events have forced us to rethink some basic propositions about crimes and punishment in India. What were once described as heinous crimes—rapes and murders—have become endemic and are being treated as if these are 'petty' incidents.
In many cases, the police (in blatant violation of law) refuse to register an FIR and if the accused (as in most cases) is an individual active in partisan politics, the investigation is derailed to make conviction almost impossible. This is not with reference to any particular political party in power or in opposition.
The politicians wield an impregnable shield—they can claim charges against them are fabricated, a political vendetta. The law of bail appears to work in their favour all the time. Even when convicted, most of the term of sentence is spent in private wards of hospitals or officer’s messes and bungalows notified as jails. So, we have gotten used to the distinction between ‘common criminals’ and VVIPs who have fallen foul of the Law of the Land.
One also can’t fail to notice the spate in type of crimes that are keeping the police and other investigating agencies busy nowadays. Almost all the arrests are made on the basis of information exclusively available to the police that the accused 'was conspiring to indulge in sedition, terrorist attack or jeopardise the security and independence of the nation'.
It’s ironical that the Supreme Court that had once opined that the archaic Laws of Sedition have no place in a modern republic hasn’t struck down either these or, even more draconian laws such as NSA and UAPA.
The apex court, when it chooses, thunders that Freedom of Expression is an important Fundamental Right—the life breath of Democracy—but then doesn’t take long to tell us that like every other right it is not an unfettered right. The catch here is that the Constitution does provide for ‘reasonable restrictions’ on rights but who decides what is ‘reasonable’? All hinges on the context.
If the courts decide that it’s the Executive who knows best when dissent has to be silenced in larger public good, then what hope remains for the citizen who may have been arbitrarily arrested, denied bail and incarcerated for months and years? Acquittal and release can’t compensate for lost years.
Once again it needs to be emphatically underlined that the long list of ‘victims’ includes names from both sides arrayed in battlefield. It can be a pugnacious saffron clad sadhvi suffering from cancer who alleges torture by her captors or an 83-year-old infirm Jesuit priest, suspected of being a Maoist, being dragged for custodial interrogation; the visuals are deeply distressing.
The police in Uttar Pradesh have disgraced themselves enough but that is not the only force that should be singled out. The police in the Congress or other non-NDA/BJP-ruled states have fared no better.
Everywhere there seems to be a competition among the cops to please their political masters. The Supreme Court had once observed that the CBI was like a ‘caged parrot’. No one has yet found words to evoke a suitable image of the NIA.
A hawk with sharp claws and beak with wings spread wide trained well to hunt at master’s command? The time line taught in law schools has been drastically changed. FIR isn’t essential, suspicion is enough to accuse and arrest, investigation can take long and of course, its details can’t be shared in the interest of justice though, the friendly media can be unleashed to go on rampage with a parallel media trial of its own.
Worst is that bail denied results in punishment effectively preceding the charge-sheet being filed! Judgement becomes irrelevant. The victims and accused are increasingly identified as belonging to a particular caste, religion or sect.
Factual reporting of violent crimes or police using force to maintain law and order carries the risk of exacerbating an already explosive situation. When a Sikh is pushed down and his turban comes off in Kolkata, it becomes a 'global' concern arousing the wrath of Sikhs - hurting the sentiments of the community. While the cops in West Bengal should be reprimanded for high-handedness and use of disproportionate force to control crowd of protestors, no religious or sectarian tinge should be allowed to creep in.
(The author is a former professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and can be contacted at pushpeshpant@gmail.com)