JUST, FAIR & RESPONSIBLE India, Before Digital or Cashless India ?

“Who will return the 12 years of my life?” - Hussain Fazili

Do you know Hussain Fazili, it’s ok if you don’t, I don’t expect that you know him. I will take the opportunity to tell you about him. Hussain was arrested in 2005 and released in 2017. He was arrested in connection to Delhi Bomb Blasts of 2005 and it took the court 12 years to pronounce that he wasn’t guilty. In all that time Hussain lost 12 prime productive years of of his life along with getting 3rd degrees and tortures, the health of his parents deteriorated seriously.

The question is, What took the court 12 years to declare an innocent person as ‘Not guilty’? When the police arrested Hussain did they have substantial evidence to suspect and arrest him?. If a man was arrested for 12 years and then acquitted later, isn’t it a big question mark on our laws as well as the competence of our law makers? Shouldn’t the government or law keepers compensate him - questions to think about and to act upon as well.

Have you ever visited the district administrative offices and judicial complexes? I hope you never need to visit them.  But, everyday thousands of people visit these offices taking matters from civil petitions to revenue records to criminal with the hope that the “SAAB” will sit in the office and will pronounce an order to their matter. There is an element of helplessness on the faces of people when they visit the administration or judiciary complex, some even grow old but the visits continue but our dear officers don't get empathetic to understand that the person visiting them left a day’s a work and invested time to come and report  their problem with hope that the public servant whose salary is funded by taxes, will perform his job. But all what people get is summarized in a Hindi Film dialogue:

“Tareekh pe tareekh, tareekh pe tareekh, tareekh pe tareekh milti gayi My Lord, Per insaaf nahi mila” - Sunny Deol (Damini)

Our officers when they are young live in the utopia, of clearing UPSC and are busy glorifying them to the visitors, and when they rise up the ranks they don’t have time to sit in office and clear files. The system has been made in such a manner that there is no decentralization of authority and hence files pertaining to even routine matters awaits clearance from officers before getting processed. The situation is similar in the judiciary where sometimes the judge is not available, sometimes the lawyers strike out, then vacations(the long saga of government holidays) come in and the matters keep piling on and people keep visiting court complexes for years until any decision is made. The result is that we have cases where decisions take decades to come, you read it right “it takes decades to get legal resolution”.  This is why I fear approaching the law because I know there will be no respite. All this wait and watch thing is only for the common man, the recent news after demonetization about IT notices to thousands of people who deposited few lakhs more in their accounts left in flabbergasted; in a country where people like Vijay Mallya, Suresh Kalmadi, A. Raja are living a lavish life after pocketing large sums of public money, the income tax and government are after the few lakhs of the common man - is it because he is a soft target?

 The picture summarizes how it all works

For all those who call themselves a nationalist and care for the nation, I highly recommend them to visit the judicial and administrative office of their town/city. Not only just visit but help people maneuver their way through the offices and get justice or receive the needed service from the concerned government office. Beating people on streets or threatening them or tweeting about stuff won’t make you a patriot other than making you a criminal or a hypocrite. "You will have to take constructive action to be a nationalist just like the freedom fighters". The recent incident at Delhi University where we saw people getting beaten up and it was captured on camera as well, why didn’t the police take action against the guilty? A girl was trolled on social media and threatened for standing up to attrocities? Were the trollers or people who threatened her being brave?. It takes guts to stand up against the world but cowardice to troll and threaten.

“Does the administrative and judicial machinery need an overhaul ?” - I leave you with this question which is rhetorical in every sense from where I see it.

 Picture Credits: http://www.bmartin.cc/dissent/documents/Schweik_cbe/cbeback.jpeg