I am almost 60 years old and I have lived through the times when many supposedly creative ways were mooted to deal with the fact that the criminal justice system in India does not work properly.
For example there was the example of the (then) Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray exhorting Hindus in general and Maharashtrians in particular to be militant. I also remember reading in the newspapers (some 30 years ago) that in the Naxalite infested areas villagers were given arms and told to defend themselves if the Maoists attacked them. This second case is a clear instance of the Government abdicating its responsibility to serve as protection against internal criminals and external enemies.
I have had dealings with the police (when I registered a criminal complaint against one person) and in my interaction with them I got the impression that ordinary citizens were encouraged to act not only as policemen but also as judge, jury and executioner when they see a crime being committed.
I myself have suffered as a result personally. When I was young I unknowingly and recklessly broke the law on multiple occasions. None of these were heinous crimes and I was never a professional criminal. But some persons who were taking an unfriendly interest in me took upon themselves to punish me for the same. There was I think a good deal of politics involved in my being victimised but I do not want to say too much on that subject.
I have already written on this subject in an earlier blog:
What I want to add in this article are the following points:
- The first point is that a democracy functions by means of checks and balances on people in power. For example a police officer has to explain his actions to the appropriate authority if he is caught misusing his power. There was no such oversight on the actions of people who victimised me.
- Secondly the police personnel receive training and for that reason are competent to do their job. The vigilantes who were victimizing me had no such training.
- Next the vigilantes were themselves breaking the law on multiple occasions. How they justified their actions to themselves, I don’t know, but the point I am making is that there need to be more checks and balances on people in power than on others. I have mentioned this point in my earlier blog linked to above.
- Also the vigilantes were unethical and lacked a sense of honour. This is I think the main reason why Bal Thackeray’s exhortation to be militant is flawed. If the average person chooses to fight he will not fight fair, he will not fight honourably. He will fight dirty. And then there will be no end of trouble. We can see this being played out in instances of communal violence in the country.
- Lastly as an India citizen I have fundamental laws that are guaranteed to me by the Constitution. If I have broken the law then I have broken the law but I will not be judged by the likes of any vigilante group. I have the right to be tried by a duly constituted court of law, I have the right to be told the charges against me and I have the right to speak in my own defence. All these rights were denied to me.
It is difficult for me to believe sometimes that all this really happened to me. But it really did. And society not only tolerated but cooperated with the vigilantes in their victimization of me.
I tell myself that India is known to be a land of brutal injustice (just think how we have treated the Dalits for centuries) and there are any number of social evils here. What happened in my life was just an example of a social evil.
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