Theatre of the Absurd - contd. ... ... ...
When I started writing a series of posts about Anna Hazare's Lok Pal bill & fight against corruption, I knew fully well that it will, in due course, become a combination of a tragedy, a farce, a theatre of the absurd, a tower of Babel, a Pandora's box, an Animal farm, all rolled into one.
Subsequent events have been proving reasonably prophetic.
Latest happenings and my interpretations:
- Govt Arrests Hazare & hundreds of other persons. Why? No clear answers.
- Govt gets 7 days judicial custody of Anna Hazare. Anna sent to Tihar. Apparently, some kind of legal process must have been followed. Enough lawyers on both sides to ensure that. Hopefully.
- Govt decides to release Anna Hazare with certain conditions. Is this decision based on a due legal process? No clarity on this one. Wonder when and where they found the judges to approve this virtually impromptu decision. If they have got the due approvals, was the original decision so legally and morally untenable that they decided to get that overturned in a few hours? If they have not got the necessary approvals in place, does it not amount to contempt of court?
- Anna Hazare refuses to get out of jail. If he really wants a "Good" Lok Pal bill, he would have promptly placed a single simple condition - to let bygones be bygones and restart the dialogue process, treating his arrest and subsequent release as a proper face-saving device for both sides. Apparently, his motives become questionable. What's worse is that the Government's motives appear to be absent!
Some additional questions about the hundreds of others who were arrested. Let's assume that 1572 persons were actually arrested, for the purpose of convenience. Let's further make the following assumptions:
- Other than, say, the top 60 individuals, the rest of the group (numbering 1512 persons) would have probably been genuine "Aam Aadmi" - ordinary people from ordinary walks of life. Doctors, Lawyers, Students, Software professionals, Teachers, Electricians, Plumbers, Drivers, etc. Perhaps some 50 persons out of this large group would further be opportunistic anti-social elements in one way or the other.
- In addition to the 1572 persons, let's further say that the Delhi police also arrested another 128 persons during the day for a variety of other genuine crimes, suspicion, etc., adding up to a total of 1700 arrests for the day.
The following queries merit attention:
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Out of the 1572 "Team Anna" persons, the top 60 would have certainly been accounted for - either released or still in jail, accompanying Anna. Out of the balance 1512 persons, most of them would actually be virtually faceless people, known only to their immediate family and friends. What assurance do we have that they have actually been either released by the end of the day or otherwise accounted for? To be even more direct, what assurance do we have that 30-40 of these ordinary 1512 persons have not actually been slapped with other long-pending criminal cases of theft, eve-teasing, rape, colluding with terrorists, drug-peddling, etc.? It is entirely possible that the cops, with all their negative reputation of being corrupt, are capable of yielding to temptation to close long-pending cases with these individuals. Who is going to come to the rescue of these poor individuals? It is likely to be quite a long haul before these "bechara victims" escape from the Loooooooooong arm of the law and get back to normal life.
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Out of the other 128 genuine suspects / criminals who were brought into jails today, how many have been able to escape from the clutches of law and get out along with the hundreds of Anna Hazare supporters by the end of the day due to a combination of bribery, political connections, etc.? What happens to the wasted efforts of the hard-working genuine cops who did a lot of investigation prior to the arrest of those individuals?
Fact is that both the above scenarios, while reasonably (and hopefully) improbable, are very much within the realm of possibility. In fact, we ought to be worried about these two categories of people much more than the "top 60" supporters of Team Anna.
For instance, if someone like, say, Arvind Kejriwal suffers so much as a minor scratch on his forehead while falling down accidentally within the jail campus, it will certainly be duly noted, taken care of, and attended to. If at all anything strongly positive or negative happens to him, it will be the result of conscious planning and execution of the plan by the appropriate authorities, and Team Anna will be fully conscious of this possibility, and hence would be prepared for the same. Unfortunately, in all such instances, if at all anyone actually suffers, it is the Aam Aadmi or the proverbial Common Man.
Watch this space for more!
Regards,
N
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