1984
Willful Blindness & Crimes Of Omission
T. SHER SINGH
DAILY FIX
May 26, 2012
Contrary to widespread belief, India has laws and its constitution is based on the concept of the rule of law.
And these laws are good laws, not stuff cut-and-pasted by the Lallu Prashads and Anna Hazares and Narendra Modis of the country. The laws of their land are based on the same principles as those that govern, for example, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Canada today.
It is the Common Law system, left behind by the British in 1947.
This morning’s newspapers confirm that those laws are still around in India.
The Indian Express, which describes itself as “Journalism of Courage” on its masthead, reports the story of a man who had been accused of murdering four members of his family, was tried and acquitted.
However, for a variety of reasons, the investigation into the case was re-opened several years later by a new Deputy Inspector General of Police (“DIG”) who, as a result of their findings, took the extraordinary step yesterday (Friday, May 25, 2012) of laying criminal charges against the investigating officer who was initially on the case - and who had gone on to retire as Deputy Superintendent of Police ("DSP").
Why the police officer?
Because of his “defective and dishonest investigation” that led to the acquittal of the accused
“We are now doing further homework to challenge the verdict of the Court of the Patiala Additional Session Judge” which originally let the murderer off the hook, assures the DIG.
So, there are laws in India and they do work.
If and when they want them to work, that is!
Those same laws were there in 1984 and they have been there throughout.
A fundamental pillar of this system of law which governs India is that laws cannot be applied arbitrarily, or their application withheld arbitrarily.
If they are, then it results in lawlessness and it becomes a nation of outlaws. Just because some laws are applied some of the time doesn’t make it right - it in fact underscores the fact that the rule of law has been abandoned.
From my perspective, the crimes of those in the murdering mobs in 1984, or of the political goondas (e,g., Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler, current President Pratibha Patil) leading them or egging them on, or of the national ‘leaders’ (including Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister) who gave all of them a nod and a wink and then looked away, all those crimes are unequivocally heinous … let there be no doubt about it.
But in my books as well as the law books, the crimes - of wilful blindness and of omission - committed by the police and the military that stood by as spectators, abandoning their duty, are no less serious by even the smallest degree. [Not to put too fine a point on it, the legal definition of 'wilful blindness' includes wilful deafness and wilful dumbness!]
And the higher you go up the ladder - starting with the constable on the street, and going all the way to the senior most police officers in the hierarchy, the bureaucrats, the ministers, etc., etc. - the higher you go, the greater the culpability.
And then, when it comes to the judges of the land and the members of the Fourth Estate - the media! - who sold their souls then and continue to do so now, 28 years later, I hold them as being culpable to the highest degree.
With all the gory facts that the government and the investigation agencies and the courts and the media have, finally, publicly acknowledged about 1984, how many police officers (to name but one category) from that era have been charged - for “defective and dishonest investigation”?
Most of them are around, newly-promoted to even higher positions, and are known to all.
The story this morning from the Indian Express (Journalism of Courage!) proves one thing beyond all reasonable doubt - that, but for a few, isolated but brave souls, India is a nation of cowards.
You don’t have to take my word.
Go judge for yourself.