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Here are my belated comments on DNB's
article. I read the article again. On superficial reading, his article
seems confusing and his views seem not very clear. However, one could clearly get the main point he
was trying to make. As such, I decided not to go into too much details of
his writings and arguments, point by point, but rather to focus on
the basic points.
From his writings such as
:"....at least not in Assam" ... "...the days of law-abiding citizens would
seem to be over....", It is
clear that he was trying to make the case, that In Assam at least there is no
'rule of the law' being practiced.
This
probably many would agree from different postings in the net. Let us agree
therefore that instead of Rule of Law, the Rule of Jungle is
prevailing in Assam, and that "...the days of
law-abiding citizens would seem to be over...."
The part which I have trouble in
agreeing with DNB is his analysis why this is happening. He
sates:
"...The judiciary is
clearly to blame for no major politician ever being convicted or punished for
his crime since Independence...."
This is short sighted view and not
the whole truth. Then:-
"...Lets us not forget
that bribery and other corrupt practices were inherited by our rulers from the
Moguls as well as the British..."
This I flatly disagree.
However, if I donot agree with his
analysis of the causes of this Jungle Rule in Assam, I seem to agree with
his suggested solution. He sates:
"...in these 57 years
since Independence they (the law abiding people) have done nothing at all to
assert themselves or even to assert the supremacy of the law. Have we ever
encountered a situation where even a hundred law-abiding citizens have written
angry letters to protest a crime by a lawmaker?..."
"... And if even a hundred people write to say
that they are disappointed with the Judiciary for having failed to convict such
a criminal, can the magistrate or the judge concerned fail to act? Can he ignore
the force of public grievance that the hundred letters represent? Certainly
not...."
The above I fully agree and
Here he not only states that it the fault of the Law abiding people, but
he also have shown clearly what is the strength of the law abiding people when
they unite. As such I fully agree with his suggested solution which
follows. In fact this is an issue I was making in the net.
"...But what can the law-abiding citizens
do?..."
"...The solution is not only to abide
by the law but also to use the law as a lever to prevail over the lawless ones
in the end and not to permit the system itself to wink at the law at any time.
For this, one needs endless reserves of perseverance and courage and the
help and support of like-minded souls at all times. Collective
action is crucial, considering that good people have always failed because of
their inability to unite;! whereas the main strength of the evil ones is that
they always manage to remain united. This week and the next, I propose
to indicate how this crusade must be undertaken (since nothing less than a
crusade will do now); but before that it is important to discuss why and how the
number of people who attempt to bypass the law has increased by leaps and
bounds...."
"...The
public campaign must go on in full swing until the magistrate or judge begins to
respect this public opinion and to ensure a proper trial..."
Basically, DNB is putting the blame on the
apathy of the people, specially of the Law abiding people on the state of
affairs in Assam. His prescription for solution is very clear: The Law
abiding people must unite and act.
This is a age-old question. There are
always many good people in society but hardly they ever unite and act to
resist evil. In this country also we face the same question, Why the Democrats
divide and the Republicans unite. etc.
This truth was also perceived by great
leaders like Gandhi who made a very important remark in this respect from
his lifetime experience in public
welfare:
"Mere Goodness is not enough. Goodness
must combined with conviction and action..." (my paraphrase from
memory).
Good news is that DNB seems to realize the
seriousness of the problem in Assam when he states:
"....Ten more years
of inaction from law-abiding citizens, ten more years of cowardice, and they
will dispossess all law-abiding citizens from their hearths and homes and banish
the law for good. How this will be don! e is what I want to talk about next
week..."
Let us wait and see what DNB wants to
write more on the subject.
Rajen Barua
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 10:09
PM
Subject: [Assam] Is Law Important to
Law-abiding Citizens?
O"Mahanta,
Amaar Bezboruah saaror bor khong uthise. Pise eitu khong okol kagozote ne
xosa? Moi Cotton College -ot thakwte pise dhoribo nwarisiliw ketiya Bezboruah
saaror khong uthisile?
Abois-se (this is a hard one to write in transliterated Assamese, the
word is "However") Cotton College-or English department-ot mwr xodaiye bhoi
aasile je mor maamak khobor dibo.
So what do you think? Is it for real?
O'Deka
===================================================================
The meek shall be
homeless -I
WITH EYES WIDE
OPEN
D. N. Bezboruah
The biblical aphorism
"The meek shall inherit the earth" is no longer valid - at least not in Assam.
Here the meek are seen not as being more civilized or law-abiding, but rather
as the weak ones of the species, since it is the lawless ones who rule. In a
land where lawmakers and the rulers of the day prefer lawbreakers to
law-abiding souls, in a dispensation where the ability to break laws with
impunity is a coveted status symbol, the days of law-abiding citizens would
seem to be over, were it not a trifle difficult to banish laws altogether and
yet approach the electors for votes. After all, even lawless election
candidates want some protection from even more lawless souls with more muscle
than themselves. That is when being able to invoke the law and to file
election petitions (if not anything else) makes the law a handy tool. But
otherwise, the ! attempt is always to break the law and to take advantage of
the �hapless� citizen who quotes the law at every step. As such, the solution
to the current predicament is not to throw the law to the winds and join the
band of rulers who have no need of the law (but must pretend that they do),
since the greatest irony of it all is that they are called lawmakers. The
solution is not only to abide
by the law but also to use the law as a lever to prevail over the lawless ones
in the end and not to permit the system itself to wink at the law at any time.
For this, one needs endless reserves of perseverance and courage and the help
and support of like-minded souls at all times. Collective action is crucial,
considering that good people have always failed because of their inability to
unite;! whereas the main strength of the evil ones is that they always manage
to remain united. This week and the next, I propose to indicate how this
crusade must be undertaken (since nothing less than a crusade will do now);
but before that it is important to discuss why and how the number of people
who attempt to bypass the law has increased by leaps and bounds.
Perhaps the main reason why
law-abiding people are looked down upon today is that the number of
law-breaking �lawmakers� has greatly increased over the past three decades.
They constitute the support base for people who do not have the law on their
side, but have all the money to compensate for the fact that their cases are
backed neither by merit nor by the law. After all, the whole business of
corruption started because people who were not entitled to certain benefits
started hankering for them, and at one point in the short history of
independent India too there were people among the rulers who bent the law or
subverted merit to promote the undeserving ones for a price. Lets us not
forget that bribery and other corrupt practices were inherited by our rulers
from the Moguls as well as the British. Gandhian norms were too Spartan and
bland for that section of rulers who were waiting for their opportunity
to make the kind of ! money from corrupt practices that could not be made from
mere salaries. And pretending that the wrong and the unlawful is right and the
law is an ass is the kind of rationalization that lawless people must
undertake as a kind of psychological defence of their indefensible actions
because the law still exists in some form or the other to hold our society
together. An extension of this aberration of the system is that chief
ministers, ministers and others in the corridors of power never get convicted
or punished by our judicial system no matter how serious or anti-people their
crime may be. (Remember, that any corrupt action that loots the exchequer is a
crime against the people because the exchequer belongs to the people and the
money embezzled or looted from it is public money. Since there can be no
nation without an exchequer, any loot of the exchequer is an anti-national or
treasonable act. And let no quibbling politician try to argue that this is not
so.) A further extension o! f this aberration is that not only the lawmaker
but also his family and progeny imagine themselves to be above the law. The
judiciary is clearly to blame for no major politician ever being convicted or
punished for his crime since Independence. The conviction rate of even the
apex investigation agency of the country, the CBI, is a measly eight per cent.
Where is all this winking at the law leading India to? To the ignominy of
being one of the most corrupt and violence-prone countries in the world
(because so many people take the law in their own hands). Is that where we
want to be (with our much-vaunted 3,500-year-old civilization)? Things can
only get worse if we decide to continue with our familiar ways.
But what can the law-abiding
citizens do? That the question should arise is hardly surprising. After all,
in these 57 years since Independence they have done nothing at all to assert
themselves or even to assert the supremacy of the law. Have we ever
encountered a situation where even a hundred law-abiding citizens have written
angry letters to protest a crime by a lawmaker? But is there any newspaper in
the world that dare ignore a hundred letters from different people on the same
issue? And if even a hundred people write to say that they are disappointed
with the Judiciary for having failed to convict such a criminal, can the
magistrate or the judge concerned fail to act? Can he ignore the force of
public grievance that the hundred letters represent? Certainly not. And none
of the hundred people who wrote the letters of protest in newspapers can be
held guilty of having committed contempt of court. They did not accuse any
judge or magistrate of being biased or partial or even motivated. They merely
expressed their grievance at the Judiciary failing to take on a politician
with criminal charges against him.
Thus the first step is to make sure that there is
adequate evidence of the accused politician having committed the crime he is
charged of. Quite often the public perception may be at variance with what the
public prosecutor may have against the politician. This does not matter. We
have seen over the decades how keen most public prosecutors are to let
politicians go scot-free for lack of evidence. The public campaign must go on
in full swing until the magistrate or judge begins to respect this public
opinion and to ensure a proper trial. The alternative to this is to go on as
we have done for over half-a-century and do nothing. The criminal elements of
our society who cannot make a living with their skills or education want
nothing better. Ten more years of inaction from law-abiding citizens, ten more
years of cowardice, and they will dispossess all law-abiding citizens from
their hearths and homes and banish the law for good. How this will be don! e
is what I want to talk about next week. But let us not forget that long before
this happens we can say goodbye to any form of civilized living where there is
even a semblance of securityfor anyone.
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