Man in power and Justice System - India

WARNING: I should warn you that being a rural background guy my English is not good (forget about perfect).

What truth the case of SPS Rathore and Ruchika Girhotra brought forth again, of which every Indian is aware of? That truth is if you are in power then you can get away with everything. You can commit any crime and be sure of that victim will not go against you. In case some fool want to press case against you then you can use your power to harass victims, witnesses, influence justice system which is so easy to influence to do anyway. This doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand this whole thing. Have a look at our judiciary system. This is all rotten. In fact at times it seems that judiciary system is more rotten then administration system. What all you need is a bundle of cash and some power connections. Victims will be frustrated in the lower court for years. So many times judges will not be available; so many times there will be some bar association strike on some shockingly fooling matter. Victim will go to court just to find that his case will not be heard today. What is the next date for hearing; he/she need to come at-least four times again to the court. Getting a date of hearing itself is so much tough. You need to grease palm for that otherwise you will get hearing date after 2-3 months and that’s too may be scheduled for more then 6 months away. And if case is of some sexual harassment then every time you to go to the court, curious eye follow you. They ask some questions. They have a smile in them.

Shall this all not hurt the victim’s self-respect? Shall this not douse off his/her determination to get the culprit booked? How many of us has courage to face such a scenario? That is the main reason people in India find suicide more appropriate instead of going to justice system to seek justice. Because they may not get justice at end but in turn they will be more humiliated by the justice system then the culprit. Every time they will see culprit smiling with message on his face that, “Dekhta hoo kya ukhad loge/logi”. (“Hey!!! Let see what you can do or get”).

Let us take the example of Ruchika’s case. See how much trouble they had to go through just to get the FIR registered? Once victim went to seek justice, they started the whole cycle to making them realized that they have disturbed the hive. They went through the hell. What whole system was doing? What happen till all these years? How come Rathode continue to be on such a high post? Just 9 years is the time what it took to get the FIR registered. What a great achievement for our beloved democracy! What women commission was doing? If this not to newspaper then this case would have committed suicide like Ruchika did. Rathore had power and influence. He used that to its fullest. He best utilized his position the way all the government office bearer’s does. He harassed the victim’s family, got victim’s father out of job, got her brother arrested, beaten.

That is the reality in India. Men in uniform are the biggest gundas. People fear more from police then actual gundas. That is correct any ware. If gundas creates trouble then there is police to rescue but if policemen itself is the source of problem then there is no place to go. Getting an FIR registered in normal cases is a big issue but in you want an FIR against a man in uniform then “Oh My God”, be ready for big and mostly futile battle. Yes there are some offices, committees where people supposedly can go for their grievance. But that is just for the sake of name. The bare truth is these people will not do anything but just notify the concerned culprit that,” Hey!!! What the hell you are doing. We got this complain you better take care of this”. The culprit will use all his tools he has at his disposal to harass victim to get them frustrated. Also he will pay his gratitude to the supposedly grievance office bearer by doing some sort of favor in term of money or something else. And that’s how grievance of both of them is finished. It is simple case of you watch my back and I will yours. A perfect example of what we call in India, “Ek he thaili ke chatte-batte”.

Now if victim has courage to go to judiciary then full justice system comes into the motion. They got perfect cows to milk. Full plethora of people will have eye filled with joy of having a cow to milk and some enjoyment. They will have moment of their enjoyment whenever victim will come to them and moment of milking whenever culprit will. They will milk culprit every time in some way to harass the victim further in form of delaying hearing date, public prosecutor’s un-availability to victim, talking to the victim in lewd manner. That is why in 99% cases victim’s well wishers will convince her to not to go ahead and level charges against culprit and bear the agony of utter disrespect and live with the trauma for whole life. As they are aware how system works. The rest 1% determined fool will go ahead with their misadventure and 50% of them lost their appetite for justice in between, 49% of them ended up either with dis-balanced mental state or suicide. Remaining 1% of that 1% determined fool may get some sort of un-explainable delayed and un-significant justice. This whole exercise ends up in “Le kya ukhad liya tune” (Hey!!! What you got) in the face of culprit while why the hell I started this instead of suicide expression on the face of victim. This is the true story behind almost every case where culprit is men in power.

Now assume if this can happen to a well educated family in the middle of India where everything is under some much scrutiny then what this so called our protector will do in the corners of India. How many will be victimized in name of naxal’s, separatist and how many naxal and separatist that will produce? In the hinterland areas a constable having some much power and an office bearer is like a king of his area.