HUM HINDUSTANI: THE UNPUNISHED CRIME

BY J SRI RAMAN (IDN) *

Is it not a travesty of justice that those responsible for the Babri Masjid demolition should go unpunished while Sanjay is sentenced to life-long suffering for what even the court considers only a “lapse”?

Much of India was glued to the television set on Tuesday (July 31, 2007) morning. No; the final day at Trent Bridge, where India was almost sure to win a Test against England after a long time of lacklustre cricket, was not going to be on before 3.30 pm. The evergreen films of Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan were only weekend evening entertainment. And no election results were coming out.

People all over the country were glued to TV to watch the live coverage of the last day of a special court’s verdict in the Mumbai serial blasts case. The feverish public excitement was over the fate of film star Sanjay Dutt, to be decided in the final phase of the judgement. Sanjay had earned a reprieve on November 29, 2006. Thirteen long years after the blasts, he was clearly acquitted of the charges of terrorism and terrorist conspiracy. He was convicted, however, of illegal possession of arms acquired from the underworld but the court accepted his plea that he had acquired the weapons for the protection of his family.

This column noted an outpouring of public sympathy for the matinee idol (The Sanjay Dutt Verdict, December 8, 2006). The dominant popular sentiment was that the famously naive Sanju Baba fully deserved the reprieve. He had suffered enough for his silly mistakes, every man and woman in the street told the media, and must be left to turn over a new leaf. Since then, sympathy has only grown along with his stature as an actor and much more. He had always enjoyed the image of a lovable toughie, but now he has acquired the aura of a toughie who could transform society. The ‘Munnabhai’ films have contributed to this makeover.

The real-life Sanjay, however, is no match to the reel-life Munnabhai. He still gets sympathy, yes, but not enough to save him this time.

The delivery of the day’s judgment, with millions following it avidly, was full of drama. First came the release on probation of one of Sanjay’s associates in the arms acquisition, aged and ailing Russi Mulla. There was a surge of all-round relief; this was seen as a happy signal for Sanjay. Judge PD Kode, however, suddenly adopted a sterner tone and came out with a series of statements in strong disapproval of Sanjay’s offence.

Despite the gloomy foreboding this induced, few were prepared for what followed: a sentence of six-years rigorous imprisonment for ‘accused number 117’. The reaction to this judgment is both predictable and unpredictable.

As media polls show, majority public opinion is in favour of some relief for Sanjay from the Supreme Court of India, where his lawyers are going in appeal. Responses from his film fraternity have been of two kinds. While some reactions here clearly show concern over the six million Indian rupees riding on him, others like the one from Boman Irani (Sanjay’s medical-bureaucrat antagonist in Munnabhai MMBS ) reveal the intensity of protective emotions he inspires in his colleagues.

Unpredicted, however, has been the approving response Kode has won, even from those sympathetic to Sanjay. He is seen as a judge who stuck to the letter of the law despite his sympathy for the actor. Kode has gone to considerable lengths to assure the public that his heart was in the right place even if his head made him pronounce a harsh verdict.

It is argued that the court and the country could not forget the blasts, claiming a large toll of lives. The court found that Sanjay, though not connected with the conspiracy was linked to the criminals behind it. It would have been a travesty of justice, say the supporters of the verdict, if the actor had been let off lightly while some others had been handed far harsher sentences for similar offences.

Some strikingly obvious questions, however, seem to have gone unasked. Could the country, if not the court, afford to forget, in this context, the communal crime that led to the blasts in the first place? Is it not a travesty of justice that those responsible for the Babri Masjid demolition should go unpunished while Sanjay is sentenced to life-long suffering for what even Kode’s court considers only a “lapse”?

As we noted in these columns before, the Mumbai explosions came in the wake of the Babri outrage and Sanjay acquired the offending arms in the intervening period of post-Babri panic (including the terrible riots that saw many killed in the city’s streets). It was an open secret that prominent members of the minority community and their families received dire threats in those days.

Just a day after the final Sanjay verdict has come the judgment in another case of serial blasts. Another special court has started the process of delivering the staggered verdict in the case of the blasts that shook Coimbatore, a textile city in the Southern state of Tamil Nadu, in 1998. Reports continue to recall that the blasts preceded a visit to the volatile city by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani. It is less often recalled, however, that the blasts followed the killings of 17 Muslim youths in riots.

On the first day of its verdict, to be continued next week, the court has notably acquitted the most prominent of the accused, Abdul Nasser Madani. Several well-known human rights activists, including former Chief Justice of India, V R Krishna Iyer, asked earlier for compassionate treatment of the disabled Madani. Predictably, the BJP has announced its plan to appeal against this part of the judgment in a higher court.

The debate over the verdict in this case too is a digression from the basic question. The BJP and its far right ‘parivar (family)’ used the Babri issue to break into South India, where it was once considered politically out of bounds. The communalisation of Coimbatore, once a Left bastion, and the carnage of 1998 were the logical outcome of a determinedly pursued line of divisive politics.

Advani may not have stored weapons in his house. He may not have removed a single brick from the Babri mosque with his own hands. But did not he and other BJP and ‘parivar’ luminaries lead a campaign of hatred against “Babur ki aulad (Babur’s off-springs)” as rabid demagogues in their ranks described the country’s largest minority? How about a harsh enough punishment for this crime against the country and its people?

* The writer is a journalist and a peace activist based in Chennai (formerly Madras), India. He is the Convener of the India-based Movement Against Nuclear Weapons (MANW), in Chennai, and of Journalists Against Nuclear Weapons (JANW). He is also a leading activist of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India. Sri Raman has written a sheaf of poems titled ‘At Gunpoint’. This article was first published in the Daily Times. E-Mail: sriraman_j@yahoo.com .