This post is going to be in direct contrast to my other post abt "Why we aren't proud to be Indian?".
First on my hit-list : Ram Jethmalani.
One of India's most respected senior advocates. He has recently taken up the case of Manu Sharma, who is the (alleged) prime suspect in the Jessica Lal murder case. I am not condemning that. He is a criminal lawyer and is just doing his job. As an individual, Manu Sharma is entitled to the best legal representation he can get and is justified in asking for justice even though he is in fact guilty. And just because you,me and majority of Indians think Manu Sharma is guilty is of no consequence because we do not represent the judicial system of this country.
What I am condemning is the tactics used by the defense team. You cannot go about slandering a person's reputation especially one who is no more there to defend herself or her morality. Being a Page 3 person does not translate to being a person with loose morals. What exactly is the defense team's argument? That Jessica Lall is a "bad" person and hence deserved to get shot? That Manu Sharma did a service to society by ridding it of an "evil influence"?
I am questioning the morals of Ram Jethmalani. Does being a criminal lawyer entail that you sacrifice every shred of conscientious behaviour, every modicum of morality and every last drop of humanity at the altar of justice? Does being a criminal lawyer allow you to slander a dead girl's reputation? Does it allow you to justify that a man has the right to kill a girl who has (apparently) insulted his masculinity?
What is justice then? Does it even have meaning? If all it takes to walk away scot-free from cold-blooded murder is being able to afford the legal fees of Ram Jethmalani. He was yelling on national television indulging in what can flatteringly be described as buffoonery. He accused the media of "tampering" with the course of justice. When the truth is that, if not for the widespread media coverage of the case, Manu Sharma would be just another statistic in the growing list of influential people walking away from all sorts of heinous crimes.
Next on my hit list - the murderers of Manjunath.
I was not aware of this till they recently celebrated Manjunath's first death anniversary.
My aforementioned post was all about fighting corruption by refusing to join the vicious circle. Now I realise that the advice could well get you murdered.
Work ethic is all doing the job you have been asked to do to the best possible extent without any external factor (bribes) influencing your working ability. All Manjunath was doing was following his work ethic. There was a another case prior to this involving an IIT graduate called Satyender Dube who was murdered in connection to corruption involved with the national highway project.
The upside is that none of us are going to start encouraging corruption because of these incidents. In fact, it will just make us more determined to fight back. The downside is that we still have miles to go. If hitherto-unheard-of Lakhimpur is so diseased with corruption that it resulted in the murder of an honest official, just think of how many thousands of unheard Lakhimpur's are reeling under the same scrouge? Where do we start from then? How do we go about ridding this country of corruption?
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