It is said that the scam largest in terms of magnitude is
unknown and still to happen. Why ? You can’t put limit to the human greed. Don’t
forget this gospel truth. In the recent past we heard about 2 G Spectrum scam,
the largest ever in the Indian economy which suggests that Indian economy is
growing by leaps and bounds. No problem. Then we had the CWG scam which showed
that it is just ‘a sport’ for people in power to indulge in corruption. People
out of power, media, public interest litigants and RTI activists, who should now
be recognised as ‘the Fifth Estate’ in the Indian democracy, act as ‘the
whistle-blowers’ for the people. Having heard about the magnitude and
high-profile persons involved in scams, our ears flood with spicy news and
piquant rumours of premature investigation results by various agencies right
from JPC, CAG, CBI to local police in an effort to bring the perpetrators of
scams to the justice. With the passage of time we all forget about those scams,
because we get instantly engrossed in fresh scams.
Be that as may be. Once I was deliberating these issues with
my friend Herambha Shastri a genius in his own right. As everyone does, he
condemned the corruption. However, he was more critical about bringing the
perpetrators of scams to justice. Why ? According to him the process of justice
was a mockery of justice itself. To prove his point of view he told me a very
interesting story.
Once upon a time, there was a gang of forty thieves headed by
Alibaba. All those forty thieves were loyal to Alibaba and to each other. Their
honesty and integrity was impeccable. It is said that people in the underworld
always operate and interact in ‘good faith’, since they have no written laws.
They would burgle houses indiscriminately at the wee hours, whatever they would
rob, would be contributed to the common kitty with Alibaba. Thereafter, Alibaba
would do its distribution according to the risk taken by each thief in burglary
operations. This practice went on for years together. They could not be
apprehended by the soldiers of the King.
One night Alibaba decided to target Radhanagari, the capital
city of the kingdom. They burgled a house and looted jewellery and valuable
articles. One of the thieves snatched a gold necklace from the lady of the
house. The lady shouted loudly. Some thieves overheard her shouting in the
commotion. In the hustle and bustle the thief’s mask slipped and he was face to
face with the lady. She saw his face clearly. The thief gave her an angry look.
Quickly the thief covered his face with mask and disappeared in the darkness of
the night, of course, with the gold necklace.
After this successful burglary the thieves returned to their
den. The next day the chief, Alibaba asked all the thieves to surrender the
booty on the table. The thief who had snatched the gold necklace decided not to
give the necklace. So he put few currency notes he had stolen on the table, but
not the necklace.
As Alibaba was observing the loot somebody whispered, what
about the gold necklace ? The whisper echoed in the den. Yes, somebody stole the
necklace, but it’s not being seen on the table. What happened to it ? The thief
who stole it also whispered the same doubt. Very cunning move indeed ! No one
could doubt him. Alibaba raised his voice, “Silence, silence, what’s the
matter ?” Dead silence fell in the den.
The cunning thief moved forward and declared, “Sardar, we
know somebody stole a gold necklace, but has not surrendered it”.
“Who is that traitor ?” Alibaba roared. Everyone was
squinting at each other with the million-dollar question in mind “Are you the
traitor ?” No one yielded. How to figure out the culprit ?
Alibaba was in deep thought. He hit on a very simple
solution. He ordered the cunning thief, as luck would have it, to revisit the
house they burgled the previous night and bring the lady to identify the
culprit.
The cunning thief after a couple of nights revisited the
house and kidnapped the lady and fled into the forest. Midway he halted his
horse, dismounted with the lady and removed his mask. The lady recognised him
immediately; he was the thief who had snatched her gold necklace. The lady was
scared and trembling. The thief said “I know, you saw me that night. You will be
asked to identify, who stole your gold necklace, but you will not identify me.
If you do identify me I warn you — I will slaughter your young son. Don’t even
glance at me when we reach the den”.
The lady was in utter confusion. It was a nightmare for her.
Still she gathered courage and asked the thief, “If your sardar threatens my
life if I fail to tell the truth, then what should I do ?”
The cunning thief thought over for a while and said, “In that
case you tell him that you could not see the face of the thief as it was covered
with the mask. We all cover our faces with masks during burglary. So you don’t
need to tell the truth and then I will not kill your son. But if you tell the
truth, Alibaba will not return the gold necklace, but you will lose your son. So
better not tell the truth. Is that clear to you ?”
Herambha Shastri stopped his narrative here. Looking at me curiously he said,
“I don’t need to tell the end of the story. But, think for yourself, who is
doing the justice in the story, think of what is being justified, think how the
culprit controls the process of justice, how the witness is being treated, and
how truth is sabotaged. That is why I say the whole process of justice itself is
a mockery of justice in the present scenario.”
