Shooting Tales

These days, shooters and their tale(s) of woes are a hot news item. In that high pedestal of society, where our deities and icons are installed, this has created quite a stir. More specifically, this concerns two shooters – one ‘in’ and the other ‘out’. As I write this, Salman Khan gets ready to spend a long, hard day (and probably one of many) at the Jodhpur Central Jail. As this morning’s broadsheets tell us, the action hero ostensibly has Rs. 100 crore piggybacking on him at the moment (long live rich Bollywood!). And, he is sustaining the aspirations of the stakeholders (whose money it is) in his career with nothing but “jail ki dal-roti”. A pittance, considering that he was supposed to have roasted gazelles on his menu for dinner, eight years ago.

There must be something about Rajasthan that draws our man in question – this is the place a doomed romance as well as a dinner expedition occurred, all in the course of shooting ( no pun intended). But, that is besides the point. What comes to the mind (and yet again, for the nth time)- is the terrible inconsistency of our judiciary (the “court-kacheri” in common parlance) as well as the investigative system. Never mind the fact that a period of eight years lapsed between the incident and the verdict on the case (things were moving according to Indian Standard Time after all !). Never mind the fact that our legal guardians have completely forgotten the fact that justice delayed is justice denied. But can this be a “reality” – Salman Khan is not above the law but Manu Sharma is? The latter “shot” (sic) his way to police and court records in the year following the chinkara and blackbuck incident. At no point of time do I wish to discriminate between the chinkara and Jessica Lal cases. Then again, one question surely can’t be evaded – if there is nothing wrong in showing concern for an endangered animal, then why can’t it be the same for a human life? At least, this might just be what Lal’s family are thinking now.

Both the cases took almost the same period of time to show some result. But, why were these outcomes so different? Murder is murder – be it of an animal or human, whether it is committed by a Nawab or Chhote Nawab. Then, what motivates our legal guardians to discount a crime so easily? Is “lack of evidence” a mere cover for denying the value of human lives? (a transparent cover nonetheless) Or, is it merely some stroke of luck that has caused Salman Khan to go to jail and Manu Sharma to walk out of it? In this age, where “human security” is as (or perhaps more) important as national security , the irony is too much. It is the failure to secure a fellow citizen’s life, standing out like a deep wound in the body we call society. Perhaps, it is prudent to read the small print – “human security” comes with strings attached. But, if the wound spreads so rapidly, it shall become an incurable cancer. No use blaming the doctor (known as the state) for negligence – for every finger of blame pointed at “them”, three point at you. Heal it yourself and be a little bit wise.

P. S : After another 24 hours, the verdict on the Bandra Bakery hit-and-run case,involving dear Salman again, is to be out. One more test for the value of an individual life!