JUSTICE AND THE COMMON MAN

History is a fitting testimony to the fact that “Justice”, if anything, is evanescent. And ceaseless vigilance is the price of ensuring that the sand of justice does not escape from our clenched fist. The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not as dangerous as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy. Judge Sturgess once quipped that Justice is open to everyone in the same way as the Ritz Hotel. This petite but profound observation holds the key to unlock and understand the abysmal state of affairs that we have arrived at.

Justice is not a stream which flows only from the courts. The Courts of Justice have been functioning as arbiters of disputes, although on many occasions the courts have been compelled to pick up the cudgels on behalf of the common man. But Justice is the golden thread that permeates each and every institution and lends functionality to our Democracy. To have Justice is to have equality, where men and women from different backgrounds and ethos can co-exist without any feeling of pre-eminence or inadequacy, justice is to feel protected and to be promoted by the State, justice is to be entitled to and realise a decent shelter and nourishment, justice is to ensure that crimes are prevented and criminals are convicted without fear or favour, Justice is to be entitled to be judged by the content of ones character than by the accident of ones birth.

Can we claim with conviction that we, as a nation, have been able to build a just society? A short glimpse of our stark surrounding is enough to provide an answer. Beggars, cutting across age and sex, don the streets, traffic signals, railway stations and markets of our cities. Beggary is undoubtedly a crime, but so is not rehabilitating these beggars. What compelling reason prevents the law enforcement agencies from picking these beggars from the streets and rehabilitating them? Will the Cost of rehabilitation be more than the amount we are spending on the “Common-Wealth” Games? Are these impoverished young and old and destitute sex workers not a part of India? Or do we choose to ignore their plight with insensitive and cold impunity pretending that they were never a part of this country and that the lofty ideals of our great constitution were never meant for them?

Fissiparous tendencies have culminated into a demon-like phenomenon called ‘Naxalism’. What began in Naxalbari, is threatening to crush the backbone of our Nation to pieces leaving the common man stranded in the cross-fire. Where policies fail, operations emerge. The tribals loose their lands, their livelihoods, their homes, their property, their loved ones, their cattle, their resources, their patience and finally their life. Where, when, how and who do they look upon as their saviors; a sluggish, insensitive, inefficient and a weak government, which has lost the faith of these tribals. Or do they turn to these men with arms, who notwithstanding their misguided and visibly violent approach, atleast provide them with a means to vent their anger. The highway blockade in Manipur may have been cleared after the Prime Minister of India threatened the use of CPRF Jawans against the protestors, but the compelling causes which caused the blockade in the first place are far from being resolved. Is it not the right of the protestors to be given a proper hearing followed by concrete action?

Corruption in public administration is the biggest malady of the common man today. An ailing man failing to find a hospital bed because he could not bribe his way to it, a backward caste person failing to get a caste certificate because he could not bribe the issuing authority, a beneficiary of farmer credit facility, a widow asking for pension, a victim of a mass catastrophe asking for the government announced compensation package, a senior citizen wanting a Senior citizen card and all failing because they couldn’t grease the palms of a morally degraded and despicable administration. This has shamefully come to be a way of life for the common man. If you are caught traveling without a ticket, pay a bribe to the ticket collector; if you want to evade income-tax, pay a bribe to the assessing officer; if you want to evade stamp duty, pay a bribe to the stamp officer; if you want to get a slum development project bribe the Slum Development Authority; if you want to win a government tender, bribe the concerned minister or the beaurocrat, bribe to get a college seat, a job, a loan, a cricket match ticket, a government plot of land, or just about anything. All these are undoubtedly grave human right violations and yet they all pass off with practical impunity from any sort of corrective or punitive action. We have the largest number of public servants but the lowest and the poorest quantum of public service.

The Parliament is hit by obstructions in the conduct of its affairs on almost every single day of business leading to a huge loss to the exchequer. In Maharashtra, when some legislators exhibited unparliamentary conduct, the House had placed a suspension on some of them, but, the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly recently decided to revoke their suspensions. Sometime back in Bihar, the law makers made a mockery of the democratic process by resorting to hooliganism, physical scuffle with each other and by audaciously exhibiting violent demonstrations (is it not ironical that such violent demonstrations by our politicians, on the pettiest of provocation, are justified as ‘freedom of expression’ or ‘parliamentary privilege’, whereas resort to violence by tribals in response of years and years of abuse, deprivation and much more acute provocation is termed ‘naxalism’ and invites a combat operation). What happens in such houses only reflects the mood of the State or Country that they represent. Who are these people accountable to? Who will compensate the common man for the economic loss occasioned due to such irresponsible and callous behaviour? Where are the serious and committed discussions on issues of governance? What happens to the oath of office all these legislators so proudly take before resuming office? Does it not appear that these representatives have no fear of public wrath or the wrath of common man whatsoever?

Every Institution today smells of political interference. Whistleblowers are killed ruthlessly and the government machinery watches on helplessly and sometimes conformingly because it serves the purpose of our corrupt administration. We bow before the Khap Panchayats who are even going to the extent of eulogizing ‘Honour Killings’, and the government acts a mute spectator only to ensure that they don’t loose a handful of votes at the general elections. We appease fundamentalist groups spreading a vicious and anti national propaganda, wrongly believing that in doing so, we are respecting religious sentiments and furthermore earning political mileage, we encourage criminals in our political set-up who in turn promise political parties of a continuous flow of funds and votes, we tailor make business policies to suit business lobby that supports the party in power. The day is not too far when all these Frankensteins shall trample upon the very masters who nurture them, as has happened with many nations of the world.

Media, for good or for bad, has become the only source of ensuring some kind of accountability and an instrument which is available to a Common Man in his pursuit of Justice, where investigations are shoddy and politically motivated. Cases of suppression of evidence and manipulation of witnesses have polluted the Justice dispensation system. We have too many laws and too little justice. Ruchika Girhotra, Priyadarshani Matto, Jessica Lal, Nitish Katara could finally realise justice due to the sustained efforts by their parents, siblings and friends backed by the Media which succeeded in creating a public outcry over the spate of these trails. The result of such trials sans the efforts put in by their close and loved ones is unimaginable. Travesty of Justice is not infrequent in our Country where inflation rate sometimes overtakes conviction rates. The large number of pending disputes before various courts and tribunals and much larger number of cases being investigated only makes matters worse. With charges of corruption not sparring even the Judges, the faith of the common man in the institution of Judiciary has suffered a beating.

When we speak of Justice to Common man, we have to address one concern that has been playing spoil sport every time we talk of equitable justice, the Rural-Urban disconnect. Our farmers, masons, potters, craftsmen, blacksmiths, have always been at the right end of our policies but at the wrong end of our markets. Is it not unjust to keep them from benefiting from competitive prices? No policy which is wisely conceived and honestly implemented can ever fail. For example beginning in October 2000, ITC Limited, a large buyer of soybeans, decided to implement a unique e-choupal intervention in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The intervention had two dimensions; internet kiosks were set up in villages that enabled farmers to access daily wholesale prices of soybean, both in the local mandis as well as the price offered by ITC (a processor of soybeans). In addition, warehouses (called hubs) were established that enabled scientific testing of quality and facilitated the sale of soybean by the farmers directly to the private company. After comparing the price in nearby mandis and the price offered by ITC at the hubs, farmers can decide where to sell their produce, thereby providing farmers with both an outside option as well as relevant price information. Furthermore, ITC is able to judge the quality of soybean that it purchases directly from the farmers at different prices. By the end of 2004, in districts that had ITC hubs and kiosks, 4.08 percent of the annual soy production was sold directly to ITC, making the intervention sustainable because it is profitable for the private company to implement it, and profitable for the farmers to use it. It would be worth more if the government had invested the money spent on waiving farmer loans, towards improving farming infrastructure, rain water harvesting, irrigation, electricity, roads and information centers for the farmers.

Our Constitutional commitment to Justice to common man is worth a mention. The preamble leads with a proclamation that the State shall secure to all its citizens, Justice- social, economic and political and Equality of status and of opportunity. Article 23 prohibits traffic in human beings and forced labour. Article 24 prohibits children below the age of fourteen years from being employed to work in any factory or mine or in any other hazardous employment. The whole chapter on Directive Principles of State Policy (which, though not enforceable in a court of law, are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country) contains exemplary guiding principles, with respect to equitable distribution of wealth, equality of pay cutting across the sexes, common ownership of material resources, free legal aid, promotion of interests of the weaker and marginalized sections of the Society, etc. Many legislations which have been derived from the fundamental rights and directive principles of state policy have a potential to bring far reaching changes but effective execution remains the biggest hurdle in realization of the full impact of these legislations.

As a Provisional Chairman of the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Sachidananda Sinha, in his inaugural address, echoed the words of Joseph Story about the American Constitution. He said emphatically that, “the structure (constitution) has been erected by architects of consummate skill and fidelity; its foundations are solid, its compartments are beautiful, as well as useful; its arrangements are full of wisdom and order; its defenses are impregnable from without. The structure has been erected for immortality, if the work of men may justly aspire for such a title. It may, nevertheless, perish in an hour by the folly, or corruption, or negligence of its only keepers- THE PEOPLE. Republics are created by the wit and intelligence of its citizens; they die when the wise are banished from public councils because they dare to be honest and the profligate are rewarded because they flatter people in order to betray them.”

The reason why we still lack behind is because we have not been able to achieve inclusive growth. We still have a large part of our population, both in towns and villages, which are still marginalized to a great extent. It is indeed injustice to keep them from reaping the benefits of our economic liberalization and our high GDP growth figures. It is indeed injustice when a child is made to work endless hours in hazardous occupations rather than to receive education inspite of having passed the Right to Education Act. It is injustice that a huge part of our national food crop is wasted and rots in the ill maintained godowns and not reach millions of malnourished on the streets, it is injustice that we do not feel sufficiently protected and secure from any sort of internal or external violence.

Dr. Rajendra Prasad was the President of the Constituent Assembly, and in the concluding session, he uttered these words, which are filled to the brim with vision and statesmanship. He said, “Whatever the Constitution may or may not provide, the welfare of the country will depend upon the men who administer it”.

Martin Luther King Junior echoed these pregnant words in his address at Lincoln Memorial on 28 August 1963, and these words still typify the spirit of common man in India who is craving for Justice, for a Just living, “In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a Cheque. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad Cheque, a Cheque which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this Cheque, a Cheque that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”

We, the people of India, the common people of India, await the fulfillment of a promise that we made to each and every Indian when we gave unto ourselves the Constitution of India. So, let us build a new structure on those who have gone before have left behind. As T.S. Eliot said, “Of all that was done in the past, you eat the fruit, either rotten or ripe . . . Much to cast down, much to build, much to restore; Let the work not delay, time and arm not waste; Let the clay be dug from the pit, let the saw cut the stone, Let the fire not be quenched in the forge.” The price is not as painful as the pain of regret.