Partying In The Time Of Parole : Mockery Of Democracy

Monday, November 30, 2009

Partying In The Time Of Parole : Mockery Of Democracy

As the Delhi Government looks for a last moment damage control exercise to shelter itself from the court stricture and public displeasure and the Police and Government authorities are involved in a blame game to pass in the buck for granting parole to Manu Sharma, convicted for murdering Model Jessica Lall in Tamarind Bar in 1999, the collective loss of value, morale and ethics of the nation as a whole stands exposed. It uncovers the moral failure of the public servants and the public , of the jurisprudence and the justice seekers, of the government and the citizens with the same multitude. When one goes through the whole gamut of incidents ranging from the murder of Jessica Lal to partying of the murder convict during his parole and the extraneous grounds on which the parole was granted at supersonic speed , three major things hit our sensibilities the hardest.

Firstly, even though blind folded statues in our court rooms signify non-discrimination and impartiality while imparting justice, the reality is completely different. In actuality, law, it’s keepers the cousre of justice itself are different for people of different strata of the society. Otherwise, how does one explain the fact that when the normal time taken by the Delhi Govt. was more than 6 months for granting or refusing parole to an ordinary prisoners, in case of Manu Sharma , son of an influential politician of Haryana, the whole thing was expedited and processed within twenty days. According to a government official, out of the 132 applications received till September 15, only 11 were granted parole, 33 were rejected and 88 were kept on hold. This small population of 11 prisoners incidentally includes Manu Sharma and Vikash Yadav , two powerful persons in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh Politics respectively. Sharma, who is serving a life sentence for murdering Jessica at Tamarind Court, a Delhi restaurant, in 1999, was let out on a 30-day parole earlier on September 22 which was later extended to sixty days. Parole is generally granted to prisoners in order to give them a feel of the normal life outside the jail , to reunite them with the outside world with a view to reform them, or in situations of extreme personal exigency. In this case, however, all these purposes were defeated. During the parole period left Chandigarh, Sharma was spotted partying at the LAP Lounge Bar on November 7, in violation of his parole norms, which prescribed him to be in Chandigarh, thus showing no signs of reform. The three reasons cited for parole were either too flimsy or unacceptable. The first one was to attend a religious ceremony in memory of his late grandmother. This was not a sound ground for parole, as his grand mother had died more than a year ago . There may be many other prisoners out there in the jail one of whose relations might have died more than a year back. Can they be considered for a parole on the same ground ? The second reason for asking parole was to visit his ailing mother, who was so sick that she was addressing a press conference in their family hotel in Chandigarh on the occasion of Under 19 sports tournament for women . The third was to attend to his business. It was found out that his business was not suffering any loss owing to the lack of his presence. But even if business would have been actually suffering, could it have been a valid ground for granting of parole, because , in that case all the convicts should be let out on parole to look after their , business , money matters and real estate. It is therefore clear that parole was granted to Sharma on inappropriate considerations and the genuineness of the grounds were never verified or scrutinised properly. According to top Police Officials of Delhi, they had not recommended Manu Sharma’s Parole. But it seems the Delhi government took special interest in the matter, sought a second report from the Chandigarh police and cleared the process for an undeserving convict, whereas many deserving cases are either rejected or kept pending for months together. Not only was it granted at lightning speed , it was further extended by another month during which period he was spotted at Delhi Night Club LAP . So it is only the powerful people with influential connections having long strings to pull whenever required and who can get away with any wrong doing can make the law come to their rescue at their time of need. The very assumption that they are immune from the long hands of law makes them murder some one for refusing to serve them alcohol after the bar is closed. This is exactly what must have transpired in the minds of Manu Sharma or Vikas Yadav before Jessica Lall or Nitish Katara were killed. Despite Government and Police attempt to intimidate and harass the witnesses and allow the convict to roam freely in the society, due to wide public outrage and large media coverage, the killer of Jessica Lall was finally convicted and put into life imprisonment in 2006. But history repeats itself in the form of an undue grant of parole (on same grounds which were rejected last year) and again a public outrage forces the govt. to look for cover and the convict returns to the jail before the parole tenure or partying time ends. Also the brazenness and complacency with which Manu Sharma was partying during the parole or his mother addressing press after supposedly being sick speaks volumes of the way these people take the law for granted.
Secondly, what strikes one’s sensibility is the fact that why do we wait till nov. 7 to raise our voices whereas the parole was granted on 22nd September ? Why did every one wake up only after he was found partying at a Bar in Delhi and not before it. The Delhi police say it was alerted to Sharma's presence at the club after a fight broke out in the area. Otherwise, he would have been misusing the parole tenure and continued to be partying in the night clubs till his extended parole period ended. He is quite a known personality and many would have known about his parole and the lame grounds even before 7th of November. But instead of complaining against him , people were boozing with him. We do not have any qualms about ostracizing a leprosy patient or an AIDS patient who have not done any thing more wrong than contracting some viruses or bacteria. But people revel in the company of these rich and famous criminals and even try to be in their good books who are the most virulent specimen in the society . More often than not , the ‘powerful’ tag neutralizes all other evils in a person. According to Arjun Rampal, owner of the club, LAP, where Manu Sharma was seen on 7th night, Sharma was allowed into LAP only because he was with a member of the club. But should not the clubs use their discretion and prohibit such people from entering the club who are on a parole to attend their sick mothers. The acceptance level of evil in the society is a cause of real concern . We may or may not be corrupt, but giving social respect to corrupt people is like promoting dishonesty and legalisising corruption. Hence citizens of this country who give respect to persons committing such heinous crimes because of their power , money , connection and influence are equally to be blamed as the government which bends rules for such personalities.

Thirdly, even though there was a collective outrage by the media and the public , our politicians either are silent on the issue or feign ignorance.Is it because an influential politician’s son is involved ? The politician father has left no stone unturned to influence the law in favour of his son . But still he turns out to become peoples' representative . Why is it that our politicians , whether rule makers or the opposition do not think twice before making a mountain out of a mole hill when a political mileage is to be achieved but the same people look side ways when such gain seem to be in sight. As the voters of this country , we are to take a part of the blame for electing such politicians as our representatives.

Therefore this whole issue and many similar issues are not only ( even though majorly )because of bad governance , but every individual concerned is responsible in some way or other. Till the collective ethos of the country does not change for better, there would be no stopping of the spoilt brats of powerful fathers from taking the lives of innocent victims without even batting an eyelid....

Democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, between its heroic possibilities and its sorry achievements : Agnes Repplier