Readers' Forum
“Orthodox victory”
The judgment in the Goolrookh Gupta case has come, creating euphoria in certain camps, dejection and despondency in another, while many could not care less.
In his article "Orthodox victory” (Parsiana, April 7, 2012), Berjis Desai, the modern day Jamaspi predicts that there is no hope even in the Supreme Court. Parsiana has donned a surgeon’s gown and done a postmortem on the judgment.
However, emerging as the heroine is none other than Gupta who stood up and faced all consequences. "To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men,” said US President Abraham Lincoln.
Going by Press reports, the judgment defies logic and common sense. The learned judges have sought proof that Gupta professes the Zoroastrian religion and has not converted to Hinduism. How can she prove this if she is debarred from entering the place of worship? Should she summon priests to her house when she is performing her kusti prayers, or when she is praying from the Khordeh Avesta?
To my mind the only way out is for her to call over some priests, invite the learned judges, take a nahn with taro and have her navjote performed again in their presence. She should then swear an affidavit that although she was a born and practicing Zoroastrian, because of this convoluted judgment demanding evidence, she is going through the entire process again. And even if she has been dubbed a Hindu because of her marriage, like the Christian Wadias she has now converted to the Zoroastrian religion. If Wadia can enter a fire temple or Doongerwadi, she too can.
In his article "Orthodox victory” (Parsiana, April 7, 2012), Berjis Desai, the modern day Jamaspi predicts that there is no hope even in the Supreme Court. Parsiana has donned a surgeon’s gown and done a postmortem on the judgment.
However, emerging as the heroine is none other than Gupta who stood up and faced all consequences. "To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men,” said US President Abraham Lincoln.
Going by Press reports, the judgment defies logic and common sense. The learned judges have sought proof that Gupta professes the Zoroastrian religion and has not converted to Hinduism. How can she prove this if she is debarred from entering the place of worship? Should she summon priests to her house when she is performing her kusti prayers, or when she is praying from the Khordeh Avesta?
To my mind the only way out is for her to call over some priests, invite the learned judges, take a nahn with taro and have her navjote performed again in their presence. She should then swear an affidavit that although she was a born and practicing Zoroastrian, because of this convoluted judgment demanding evidence, she is going through the entire process again. And even if she has been dubbed a Hindu because of her marriage, like the Christian Wadias she has now converted to the Zoroastrian religion. If Wadia can enter a fire temple or Doongerwadi, she too can.
Goolrookh Gupta: burden of proof
Regarding the judiciary, it is a different matter altogether. Vadvao kéhta tha, "Korut maa jé jeetélo té haarélo. Né haarélo té maarélo.” (Our elders used to say, "Those who went to court and have won have actually lost, and those who have lost are finished.”)
According to Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary, a litigant has been defined as "a person about to give up his skin in the hope of retaining his bones,” and litigation as "a machine which you go into as a pig and come out as a sausage.” Bierce defined justice as "a commodity which, in more or less adulterated condition, the state sells to the citizen as a reward for his allegiance,” and defines a lawyer as "one skilled in circumvention of the law.”
Having been a victim, I endorse the above view.
BEHRAM AGA
behram_r_aga@yahoo.co.in
behram_r_aga@yahoo.co.in
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