Editorial Viewpoint
“The wall is strong”
Tihar Jail is formidable. Like most of Delhi, it is a sprawling complex comprising nine jails with over 11,500 inmates. But it is not depressing. Irish writer Oscar Wilde in his epic poem detailing life in prison, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol” describes jail as "a cave of black despair.” But the color of the structures one saw at Tihar were brighter, cream colored, including the mulaqat jangla where one converses with "high risk” inmates through sealed windows by means of microphones and headphones.
Still after a visit one is left with a sense of weariness, tedium and melancholia. A one-and-a-half-hour wait in the open on a chair or bench on a summer afternoon before one can meet the so-called "high risk” prisoners reminded one of the monotony of confinement. While no reading material, electronic gadgets, writing paper or pen was permitted to be carried by visitors, the knowledge that after a couple of hours one could walk out of the complex a free person, kept one going. There was a Jamshedi Navroz function one looked forward to attending hosted by the Delhi Parsi Anjuman. The inmates, however, would return to their cells.
Though prisoners may avail of several facilities and activities to pass their time, their confinement can stretch into years, decades and even life. One of the jail’s most high profile under-trials, Kobad Ghandy, keeps himself occupied with yoga, reading and writing, aside from the daily chores of washing, cleaning, etc. He is cheerful, happy to meet a kindred soul. The 30-minute conversation is animated. He is hopeful that the charge leveled against him of membership of a banned organization will not result in a conviction and even if any charge is upheld, the five years he has already served in prison will cover any imprisonment meted out by the courts.
But with 44 cases stacked against him in many parts of the country, the wait could be a long one. Ghandy was the ideologue for the Maoists and while he may not have advocated or participated in any acts of violence, his membership in a group that has indulged in numerous massacres, gives him a taint. Many civil libertarians who espouse human rights causes, have either shied away from assisting Ghandy or looked the other way. The community by and large has turned its back on him.
Whatever the merits of the charges against him, to hold a person in prison without bail or a trial is to commit an injustice. If one is guilty let the person be found so and punished adequately. If innocent, let the person go. If there is a delay in deciding guilt, grant bail. Ghandy espoused the Maoist cause, he articulated and disseminated their philosophy, he sought justice for the downtrodden. No case has been made out to one’s knowledge that Ghandy encouraged or engaged in acts of violence.
While comparisons are odious one cannot help but be struck by the incongruity in the application of the law. Bal Thackeray egged his followers to break the law and his nephew Raj Thackery continues to do the same. People are attacked, even killed because they belong to another state or speak a different language or uphold the law, but neither of them has faced meaningful confinement.
The prominent Congress politicians who orchestrated the slaughter of over 3,000 Sikhs in Delhi following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi never languished in prison and on the contrary occupied high political office. Bharatiya Janata Party’s L. K. Advani led a rath yatra that resulted in the death of hundreds of people and his advocacy for the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Uttar Pradesh resulted in the death of thousands. He went on to become the deputy prime minister of India. And Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi who was either complicit or implicit in the massacre of over 1,000 Muslims in Godhra is now aspiring to be — and may even become — the next prime minister of India.
National Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar exhorts his followers to vote twice as the election dates in two districts are on different days. Be sure to wipe the indelible ink from your fingers, he advises them. It is now alleged he made the remarks in jest but there was no smile on his face when he offered the criminal counsel. He too aspires for prime ministership but his party’s chances of procuring even a few seats in parliament are uncertain.
And the Congress party after vowing to root out corruption has named for the Lok Sabha elelctions former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan whose name is linked to the Adarsh building scam in Bombay. The Central Bureau of Investigation has requested the Bombay High Court to delete his name from the inquiry.
In his weekly column in The Sunday Express Lord Meghnad Desai, a member of the British House of Lords observed that during the selection of candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in India "every political party has inducted the corrupt.”
The irony in the application of the law, and the very law itself, was not lost on Wilde (he was convicted for being a homosexual which today over 115 years later in India is still a crime). He observed, "I know not whether laws be right/Or whether laws be wrong/All that we know who lie in gaol/Is that the wall is strong/And that each day is like a year/A year whose days are long.”
If individuals who should be brought to book are not if those who should be behind bars roam free, it does not follow the law should condone all acts of criminality. But the least civil society should guarantee to those charged with committing crimes and imprisoned, is bail and/or a speedy trial. If the well connected can defy the law with impunity, at least let those ensnared in its entrails avail of some justice.
Still after a visit one is left with a sense of weariness, tedium and melancholia. A one-and-a-half-hour wait in the open on a chair or bench on a summer afternoon before one can meet the so-called "high risk” prisoners reminded one of the monotony of confinement. While no reading material, electronic gadgets, writing paper or pen was permitted to be carried by visitors, the knowledge that after a couple of hours one could walk out of the complex a free person, kept one going. There was a Jamshedi Navroz function one looked forward to attending hosted by the Delhi Parsi Anjuman. The inmates, however, would return to their cells.
Though prisoners may avail of several facilities and activities to pass their time, their confinement can stretch into years, decades and even life. One of the jail’s most high profile under-trials, Kobad Ghandy, keeps himself occupied with yoga, reading and writing, aside from the daily chores of washing, cleaning, etc. He is cheerful, happy to meet a kindred soul. The 30-minute conversation is animated. He is hopeful that the charge leveled against him of membership of a banned organization will not result in a conviction and even if any charge is upheld, the five years he has already served in prison will cover any imprisonment meted out by the courts.
But with 44 cases stacked against him in many parts of the country, the wait could be a long one. Ghandy was the ideologue for the Maoists and while he may not have advocated or participated in any acts of violence, his membership in a group that has indulged in numerous massacres, gives him a taint. Many civil libertarians who espouse human rights causes, have either shied away from assisting Ghandy or looked the other way. The community by and large has turned its back on him.
Whatever the merits of the charges against him, to hold a person in prison without bail or a trial is to commit an injustice. If one is guilty let the person be found so and punished adequately. If innocent, let the person go. If there is a delay in deciding guilt, grant bail. Ghandy espoused the Maoist cause, he articulated and disseminated their philosophy, he sought justice for the downtrodden. No case has been made out to one’s knowledge that Ghandy encouraged or engaged in acts of violence.
While comparisons are odious one cannot help but be struck by the incongruity in the application of the law. Bal Thackeray egged his followers to break the law and his nephew Raj Thackery continues to do the same. People are attacked, even killed because they belong to another state or speak a different language or uphold the law, but neither of them has faced meaningful confinement.
The prominent Congress politicians who orchestrated the slaughter of over 3,000 Sikhs in Delhi following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi never languished in prison and on the contrary occupied high political office. Bharatiya Janata Party’s L. K. Advani led a rath yatra that resulted in the death of hundreds of people and his advocacy for the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Uttar Pradesh resulted in the death of thousands. He went on to become the deputy prime minister of India. And Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi who was either complicit or implicit in the massacre of over 1,000 Muslims in Godhra is now aspiring to be — and may even become — the next prime minister of India.
National Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar exhorts his followers to vote twice as the election dates in two districts are on different days. Be sure to wipe the indelible ink from your fingers, he advises them. It is now alleged he made the remarks in jest but there was no smile on his face when he offered the criminal counsel. He too aspires for prime ministership but his party’s chances of procuring even a few seats in parliament are uncertain.
And the Congress party after vowing to root out corruption has named for the Lok Sabha elelctions former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan whose name is linked to the Adarsh building scam in Bombay. The Central Bureau of Investigation has requested the Bombay High Court to delete his name from the inquiry.
In his weekly column in The Sunday Express Lord Meghnad Desai, a member of the British House of Lords observed that during the selection of candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in India "every political party has inducted the corrupt.”
The irony in the application of the law, and the very law itself, was not lost on Wilde (he was convicted for being a homosexual which today over 115 years later in India is still a crime). He observed, "I know not whether laws be right/Or whether laws be wrong/All that we know who lie in gaol/Is that the wall is strong/And that each day is like a year/A year whose days are long.”
If individuals who should be brought to book are not if those who should be behind bars roam free, it does not follow the law should condone all acts of criminality. But the least civil society should guarantee to those charged with committing crimes and imprisoned, is bail and/or a speedy trial. If the well connected can defy the law with impunity, at least let those ensnared in its entrails avail of some justice.
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