A time for Zorro.

I don’t know Jessica Lall.
In any case, a few hundreds are murdered in this country everyday.
Why then, should Jessica Lall make me feel so helpless?

Preity Zinta made a point on TV.
You can get a year, she said, for blackbuck.
But you can kill a person and get way with it.

It’s true.

A few notable examples.
Manu Sharma.
Admiral Nanda’s grandson.
Kunhalikutty.
Ameeta Modi and Sanjay Singh.
Amar Mani Tripathi.
Natwar Singh and son.

Clout circumventing the judicial process is old hat.
The issue today, is not that.

The issue is that all the above, are still welcome in our society.
They continue to hold offices.
They are still part of the social circuit.

This, their brazenness and our acceptance, spells doom.
It means that today’s Indian society, you and me included, are willing to condone murder.
Willing to condone the castration of justice.
Willing to turn a blind eye to anything that doesn’t directly involve us.
Willing to tolerate injustice.
Too ready, to forgive and forget.

We as a society have degenerated.
The letter of the law is strictly the letter of the law.
No longer does it hold a moral value for us.

It’s getting caught therefore, that makes crime a crime.
Not so much the act.

We don’t have a collective conscience as a nation any more.
We don’t have a sense of justice any more.
We don’t, as a nation, believe in the law any more.

Many, many years back, there was a crime of passion.
A naval officer called Nanavati shot his wife and her paramour.
Russi Karanjia of Blitz kept India focused on the case.
And the whole nation developed an opinion.
Including the then PM, Pt. Nehru.
(Driving opinion has its own dangers but the advantage was that everyone knew that the world was watching.)

If today, the bench knew that India was watching, would it acquit Manu Sharma so easily?
Would witnesses so easily turn hostile?

The Nanavati case awoke the collective conscience of a nation.
And Jessica Lall proved us that our consciences have gone to bed.

This is the time for Zorro.
A time for vigilantes.
This is the time for Biblical, barbarian justice.
An eye for an eye, ear for an ear.

Drag Manu Sharma to India Gate and hang him there.
For the murder of Jessica Lall.
And his father.
For the twin crimes of procreation and for believing that justice is there to be manipulated.

Will this happen?

Last year, Malayalam cinema had a rare box-office hit.
Directed by Jayaraj.
It had unknown faces and was pretty shoddily, frugally produced.

It featured 4 students who take the law into their own hands.
Who kill, maim and generally play Zorro.
It was a superhit.

It tells me a few things.
That audiences empathized with it.
And therefore, that there are millions out there who feel castrated.
That our society is full of impotent, angry, helpless youth.

And that, at a national level, always spells bloodshed.