The Hindu Business Line : Mosaic of life

FRIDAY MORNING'S papers carried two news items which, at least to this correspondent, were great disappointments because what they indicated, at least at the superficial level, was that there are times when what appears to be unjust triumphs.

To say that this is unacceptable is to state the obvious. But then life is so very complex and contains so many strands that have to be taken into account that there comes a time when one has to accept (and rationalise) the unacceptable — making the business of living even more difficult and complex than one can ever imagine.

The first report related to the commutation of the death sentence passed on Dara Singh — for the deaths of missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons in a station wagon, in which they were burnt alive in January 1999 — to life imprisonment, an action of the Orissa High Court which immediately led to the thought that Dara Singh had been given a reprieve which was not his due. Of course, this is not the end of the matter and there is still the possibility that the High Court judgement will be appealed against in the higher court.

Indeed, the papers carried the report that Dara Singh's lawyers were themselves mulling the possibility of going to the Supreme Court to have the life imprisonment sentence quashed.

The point, however, is that to millions of Indian citizens who, like civilised human beings, abhor any and everything that smacks of communalism and sectarianism, the commutation of the death sentence has come as a severe blow because of the belief that someone who needs to pay with his life for having taking the life of another human being, and that too because of communal reasons, has been spared his life, which goes against the very basic tenets of natural justice.

But then beliefs are sometimes based on incomplete knowledge or understanding of an event, which means that the expectations based on those beliefs are sometimes ill-informed and, therefore, unfair.

In the Dara Singh case, this is precisely what has happened, with the High Court saying (as reported) that the "eyewitnesses never attributed any particular fatal injury to appellant Dara Singh for which he can be individually held responsible for the death of the three deceased persons or for the death of any one of them.

Evidence against all the participants, including Dara Singh, being of identical nature, they were all equally responsible for the three murders.

Therefore, no justification is available from the evidence on record to single out Dara Singh for convicting him under Section 302 IPC...the sentence of death thereunder cannot be sustained and must be set aside". The court can never be wrong unless another court pronounces it so, but the fact remains that what was expected by way of justice by millions of citizens was delivered a severe blow.

The other case, which is equally intriguing but perhaps less intractably so, relates to the transfer of two district magistrates in Bihar who had acquired a reputation of upholding the rule of law in their districts even in circumstances which were daunting, to say the least.

As one newspaper report put it, "the two DMs had incurred Lalu Prasad Yadav's wrath for seeking to enforce the law in Siwan and Gopalganj".

Briefly, the two government officials had made normal life in the two districts a bit safer for the average citizen, which is precisely what such officers should do but sometimes cannot because of political intervention.

Needless to say, to those who had put the two DMs on a pedestal for braving the political odds against them in a State like Bihar, the transfer of the officers has come as a blow, the overriding message being that, once more, political influence has won in the battle against crime and lawlessness in a problem-State like Bihar, and that too at a time when Central rule is in force.

Possibly, the two officers were due for a transfer, but even if they were it does not dilute the impression that the cause of strong administration has suffered a blow, which cannot help the cause of good governance.

But, then, such is life, and the business of living must continue with the good and the bad playing their appointed roles in it.

Ranabir Ray Choudhury

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