Can anything change????

Recently saw Rang De Basanti..... It must be the most reviewed movie on the internet, almost every blog carried a review. So I will not trouble you with one more. But I did discuss it with some friends and the conclusion we arrived at was that the movie was unrealistic to the hilt. I mean will any sane defence minister, however corrupt he may be, denounce an IAF pilot on prime time television as inexperienced? Will he order lathi charge on peaceful protestors in full public view? The answer seems to be no....

Then I read this today and my views changed. It seems you do not have to be the defence minister to brazenly defy the law. Being a Haryana Minister's son or even being the son of a local MP is enough. It gives you enough license to murder someone infront of scores of people and then go scot free. Time and again I hope that something will be done and time and again nothing is......

Can we actually blame the witnesses that turn hostile? I can already hear the voices blaming: 'It's they who are to blame really.....'. I for once am not sure if I would have stood on my stand. Even if one is ready to hold one's own life at risk, it would be too much to ask one to risk the lives of everyone he or she holds dear. Plus the fact, that public memory is way too short and you can always trust them to forget everything. (The report of the death of a witness for that matter is not even front page news.) The Media as it exists in India only serves as a replacement of reality TV. See it, enjoy it, forget it. This fact is reflected in both quality and quantity of analysis that news receives. For example, while in school when I had first seen AajTak report this crime and had read this piece, I had thought that why don't we make a more cohesive judicial system. After all, if the police is on the lookout for someone and if he appears in a court anywhere in the country, he should be arrested or the prosecution should be given a chance to at least present their case before the order giving bail is passed. But all we do is sit and enjoy it (come to think of it.... India started enjoying reality TV much before the west thought of the concept). I am afraid of asking the same question today. Perhaps because I know that the answer has not changed.......

As for public anger, anger of impotent people like you and me that is fired sporadically by names like Satyendra Dubey, Manjunath Shanmughan and Jessica Lal..... by the image of the powerful politician daring us to do if we can do anything. Don't worry we will get over it. Like we get over most of the other things in life. Come to think of it the best answer at the IIMK interview (about the difference between America and India) would have been our chronic amnesia. They have a system where public outrage once impeached the President, we have a system where we cannot even punish an MP’s son for the crimes he has commited, forget the minister himself. Can it ever change?????? I don’t think it will change anytime in the near future, for life holds hope for people still in India. The odds of standing up to injustice are incentive enough for silence. The only day that things will change is when life whether silent or otherwise does not hold any hope…..