Famous Indian Marxist
revolutionary Bhagat Singh Shaheed said once, “After the British elite leave
India, she will be ruled by a Brown elite.” His predictions manifest itself in
each and every part of everyday dealings and operations of countries now known
as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. However, the biggest joke is the legal
systems of these countries which entirely run upon the whims of the wealthy
minority. There are special built-in provisions for elite in the constitutions
of these countries and the discrimination runs so deep that it has been made
nearly impossible for a poor person to obtain justice. When it comes to poor
people, “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied” maxim is taken in literal terms and
applied with full rigor. But when it comes to the rich, no matter how big the
crime is, justice is swift and often time not justice but, injustice.
I was inspired to write this blog
post after watching a Bollywood movie called Jolly LLB, which was an excellent
social satire of Indian legal system. It is based on the true story of Sanjeev Nanda case, when a rich and
powerful businessman killed 5 poor laborers sleeping on a sidewalk and then
walked scot-free thanks to the loopholes in the law fully exploited by the defense
and conveniently ignored by the prosecution. This movie resonated to me because
the situations, characters, places, urban fabric, apathy and class struggles of
modern India (similar to almost all other development countries) were portrayed
without any sugar coating or emotional melodrama.
Jolly LLB., also showcases the frustrations
within the Indian penal courts, the way lawyers nickel and dime it and the way
rich clients can always go free by manipulating/removing evidence of their
crimes by bribing police officials and hiring expensive defense attorneys. Although
a good laugh, this movie was a very crucial reality check of the decaying
justice system in subcontinent that keeps getting worse. I chose to blog about
this movie because cinema and theatre are two very important tools to portray the
underlying development themes in any country and Jolly LLB., is a well-done
example of that. I recommend this movie to everyone. Watching it won’t be the
proverbial life changing experience but it will definitely teach you a bit or
two about the value of justice and how it’s miscarried in fact not provided at
all to the most needy in the darkest quarters of the world.
In Pakistan, I have seen lawyers acting as thugs and operating as a deranged fraternity on multiple occasions who will do anything to protect their interests even if it comes at the cost of making a joke of the very institution that they are representing.
So what do you think? Will you watch this movie? Have you ever had an interesting experience with police/ any form of law in any developing or developed country? Please leave your valuable comments in the section below.
This sort of relates to one of the examples brought up in the WUSC training where we were given a scenario in which you were crossing a border and the police were asking for money. One of our class members said they would lie and say they had no money, however the WUSC presenters suggested it would be better to just say you only had a little, pay, and be on your way. I find it odd that people can be so accepting of such a weird social norm, however if I was in that situation I probably would be too.
ReplyDeleteGiven that these are often people of authority and wealth in society how could we work to empower the poor to change the society? It is certainly not an easy task.
Interesting article..It reminded me of the Raymond Davis case in Pakistan. The way law was distorted to give a CIA operative refuge from Pakistani law and courts even though he had killed 2 people cold bloodily in front of hundreds of witnesses. You are right in saying that there are a lot of loopholes in our systems which cause such incidents. But what do you think can be done to improve the system ?
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