Sense & Insensibility
Hail to the jail returnees ...
AS I said often in the past, there is more insensibility all around than sensibility. The matter of concern is that sensibility is being pushed to the wall and it is considered the refuge of the incompetent in this country. "Sir, you will not make it big in this country if you peddle sensibility, insensibility enjoys a better market here," is the buzz-word in the dark alleyways. There seems to be more laws, by-laws, amendment of laws and "competent" lawyers around to bail out insensibility whenever it gets cornered. The paradox remains embedded in our minds, how can violators of law get rescued by law? Can such laws help us build a nation that will respect rule of law? If not, then that is bad news for us.
Insensibility gets a free hand to operate, like those village quacks, when a mediocre group of people with no ability to envision the immediate future is placed in positions of prominence in every sector. Instead of creating specialists, they end up creating more quacks. Instead of removing a few dark spots they soil the entire linen.
It is, therefore, only natural that when the mediocre will be given the rudder of a ship, they will soon take it to uncharted waters to their peril. I find that they think and act no better than Kalimuddin, the day labourer in a remote village.
Those suited booted Kalimuddins living in the citadels on the mountain-top have been doing things on a daily-wage-earning-basis, just as their rural counterpart does every day. They have been doing everything without having enough faculty of reasoning to analyse whether whatever they were doing would sustain in the long run.
For example, one fine morning they thought they would do a great service to the nation by sending some men and women to jail. But before doing that they were not equipped with strong evidences to frame a strong case against them.
They were not aware of the various clauses and sub-clauses in the laws of the land that could be used to bring those people out from the jail. In their exuberance, they acted more like the lynching parties in the Wild West, and hastily flung the rope over the tree branch. The cheering crowd waited with bated breath to see some hanging. But when the Sheriff came with the court order they backed off. The outlaw was taken under the protection of law.
For some people of this country going to jail is not looked at the way many of us do. It is not considered a stigma. It brings no shame on them or their families. For them, going to jail and spending some time there is like going to an institution for training and obtaining a certificate.
The training makes them bolder, cleverer, meaner, and more ferocious, like a wounded animal. They spend longer time there and they are likely to get a strong certificate. They will have the opportunity to cash in on that for the rest of their lives.
In jail, they lick the wounds of their busted egos and wait for the opportunity to leap on the neck of their adversary. That is the name of the game, therefore, it is sheer foolishness to turn your back on those people you sent to jail. They are not going to let go of the first such opportunity. They will come out one day with the help of their lawyers and become hero from zero, as said popularly in this country.
Overnight they will enjoy the celebrity status amongst their own kind, whether they are a politician, or a bureaucrat or a thief, or a mixture of all three. Move aside sensibility for insensibility will begin in full gusto once again.
Therefore, you have to think twice before you send someone to jail. There are so many steps in between arrests and sentencing, and you miss one, you will bungle up the whole thing. The wounded men will come out soon.
Oh, yes, the time to come out of the jail is already here, so from here on, we, the janata, shall stand by the side of the roads with flower garlands to welcome the jail returnees. No, the freed VIPs (!) would not be crying like those deportees from Kuwait because they will not come out losing anything. They would rather laugh and guffaw at their captors, as they would oust them from the mountain-top soon. The new chapter of the drama would begin with the role of the hunter and the hunted reversing quite dramatically.
I am sure, the jail returnees would profusely bless those mediocre men in the helm of affairs for their short-sightedness, for their "missed rule," which elevated them to the position of great leaders who "suffered illegal imprisonment" only for loving (!) the people of the land. Many of those jailed people would not have been elected a second time but now they have attained the status of a VIP, so no one will dare to dream of beating them in the general elections. And we shall get leaders we deserve -the Faltoos, Maltoos, Puntoos and Boltoos.
Dear readers, this could be the script of a good movie if only we could find a good director who has lived through the strange but real-life drama for the last sixteen years. No one can do justice to the film unless he has witnessed each episode of the serial and felt the pang deep inside; someone who has seen the shameful game of deception, falsehood, scam, treachery, pretence and trickery, demonstrated before the common people, will be able to make a film worth preserving in our national archives for the posterity.
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