Hopes die first?

January 30, 2013


I had huge hopes from Justice Verma.

When the govt appointed him to recommend changes in the existing archaic legal system in India, I was hopeful that now finally we would see some path breaking stuff.

Justice Verma's reputation of being a wise, learned and incorruptible judge and his brilliant team of Justice Seth and Gopal Subramanium were the reasons for this hope and optimism in me. We were truly on to a good thing, I believed.

But, what ultimately resulted was a big disappointment to say the least. Justice Verma and his esteemed team seemed more concerned about meeting the one month deadline rather than brain storming and deliberating on changing the ineffective laws that govern us. The commission's report turned out to be rather insipid, meek, wishy-washy, uninspiring and status quo-ish considering they had the benefit/advantage of perusing over 80 thousand suggestions from people in India and from across the world and incorporating the best ideas in their report. The recommendations could have been more dynamic, out-of-the-box and path breaking. Alas!

The feeling that I now get is that Justice Verma has acted less as a legal visionary and more as a human rights sympathiser/activist while compiling this report. The recommendations pertaining to the AFSPA, the reduction of age for juveniles and harsher penalties for heinous crimes all point to that. His intent seems to be more in protecting the legal rights of the accused rather the victims and that is a real pity because it is a golden opportunity lost to bring in some great, kick-ass reforms.

I still, however, respect the man but have a few suggestions of my own for the learned judge.........

Sir, now that you have gone and done what you had to and in the process disappointed quite a few of us, please stop appearing on the news channels on the one hour long 'exclusives' that you have been giving to them in the last few days and explaining your compulsions/reasons because it serves no purpose now. It just shows you up as a slightly fuddled, inarticulate old man and destroys the aura that had surrounded you till now.

Also, kindly keep quiet about what the executive should do with your report. Get out of the Anna Hazare mould quickly and do not insist that the govt should pass ordinances on your recommendations asap or within as much time as it took you to recommend them. You should be the last person to suggest such a thing as you would know that laws must never be passed in a hurry or under pressure.

Kindly resist the temptation to become a messiah. One is still around somewhere.

One is all that we can take at the moment.