Trial by democracy

When talking about India in the western media, Indian politicians, industrialists and commentators do not fail to refer to India as the world's largest democracy, the epitath greatest being reserved for the US. Judging by the democractic justice system, India may be moving towards the greatest tag pretty fast.

First there was the Jessica Lal case in which some of the most previledged and self styled cultured people of India decided to let off the murderers and now we have this episode of Meher Bhargava. There has been quite a stir in the media. It is significant to note that while the politicians did not get involved initially in the Jessica Lal case, the real public outcry has given them a message. Since the politicians sense a vote catching opportunity here, the Bhargava case has caught attention of some heavyweights. This begs a few questions.

Will it take a huge public outcry to get a semblance of justice in India for each and every case?. Without sounding crass, the fact is that both these incidents caught attention because of the connection of victims and the accused with high profile families. Jessica hung out with the rich and the famous and was shot in the presence of movers and shakers of Delhi. Meher was the wife of a congress politician. There are probably hundreds (thousands ??) of such incidents that take place each year which are not so high profile. What happens in all those cases? Does the media and the public has the energy and passion to make an issue out of even a fraction of the such cases? Will India shine just in the boardrooms of the banks and the IT companies, or will it also shine in the courtrooms? Will trial of a case be dependent on whether it fetches votes or not? If this happens, we might be only country to have a democractic justice system but we shall also be the world's most terrible democracy.