Lalu In Jail: Too Little Too Late

Finally. Finally, Laloo Yadav gets his comeuppance. He is finally proven to be what we all knew he was – a criminal. He was a criminal then. He is a criminal today and that is what he will be tomorrow – incarceration assisted rehabilitation be damned. It may justice served but, in my humble opinion,it is too little and definitely too late.

Think about it. He was charged and indicted long time ago. He spent a brief time in jail after being charged. However, he ruled the unfortunate state of Bihar using his wife as a proxy (like Congress using another housewife to rule our unfortunate nation). He then got out and has since occupied some of the highest offices in the nation. He has taken important decisions and influenced countless others. He did all this under a cloud of well grounded suspicion. In his capacity as Railways Minister, he took it upon himself to unleash a judge on Narendra Modi in the aftermath of the post Godhra Massacre riots. Imagine. A scam artist and a criminal like Lalloo investigated a man of impeccable character like Modi. If this is not a total travesty of social and criminal justice, then I don’t know what is? Can one even make an estimate of the damage that has been done to the nation with a criminal like Laloo Yadav as a Minister in our central government? 

How does a criminal get to make and influence national level decisions? Clearly this is an ongoing problem with our judicial system. Laloo and other roamed free using legal loopholes and taking advantage of the glacier like speed of our courts.

What can be done about it? One solution is that the moment someone is charged with a crime, they should be barred from holding a public office. Of course knowing our corrupt political system and bureaucracy, that provision will get used to settle personal scores and against good people. What needs to be done is that in such cases, special courts needs to be established which specially deal in such cases. If a politician is charged then they need to be tried and either punished or absolved quickly. We all know that A Raja is one of the biggest crooks in the country and yet he sits in the Loksabha. Why has he not been tried quickly? Of course Raja does not want this matter settled quickly because he knows that any trial will find him guilty. At least under the current system, he can use the judicial machinations and stay out. He can delay his trial as long as he can. That way, in future, in a favorable political situation, he can be either pardoned or have the case buried deep. And like Laloo, by the time the trial hits the court, he will be an old man. He then (like Laloo) claim old age and demand mercy.

We need total revamp of our judicial system. For crimes of social (rapes, dowry deaths, female feticides) and political (scams etc.) nature, there is a critical need for fast track courts. We do not need rapists and murderers roaming free for potential victims. Similarly, we cannot have criminal politicians occupying offices and making decisions which affect the entire country.