Acid test

I can understand anger; the public outcry is totally justifiable as well. And my heart, in fact, goes out to the two girls - Swapnika and Praneeta - and their families. I feel sad and angry too - furious at the three men who believed they had the right to disfigure a girl because she had rejected one of them. When they were caught and paraded in front of the media, I felt good and hoped that they would pay for the crime they had committed. But this isn't what I had asked for. And when the minister of irrigation goes on record and says, "The encounter took place in tune with people's wishes", I am worried; absolutely worried for a country that celebrates police excesses, for the people who view this as "justice done", for a society that encourages this and refuses to see that this brutality is just a cover up for police inepititude. This, in fact, scares me more.

This is jungle law; concerned with the outcry over the heinous attack, the police decided to take the law into their own hands. We are given to understand that the youth tried to attack the police and the "encounter" was an act of self-defense. Attack the police? Three misguided youth, who didn't have a criminal record against them, had weapons hidden with them when in police custody? Doesn't that again speak volumes for the inefficient police force? Following the incident, I agree, the police had acted fast: arrested the accused, recovered the bike and the acid bottles - all evidence required. What else was left to do? Deliver justice. And that is what they did. Or so we tell ourselves.

We the people are not supposed to celebrate this. In reality, the police have committed a crime - this, to me, is no different from custodial death. Don't we live in a civilized society? What happened to law, courts? Shouldn't these men have been tried in the courts of the land as well? I agree justice in India doesn't come easy; the judicial system is in urgent need of reforms. What was then required was a call to cleanse the system, an agitation to spruce up the police force; we shouldn't be celebrating this.

Will now someone speak up against the officers involved, ask that they be brought to justice as well?