Aravind Adiga rides atop his Tiger

Aravind Adiga’s tiger brought mixed reaction from the Indian populace. Some say this is the true India while some are shocked and feel insulted.

How dare an Indian demean the 'ready to shine in a few years' India thus? Won’t the rest of the world (whom Indians look up to!) have more reasons to continue looking down?

I have not read the book as yet and I don’t look forward to reading it either. With the media beaming out similar stories daily and the rest left to our wildest (yet true?) imaginations, who needs a book to shed light?

Maybe mine is a pessimistic outlook and I should be joining the rest and give Aravind a good bashing on my blog at least! But I shall not.. the tone maybe crude as they say but we Indians need waking up.

Looking at the way most crimes get away and the nexus between criminals (including the police) and the politicians, should we expect anything better just because we haven’t experienced it ourselves?

Look at God’s Own Country when it discovered that the terrorists killed in Kashmir were Malayalees. We are now told (by the media) that they existed since 15 years! Every other day, we hear of mass swindling and the political connections. We wait hopelessly to see at least one behind the bars but the media soon replaces one swindler with another and the show continues. We heard of Human God’s and the amount of wealth they accumulated (source maybe foreign or domestic) but they still continue to reign as Gods. There is one Sister Abhaya still haunting the court premises.

Well… being Diwali I shouldn’t be a spoil sport but my pessimistic mind fell into the trap and here are some articles which can further shed light.

Indian judges must clean up their courts

Justice R. Basant of the Kerala High Court, in his speech to the concluding session of the annual conference of the Kerala Criminal Judicial Staff Association, said, “The judiciary is the last ray of hope for Indians. The failure of the judiciary will have devastating results.”

This observation by Justice Basant carries considerable weight, as he knows, inside and out, the legal and illegal procedures commonly adopted by the courts.

For example, in order to file an application for bail in a criminal case, a person needs to pay a stamp duty of 2 rupees (US 4 cents). But by the time the application reaches the magistrate for a hearing, a client will usually have paid 700 to 1,000 rupees (US$14-$21) in bribes. Most of it is demanded and paid within the registry of the court where the application is filed.


40 lakh cases before HCs and 40 K cases before SC are pending

Over 40 K Cases Pending in Supreme Court of India (March 02 , 2007 - PIB Release)

OVER 40 THOUSAND CASES PENDING IN SUPREME COURT AND ABOUT 40 LAKH CASES IN HIGH COURTS - A total of 40,243 cases (including civil and criminal matters) are reported to be pending in the Supreme Court of India as on 31st January, 2007. In 21 High Courts in the country 39,91,251 cases were pending as on December 31, 2006. These include 32,87,037 civil cases and 7,04,214 criminal cases.

The corrective measures being taken for speedy disposal of court cases are: