It’s outrageous yet alright.. Yes, alright to have hygienic quality food at a price.. to have potable drinking water at a cost.. Liveable house at a value. Sad yet true, quality and hygiene is always directly proportionate to the money you invest in them. It is still okay to have all these basic amenities at a cost that you can’t afford, because you are still free out there. You might however manage to earn and find the money for all of it. What perhaps is undesirable is the fact that justice too comes at varying costs. You get the best counsel at a price, the best advice at a cost. Your outreach to the highest and best form of justice is not within your means. Isn’t that why the politicians, film stars and corporate honchos get quick justice and immediate relief? And the common man languishes behind bars for indefinite periods. The simple reason being his inability to pay for a decent counsel and there are millions behind the bars just because they did not have proper or no representation at all in the court room. To fight for your justice you have to recruit the wisest men in the black coats who would represent you only if you can pay up what you might borrow and end up paying your life time or it could be a sum you can just forget about. Justice is as simple as that. Unfortunately it is quantifiable. It has a scale. Not the one our lady holds. A scale the men in black hold. You pay more to get the best.
The purportedly wisest men in black enjoy exalted status. They can toy with fate. They decide future of individuals. They play God and hard to get. It’s the elite of the society, the cream which has easy access to them. Ironically it’s the very people who represent and guard justice who give the influential the courage to veer away from the rules, for they know they will have the best representation and the access to all the possibilities to get away. They rich have the best of facilities whenever detained. They can’t be physically coerced or probed. And when it comes to someone of their class they have the support of all from their ilk who would go any lengths to free them. This courtesy is not extended to the poor or the deprived. They have to drudge through the system, take every step of it and cannot leapfrog them. To the poor it’s black or white. Their conviction can happen at the lowest of courts and their quest for justice ends there. It’s tough for them to get a wise one in a black coat to take up their cause. The elite will have an army of men in black to fight it out till the last letter is argued.
It’s unfair. More iniquitous than anything in this world would be to see an individual accused of guilt not being properly represented. Even a merciless terrorist gets adequate representation at the highest courts. It is no secret that individuals who swindle millions get away with a promise to repay or some holding august offices go scot free with the most basic arithmetic. But thousands are detained beyond their sentence for stealing something as little as Rs.50. We have heard the “Everyone is equal before the law” refrain a lot. When will we really mean it? The lady in white ought to remove her veil to the underprivileged. The men in black all rise please!!!
CAclubindia
