Let me start this blog by drawing reference to Al Pacino’s 1979 classic ‘…And Justice for All’. In this movie Al Pacino portrays Arthur Kirkland, an American lawyer who is forced to represent a judge standing trial for rape and assault, who he knows is guilty. Arthur finds himself in a dilemma on whether to strip off the judge’s non-existential honor which would cost him his professional career or do his duty by defending the judge and get on with it. He does the former. In the eyes of any good man, what he did was just without a question, but as a lawyer, he had failed his oath, he had breached his client’s trust and confidentiality.
Many a time in our lives we find us asking ourselves 'Is this right? Could we be wrong? Should laws, which are deemed silly or unjust, be followed ? ' A few contemplate over these questions, looking for justifiable answers. But the innumerable rest just choose to follow. A lot have faded with time. And one among them, is the line between right and wrong.
With the smell of demonetization still fresh in the air (well, it was when I started writing this thing), let’s talk about black money. People have black money due to two common reasons, either their income was through illegal sources like (like bribery, corruption, thievery, smuggling etc) or by understating one’s income. While the first one is outrightly immoral, our Indian people have always had some reservations about the second. ‘Why should I give a considerable portion of my hard earned money to the government?’. And the very few who think otherwise get a change in opinion as soon as they step inside a government office. One of the factors which I believe to be fostering such ideas is the attitude of our Indian communities. Because in a community where to fall in love is a sin, to study anything other than engineering or medicine is a compromise, to speak good English is intelligence, surprisingly enough to evade tax is not much of a taboo. I do not mean to charge the Indian communities of having endorsed Tax Evasion but they certainly have not voiced out against it. My humble words to all those who think the taxation policy in this country is unfair ‘In a democracy, one does not get to choose the laws, one would like to follow. But one is empowered with right to choose the leader, one finds worthy of following. And all one has to do is to ensure that his voice gets loud enough in 5 years.’
Now let me steer the attention to the youth of this great nation, so that they don’t feel left out. Ruby Rai, the second most popular Rai in India, was the state topper in Bihar board exams in 2016. Well, state toppers are special, but what makes this one stand out? Well, apparently she has topped the exams by writing the names of movies in one answer sheet and the name of the poet Tulsidas, more than a hundred times, in another sheet. Let me cut to the chase, her daddy bought her a state rank. And the bottom line is that 'She cheated in an exam'. If cheating is what she stands guilty of, wouldn’t most of the journalists who covered the scam be guilty? Wouldn’t most students older than 12 be guilty? Wouldn’t you and I be guilty? And as Al Paccino would put it ‘I have been out of order, you probably would have been out of order and almost every fellow student I know is being out of order’. Yes, maybe we didn’t buy our marks, maybe we didn’t cheat our way to the very top, but in this case too, as per Miss. Ruby Rai’s statement ‘All she wanted was to pass’. On a fundamental level, it’s all the same thing. So why are the day to day ‘mal’practices, which we indulge in, considered okay? It may be because it has become too common that it ain’t wrong anymore. It may be because it would make us fit in with the cool kids. It may be because we would be disadvantaged if we were they only ones who didn’t get along with it. Or it may be plainly because we find it easier and convenient.
Our thoughts, like electricity, follow one of the fundamental laws of natural physics. They always tends to flow in the path of least resistance.
The folly in our sense of right and wrong doesn’t end there. We term people from north-eastern India as Chinese because most of us don’t see the difference. We find black people inferior because they are from Africa. We seek satisfaction and reputation through bullying and trolling (which is just a less intensive word for ‘bullying on the internet’) because people can be lame. We’ve glorified porn stars because after all it’s just another job. We break all traffic rules because come on people ‘It’s India’. We rash drive because we are late or because we own fast cars or rather simply because we can. We can be irresponsible, inconsiderate or inappropriate because apparently we must live life! We have justification for every single thing we do. After all we live in a world where terrorism could be justified, in a country where corruption could be justified and in a state where questionable political leaders could be justified. And I’m sure by now, somewhere, some Indian, who is reading this would have found a way to pin all these stuff on our politicians and corrupt bureaucrats. In simple, we’ve made life an excuse to live the way we are living right now.
I’m not pointing out all this out to belittle anyone or to show anyone in bad light. What I’m trying to say is that ‘We are all not Arthur Kirkland trying to choose between morality and professional ethics. We are an awful lot of people who fail to stand by righteousness and morality in a simple battle of right vs wrong not because we are forced to (as we tend to claim) but because we like to.
India is country which makes an awful lot of movies (or a lot of awful movies). And an awful lot of these Indian movies have a chauvinistic hero with surreal strength, all ‘macho’ed up in tacky clothes who is portrayed throughout the movie with an unquestionable sense of justice and righteousness. What an awful lot of us do is to try to cook up the same aura of superiority and dominance by trying to imitate his style, his dressing, his physique and his mockery so that we too could tower over everyone else like a typical Indian hero would. I’m not asking anyone to stop trying to be a hero. All I’m saying is that, for once, maybe, we could try to imitate his sense of justice and righteousness. For once, maybe, we could do things the less convenient way, the less common way, the right way. And maybe, for once, we could stand up to the ways of this world, not because we want to be heroes but because we try to be good people.
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