Rule of law? Sorry, we're Indians!

The rule of law has all along been a casualty of the type of governance that we have had and are still having in our country. The worst criminals and offenders against the laws of the country have gone scot-free or the legal cases against them are taking so much time that by the time they would be decided those people could be safely dead.

No country, and more so a democracy, can hope to survive for long without deep respect for laws of the land in the hearts of its citizens. And the people develop this respect when they see the laws and the judicial system working effectively even against powerful offenders. When the administration of justice flounders in dealing with the rich and well-connected, every one loses faith in it. This is what has happened in India, here law-breaking has assumed monumental proportions.

The only way out is for the central and state governments, prosecuting agencies and the courts to take up the cases of a few well-known persons and take them speedily to their judicial conclusion. If in the eyes of the courts people like Jayalalitha, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Reddy brothers, Ramalinga Raju, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler, Sanjay Dutt, and Raja (central telecom minister) are innocent, free them of the stigma of having legal cases against them pending for so long but if they, or some of them, are found guilty, put them behind the bars without losing another minute. We are sick of the legal cases going on interminably and in the mean time the accused politicians can continue on the Union cabinet, they can be chief ministers in the states, the actors among them can rake in hundreds of millions from new films, the ex-cricketers can give lectures on morality in cricket, and so on.

We, members of the concerned citizenry of this country, have to create sound and solid public opinion for this, and then put tremendous pressure on the governments, in the centre and in the states. Only then these modern day Kumbhakarnas and Dhritrashtras would wake up, take notice and do what is required.