The Draconian State and the Doctor

Dr Binayak Sen in police custody

Suddenly the word 'draconian' has come alive for me. Dictionary meaning 'of or relating to Draco, 7th-century Athenian statesman and lawmaker, or his code of laws, which prescribed death for almost every offence'.

Dr Binayak Sen meets Draco, in 21st century India. Are they discussing judicial reform?

Does a bad judgement have no other reprimand than a better judgement on appeal in a higher court?

In every job there are rewards and punishments, but seems like judges are beyond this framework!

A bad pilot can kill people and gets punished for it. A bad engineer can kill people and can be punished for it.

An incompetent judge (the competence of a judge includes his/her capaicty to maintain integrity) can kill people, can kill hope, can kill sanity, can kill justice, can kill dignity, can kill faith in human compassion, can kill the fundamental premise of democracy, can in fact waste everyone's time with reams of garbage which is thorughly tainted with everything other than justice....and yet, go fully unreprimanded by the system. What is 'honourable' about this?

All, and if any, reprimand is left to the mild mannered machinations of the motley bunch of people gathered under the label 'civil society' - a bunch that is therefore, by definition, outside all formal systems of governance.

FB is full of the likes of me in maroon rough cotton and kajal and carelessly torn jeans, doing their might - clicking for protest. Newspapers are trying not to be seen as ignoring the subject - though inches never seemed more precious. TV channels have given their newest and frailest cub reporters their first on-cam chance to report this story. 18th Century Jantar Mantar has no choice but to add its red voice to the protest gathering. And so on...

Why are judges in question wasting everyone's time? Aren't we a busy country, busy growing so we can beat China and still have 43% of our children malnourished? Binayak Sen knows a bit about these kids. Aren't we a busy country with no time for the tribals, but all the time and the machinery to gouge out their inners of all common wealth? Then why do we have the time for this mediocre judicial system that arrogates to itself the status of being beyond reprimand? Why the 'honour'?

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