India’s Real Criminals

Well, now we can all sleep soundly. Justice and reason have triumphed against the formidable forces of evil that had threatened to undermine the very basic fabric of our millennia old civilization. Our future is assured, our children can now grow up in a land of milk and honey, we can walk the streets without fear and with our heads held high. We can now proclaim with pride Mera Bharat Mahan and truly believe that India is shining.

For those who have not heard the momentous news, let me clue you in. The arch villain I am referring to is none other than Daya Nand of Narnaul (Harayana). Sixteen years ago, this enemy of humanity, committed an atrocity so immense that all the forces of the good and the holy had to be arrayed against him. But truth eventually triumphs. The Supreme Court of India prevailed and sentenced him to a life in prison and imposed a fine on this criminal as well for his unspeakable crime.

July 6th, 1988 will be long remembered as that infamous day when Daya Nand of Narnaul attempted to subvert the fundamental functioning of our way of life. On that day, forever to be recalled as 6/7/88, a crime was committed that engaged the attention of a trial court, then moved to the High Court, and finally ended up in the Supreme Court of India where the Hon’ble Justices heard the evidence, debated the issue with extreme gravity, spent days on end balancing the interests of the society and the rights of the accused, pondered long and hard and eventually delivered a verdict that forever assured the triumph of good over evil, of order over chaos, of right over wrong, of satya over asatya, of light over darkness, of immortality over death, of knowledge over ignorance … you get the idea.

For the record, the bench of the Supreme Court of the Republic of India which passed this momentous judgement comprised of Justices Hegde, Sinha and Mathur. Truly Daniels. The punishment: six months in prison and Rs 1000 fine. The crime as report by PTI: Daya Nand of Narnaul had diluted 20 litres of milk with water. He was caught by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer who took 750 ml of the sample and sent it to Public Analyst. “The Analyst in his detailed report found the sample to be deficient in milk solid to the extent of five percent of the prescribed minimum standard and also to be deficient in solid fat as required by law.”

The trial court sentenced Daya Nand leniently considering that he had three small children to support and had no previous criminal record. The High Court overturned that decision but finally it reached the Supreme Court which upheld the trial court’s decision.

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It has been estimated that even if no fresh cases were to enter the Indian judicial system, the backlog of cases would occupy the current legal machinery for about 350 years.

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According to a study done by the Election Commission, 40 sitting members of the Lok Sabha (the Lower House of the Parliament) and around 700 of the 4,072 members in the various state assemblies had criminal records. The crimes do not include adulteration of milk; they are usually rape, murder, extortion, embezzlement of public funds to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

I am very happy that the Supreme Court of India has understood the priorities correctly and spends its time deliberating the crimes of milkmen and happily ignores the crimes that people in high places commit.

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When I ponder the question of why India is a poor, over populated, inconsequential, “third-world” country, I keep returning to one central conviction of mine. Indians, as a collective, seem to lack a moral sense, a sense of balance, a sense of what is right and wrong. From that deficiency arises the collective will of the people. That will is translated into policies. Those policies create the conditions within which the economy evolves.

Watch your thoughts, they become words;
Watch your words, they become actions;
Watch your actions, they become habits;
Watch your habits, they become character;
Watch your character, It becomes your destiny.

It is time to take an unflinching look at the very root causes of our poverty, both material and spiritual. Until we can identify the causes, we will spend a lot of time and effort doing worthless things and never achieve the goal of economic development, leave alone real human development.

It is all Karma, neh?

Author: Atanu Dey

Economist. View all posts by Atanu Dey