This Above all
Crime and punishment
KHUSHWANT SINGH

Crime unpunished breeds criminals." I’ve said this before. I said it again when Sanjay Dutt and others convicted for the Bombay blasts and the assassins of Beant Singh, former Chief Minister of Punjab, were sentenced for crimes they had committed. When we are moved to tears seeing pictures of grieving relatives of convicts, we should also remember mothers and sisters of the people they murdered in cold blood. I only wish penalties awarded to them were different than hanging or imprisonment. In the case of Sanjay Dutt, if the judge had granted him parole in day time to continue working in films on the condition that whatever he earned was given to relatives of victims, I am sure, both he and those who suffered at his hands would have been happier.

Sanjay Dutt: Should the penalty have been different?

My second observation: "When punishment of crimes is unduly delayed, it creates the impression that the criminal has got away with it." Both the crimes I have referred to took place more than 12 years ago. Most people had forgotten they had taken place. This is not good enough. In western countries criminals are brought to justice within a year or two. Even in India during British Raj criminal justice was speedier than in independent India. The police and the judiciary must aim to finish a criminal’s trial within two years.

And finally, my third observation: "Justice must be even-handed; otherwise it gets tainted as discriminatory." We have allowed it to become tainted. Criminals responsible for the destruction of Babri Masjid remain unpunished.

One became our Deputy Prime Minister, another a Cabinet minister and two chief ministers of states. All of them are Hindus. I am pretty certain if the old mosque had not been destroyed or vandals who destroyed it promptly arrested and tried, there would have been no bomb blasts in Bombay. To this day perpetrators of this crime roam freely preaching sermons about peace and harmony. We also have the Srikrishna Commission report identifying members of the Shiv Sena responsible for crimes in Maharashtra. No action has been taken on this report because the men pinpointed are Hindus. This has created the impression that in secular India there is one law for the Hindus, another for the Muslims. Is this fair?

Camels in the Koran

One day I came across an article in an American journal which, amongst other things, said that there was no mention of a camel in the Koran. I thought it was very odd as Allah had revealed the Koran in Arabic to an Arab Prophet of a country in which the most visible animal was the camel.

Moreover, the Prophet himself was employed by a lady whom he later married, and who was engaged in trading caravans of camels. I consulted my Muslim friends. They expressed surprise but could not enlighten me on the subject. I put it to Syeda Hameed of the Planning Commission, who is more into Islam than my other friends. First she said: "What about the camel going through the eye of needle?" I shot back: "That is in the Bible not the Koran." Thereafter, as is my habit, I began to pester her with the same question:

"Have you found a camel in the Koran?" One afternoon she rang me up from her office and quoted chapter and verse:

"Sura 88" entitled "Overwhelming: Al Ghassheyah." It read:

And so on. My quest came to an end.

Lal Masjid extremists

General Musharraf says: "The Army men who died in ‘Silence Operation’

were martyrs for they laid down their lives for the sake of the nation."

Radicals say: "Jihadis of Lal Masjid were pitted against an alien demon.

Since they were martyred in a Holy War, they will straightaway go to heaven." I wondered whom will God send to heaven and whom will he hold behind. While my mind was seized of this doubt,a Ghalib’s verse came to my mind: "Hum ko maloom hai jannat ki haqiqat, lekin, dil ko khush rakhne ko Ghalib, yeh khayal achcha hai."

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