Law should be above money
and muscle power
The law should be
equal for celebrities and ordinary citizens alike in serious offences that
result in deaths. Ours is a country
where money can do any wonder. Our country guarantees us equality of justice to
its all citizens regardless of their caste, creed, religion and social status,
but it has been a perennial precedent that a person with power and money can
easily make mockery of our entire system. Law of the land is equal to all is
just namesake. A strong revolution is awaited to make the equality of justice a
reality like in US where the law did not spare even a great boxer like Mike
Tyson. Even President Nixon was not spared by US Law.
The entire verdict
on Salman should have focused on the consequences of drunken driving and road
safety reforms required, but instead a section of the media and bollywood is
trying to picture the man with a 'golden heart' image of the actor. Being
charitable is wonderful, but it doesn't justify the wrong done.
A person's present
charity work can never extricate him of his past crimes. Salman is no doubt a
great human being but one can see the guilt in his eyes; he started charity
work only after this incidence in 2002. He was trying to absolve himself from
the crime by doing humanitarian work to get self peace and satisfaction. The
justice was delivered after 13 years but one can still question about the
quantum of punishment. The extent of apathy shown to the victims by some of the
bollywood fraternity was really shocking. Singer Abhijeet even went up to say
if you sleep on the road you will get crushed like a dog.
Why entire
Bollywood and so called fans of Salman Khan are trying to protect him despite
the fact that he was found guilty after due judicial process, of causing death
of poor people due to drunken driving? Does it mean that either these people
have no respect for the country's laws or do they mean to say that being a
celebrity, Salman was free to cause any damage to anyone and everyone? The
right course for the actor and his misguided supporters ought to have been to
admit the crime at the very first opportunity, make himself available for any
punishment and offer to take care of the survivors of the families of those killed.
That would have earned him greater respect rather than gathering sympathy for
him by highlighting whatever humanitarian work he has done.
However, it is
unfortunate that other celebrities like Farah Ali Khan and Abheejit tweeted and
spoke in an uncivilised manner, making derogatory comments on the victims. The
term 'celebrity' has lost its positive connotation long ago in our country ever
since the silver screen and the media started eulogizing anti heroes and
extremists and giving them larger than life image.
It is not really
Salman who has paid "the price for his celebrity status." Rather, it
was the poor, innocent man sleeping on the pavement who really paid the price
with his life for the arrogance that comes from accumulated wealth and an
"image" a "successful" man can build for himself. It is
only when we come to visualise that pavement dweller as the real hero who
sacrificed his life to defeat the arrogance of "success" & "image", that we will have recovered our moral sense.
Rule of Law should
prevail over the money and muscle power.
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