The Price of Liberty

There is not a lot of intelligent comment, critique, or engagement possible with laws that claim to be something new, but which are, in fact, little more than badly aged wine in gaudy new bottles. The laws are so terribly lacking in anything new of substance that even the opinion pieces have become monotonous even as they have been frequent. The bottom line is pretty straightforward: No decolonisation, sketchy reform, largely copy-paste with a little dash of the draconian here and there, and an Indic spice to make it look Indian (make sure you fix all those old illustrations referring to foreign lands in the Evidence Act, dear Draftsman).

I do not want to add to this. I wish I had no truck with this, but that is impossible. Instead this piece is just going to share a sense of anguish. What pains me is the thought that come July 1, the citizenry will yet again be stripped of its decency and turned into little more than subjects. Subjects, who will now be the lab rats upon whom the latest 'good idea' of the despots in power is to be tested. Because if one thing is clear from all the publicity blitzkrieg that the government is trying out, it is that the state machinery in-charge of enforcing the new laws — police, judges, government officials — are either still being trained to do so, or in some parts have probably not even started to do so. 

I am not even going down the path which questions the claims of training. As someone who has seen a few official 'up-skilling' and 'training' programs, let's just say that a few dozen of such sessions, not merely a few, are required to train someone. Nor am I going too much into what is being imparted at these trainings; which if the puff-pieces are correct is seriously troubling. Take just one example. Both India Today and The Hindu (amongst others) have reported that one of the changes about which officials are being taught is that "police custody has been increased from 15 to 90 days" (one adds that this is "depending on the gravity of the offence"). Rather than clarify the shoddily drafted clause (section 187), the government is actively promoting its most draconian interpretation.   

I am still finding it difficult to move past the fact that the governments are openly admitting to the lack of preparedness in enforcing arguably the most important set of laws. At some level, you have to respect the honesty. The puff-pieces could have said that everything is ready and a new reality will dawn upon us. That they haven't, and still nobody is really too fussed about these new laws coming in (hardly front-page news it has been), is perhaps all we need to know about how seriously we are taking this paradigm shift that will hit us in the solar plexus in a few days. It is far from surprising, though. Crime, criminal law, and all such matters, are always something that concern the underclass of society, and not us, the respectables. It is the most routine from of 'othering' that we engage in. 

Many will soon stop protesting and secretly enjoy in the implementation of the new laws. It will give us great professional satisfaction in advising persons about their details, finding problems in their working, and some lucky ones will even be crafting arguments to help keep the laws form unleashing their draconian potential to the fullest. But during all of this, I hope we can do our utmost to first challenge, and later keep reminding ourselves and others, about the injustices we are likely to encounter. When some some poor young man from a religious or socio-economic minority becomes the first person arrested under the new laws, please do not just log that as a fun fact or data point or a headline (yes, I am looking at you, news media). Stop and think about how this unfortunate person, and other such 'common criminals', are going to be processed by the semi-trained state machinery on the conveyor belt justice served up in magistrate courts with police custody being granted for months. Until one fine day when the constitutional courts sit up and take notice as a fit case (read monied) reaches their doorsteps, and the law is clarified to tell us that police custody was not really possible for months after all. 

The price of liberty, as the saying goes, is eternal vigilance. It will take every ounce of collective strength to ensure that the price of liberty is respected in full by the state as it tries to bulldoze through its latest vanity project upon us, even though we know that not everyone is equally likely to be caught in the path of destruction.