Justice by People and Justice by Court

Ms J Jayalalithaa , the Chief Minister of the State of Tamil Nadu, India was convicted on 27^th September 2014 under the Prevention of Corruption Act and sentenced to four years in prison for accumulating wealth disproportionate to her known sources of income in an 18-year-old corruption case.  Consequent upon the decision is that she has been send to the jail and she shall not be able to fight an election for next ten years. 

Ironically, it was only four months ago, that her party AIADMK has made unprecedented victory of 37 seats out of 39 seats in Tamil Nadu and routed their rival party DMK completely.

She was convicted for a case booked in 1996 when during raid the DMK government,  800kg silver, 28kg gold, 750 pairs of shoes, 10,500 sarees, 91 watches and other items that were seized from her residence.  Jayalalitha then swore that she would not wear jewelry again. It was only in 2012 that after her massive electoral comeback, she wore a small ear studs, that too because, she said, party workers asked her to, some even threatening to kill themselves if she didn't acquiesce.

While the politicians are issuing predictable statements based on their party affiliations, the people are divided.  Many people have welcomed the decision of the Court but the voters and supporters are AIADMK are highly disappointed and they have even attempted self-immolation.

The mute question is that in a democracy, whether the judgment of the Court is superior to the judgment of the people?

The Principle of Karma

Karma is one of the most sacred principles of all Indian religions. It is believed that our destiny is decided based on our karma. There is a ‘karmic account’ of every person,  where all good and evil deeds are stored and we are awarded or punished based on our accumulated karma (Sanchit karma). It is said that even our next birth is dependent on our accumulated karma at the time of our death.

The principles of karma state that it is possible to overcome the effect of our evil karma by performing more positive karma, which can neutralize our negative karma.

However, in the modern judicial system, there is no effect of good deeds on our evil deeds. Even if you performed thousand good deeds, they can’t overcome the effect of one evil deed. A man is judged not by his good deeds but by his evil deeds. It is no body’s case the Ms J Jayalalitha performed quite well as Chief Minister in recent years, which resulted in historic victory of her party in 2014 General Election. She has done many good works in last two decades, yet all such good deeds can’t overcome the effect of her evil karma conducted more than twenty years ago.

She is not judged for what she is now, but punished for what she was two decades ago. He vows to not wear any jewelry and to provide a clean government subsequently, shows that she learned her lessons and attempted to improve herself.  

Is it not better that we take a holistic view of all the good and evil deeds of a person and award punishment only when his evil deeds are in excess of the good? If a person realizes his mistake after doing the evil deeds and try to overcome the evil by performing many-fold more deeds, should he not be awarded for the numerous good deeds rather than being punished for few evil deeds?

In chapter “Crime and Punishment” of the book Prophet by Khalil Gibran, the following words of wisdom were said:-

And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds?

Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would fain serve?

Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty.

Unbidden shall it call in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves.

And you who would understand justice, how shall you unless you look upon all deeds in the fullness of light?

Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pygmy-self and the day of his god-self,

And that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation.

Crime and Criminal

It may be an error to consider crime and criminal as one. There is lot of wisdom in the words of Gandhi—‘love the sinner but hate the sin’. It is because every sinner has a future and every saint has a past.  If a person commits a sin, he does not become sinner—which implies that he does only sin. The same sinner can become a saint once he realizes his mistake. Who can forget the story of the Valmiki, a bandit, who became a great saint once he understood the truth?

Thousands of years ago, there was a bandit in a jungle who used to loot people passing through the jungle. Once, a few sages were going that way when the bandit stopped them and asked them to surrender whatever possessions they had.

A sage asked the bandit, ‘Why are you doing this? Don’t you know it is a sin to loot others’ wealth?’

‘I know it is a sin. However, I am doing it to feed my family,’ the bandit replied.

‘But you are making a big mistake,’ said the saint. ‘As you are doing it through the act of looting, you have to carry all the burden of this sin.’ He then asked the bandit, ‘Your family may be sharing the loot, but will they also share your sin?’

‘Surely they will,’ said the bandit confidently. ‘When they share my loot, why shall they not share my sin?’

‘Please go and ask your family members,’ replied the saint. ‘If they are willing, please take all we have.’

The bandit went home and asked each member of his family if they were willing to share his sin. However, all the members replied that since he was the one committing those sins, only he must bear their burden. They showed their unwillingness to be a party to his sins.

Shocked, the bandit realised his mistake and came back to the saints. He fell on their feet and sought their forgiveness. ‘Only God can forgive you,’ they said. ‘Please go and pray to God and He will forgive you and give you light.’

The bandit did penance and prayed for many years and sought light from God. Finally, he gained enlightenment and became one of the greatest saints of India. He later went on to write the most famous Indian epic, Ramayana—the story of Rama—and earned eternal fame.

Purpose of Punishment

What should be the purpose of punishment? Is it to reform the person or to punish him for his evil deeds?

If the purpose is to reform, why should one be punished if he has already reformed and not committed the same mistake for years?

If the purpose is to punish, should we not consider all the good deeds also and then make a judgment if the good deeds were more or evil?

While many of us would be celebrating for the punishment for a powerful CM and believe that it shall send the right signal to all corrupt politicians, it is difficult to believe that corruptions at high places would stop by her conviction unless a system is created where people can become successful politicians without engaging in any corrupt activity. While we are celebrating the imprisonment of Jayalalitha, we must also introspect if we are ourselves clean. Let us not forget the words of Jesus Christ in Bible.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

While Ms J Jayalalitha has to suffer the punishment given to her by the Court of Law, we need not to condemn her without taking the holistic view of her good and evil deeds. We must also think of creating a justice system which can take the holistic view of the good and evil deeds of a person while awarding the punishment.

Perhaps the verdict of the people is better than the verdict of the Courts because people can forgive and judge the person as more holistically they now are--rather than deciding based on ‘what they had been’ using the law that refuses to recognize the reformation of the person and the effect of thousand good deeds.