Desperately searching for a scapegoat

Fortunately, our indignation has found official support. 8220;Aggrieved8221; by Perreira8217;s 8220;grossly inadequate8221; sentence 8212; no more than six months8217; simple imprisonment 8212; the Maharashtra Government will challenge it in the high court today, and seek to charge him with murder Section 302. In addition, Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar will hear a suo moto writ petition 8220;to prevent miscarriage of justice, if any8221; following the 8220;apathetic manner8221; of investigation and prosecution by the state and police.

Mind you, Vilasrao Deshmukh8217;s government may seem like an unlikely crusader. But, obviously, there8217;s always room for rectitude. What I fail to understand, however, is our sanctimonious smugness 8212; for several reasons.

Firstly, if inebriation was indeed the cause of the crime, it is conspicuously absent in Perreira8217;s charges he was merely convicted for rash and negligent driving, causing hurt, and fined Rs 5 lakh to compensate the victims. Why? Because six months after the incident, the state executive seems to have done absolutely nothing to amend our ambiguous and lenient legislation on drunk driving. Besides, after the initial crackdown, the police, who have been accused of 8220;bungling8221; the evidence against Perreira, are back to their good old wink-wink policing. The nakabandis have vanished, the breathalysers evaporated 8212; presumably until the next gruesome carnage.

Secondly, if the sarkar is indeed 8220;aggrieved8221; that Perreira was acquitted of culpable homicide, it seems to have conveniently acquitted itself of the same charge. I don8217;t know about you, but any government which allows 5,00,000 people to sleep on city streets seems pretty culpable to me. Worse, the state actually permits its own civic contractors to house their migrant labour free of cost on our pavements 8212; thousands of men, women and children lying prey to theft and, possibly, being run over by another sloshed brat in daddy8217;s fancy car. Again, I don8217;t know about you, I would call this 8220;causing grievous hurt8221;.

Thirdly, if we are all so upset about how the rich and powerful can trash the poor and defenceless, how come not one of Mumbai8217;s fifteen million bleeding hearts has come forward to help or rehabilitate the victims? Why are they still on the streets, waiting patiently for official aid, while the government conveniently passes the buck and moves the court to force Perreira to cough up more compensation?

Quite simply, because no one really gives a damn. That8217;s why, in a country where people frequently break laws with impunity, Alistair Perreira is that most vital of things: the scapegoat, who must pay for our collective sins of commission and omission 8212; both public and official.

Does he deserve a harsher punishment? Perhaps. But only for his real crime: rash and negligent driving under the influence of alcohol. Unfortunately, in this country, that merely carries a maximum sentence of two years, with several convenient loopholes. Yet, interestingly, none of us outraged and supposedly sober citizens have demanded more stringent revisions.