NOT ALL SOULS ARE SOLD

 


“Any one who fights for the future,

lives in it today.”

-Ayn Rand


What was my role in the just concluded court battle between The Supreme Court of India Vs Prashant Bhushan? Was I routing for the Apex court (The Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra) or was I routing for Prashant Bhushan?

I really nodded my head and kept smiling like a li’l boy when I heard the judgement: “The punishment for your guilt – not saying ‘sorry’ - will be one rupee. If you don’t pay it by such-and-such date, you will be sent to jail for three months and your license to practice as a lawyer will be taken away for such-and-such period.”

And, what is the take away for people like me – the curious spectators?

I am curious!

For a person like Prashant Bhushan, punishment is an honour. He is made of a different stuff. That’s why the judges of the highest court of the land knew, that they had to be extra-cautious while taming him…

Now, let’s leave Prashant Bhushan alone. You and I will never have an occasion to either dine with him or the judges of the Apex court…

Let’s see what happens to us while saying ‘Sorry’ to someone we hurt. To me, in most situations, it comes naturally – whoever the other person is. But, then, so many times, I find it extremely difficult to say this simple word ‘Sorry’. As an ideal, I happily, willingly, humbly embrace it. But, an ‘ideal’ is always a huge challenge to live by, you see!

If alone we ‘feel sorry’, the ‘saying sorry’ makes sense. Else, it’s like the lynch mob asking me, at gunpoint – ‘Shout Halleluiah’ or ‘Bolo Jai Shri Ram’, or ‘Allah-O-Akbar’… Yes, I may say what is demanded of me with threat… But, of what use that ‘Glory to God’ be?

And, of what use that ‘Sorry’ from Prashant Bhushan to the conscience of court would have been? He was not at all ‘feeling sorry’… saying it as it is: “It would be ‘a contempt of conscience’!”

With highest respect to the Highest Court of our nation, I wish to say, it was a battle not between The Supreme Court of India Vs. Prashant Bhushan… It was a battle between ‘Contempt of Court Vs. Contempt of Conscience’…

Powered by the ‘courage of conviction’!

 


Many young men and women may now desire to take up Law as their profession. We need ‘Bhushans’ in every field, today… Law. Media, Politics, in every field…

Young men and women are dying of thirst… the thirst of idealism… They desperately need inspiration!

 


Yes, all souls are not sold!


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: indianexpess.com

Video: 1. Ajay Kannuri 2. Ron Lim (Both from the movie 'Gandhi')

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