Value of Life

By Shantanu -
There was a piece of news that Supreme court has reduced the compensation to be paid to the victims of Uphaar cinema hall tragedy in which several people were burnt alive in 1997, from Rs 15 lakhs to Rs 7 lakhs. While the Supreme Court is the highest authority and any attempt to write against it would be treated as “contempt of the court”, I humbly ask one question to the honorable judges – what is the value of life? How can one even compute the value of a life lost, the cost of pains and sufferings and miseries for over fourteen years for the family members who are fighting for justice? In any civilized country the court would have asked for maximum punitive damages from the guilty party, in this case the builders, the MCD, the police etc. who gave the necessary safety clearances (a clear case of corruption). Sadly in India human life is treated with utmost contempt and often vested interests and other considerations hold greater sway. The builder (Ansals) however will appeal even though they must be inwardly gladdened. I do not know if at all there is a system in India to compute the value of lives lost due to negligence, corruption or malpractices.

Will mere bickering over the amount help in bringing back the lives lost or help dispel the miseries caused? No, the punitive damage is meant to only act as caution to the others who are guilty of the same malpractices and yet are running unscathed. This was supposed to set a precedence, sound warning bells to miscreants that if you do something wrong you need to pay a very heavy price, be it in terms of money, reputation or business. Therefore it would have been ideal to charge maximum punitive damage, whatever is possible for the business house to provide even at the cost of going delinquent. The families are fighting based on principles; they are not after the monetary amount, a bigger amount of compensation would have dealt a better blow to the guilty business house and government organizations responsible for the mishap. It would probably have also served as a reminder of the “cost of corruption” to Government and general public and may have pressurized public servants to be more careful in future with respect to public safety. But alas, none of that has happened and an opportunity has been missed.

Comments

Post a Comment

Here you can post your own opinions, no spam however will be tolerated and no hateful comments will be posted.

Popular posts from this blog

Similarities between German and Sanskrit

By Shantanu -
After studying German grammer and while studying Sanskrit grammer, I came across some very interesting similarities between the two. Perhaps this is one of the reason why the "Aryan" theory came into existence after Europeans discovered the linguistic similarities of the ancient Indians with Europeans. The similarity is the underlying base for the Indo-Germanic languages. However to my mind the root cause of this similarity is not because European sprache spread across the globe towards the East along with Aryans (the theory has now been established as a bunkum except being tenaciously held by some racists and Marxists), but rather Sanskrit spread towards Europe which was at that point of time a mainly barabarian regime devoid of any capability of constructing a civilized form of language. Sanskrit was probably then as popular as English is today and thus early Europeans eagerly and zealously adopted the syntax as their base. Coming to the similarities that I observed -
Read more

Oi Mahamanab Ase - Netaji's Subhas Chandra Bose's after life and activities Part 1

By Shantanu -
A series of articles appeared in the Jayashree magazine by a certain penname called Charanik, which created some flutter in the later 1960s and 1970s. The writings were abstruse and cryptic and depicting the teachings of a certain spiritual person named Mahakaal who used to call himself a Mrito Bhoot or dead ghost. The narrations were based on journals and notes of the disciples of the aforementioned Mahakaal. Some of the intelligent mind however could ascertain the person behind Mahakaal, but the way the articles were written, they never gave away the names and the locations. Seasoned journalists like Barun Sengupta however sensed that there were more behind these articles and conjectured whether they pertained to Netaji. The articles only provided the activities, the viewpoints - both political and spiritual and some form of after life of a super human who was dead to the society. Since then, the articles have been republished by Jayashree in a book titled Oi Mahamanab Ase. The boo
Read more

Swami Vivekananda and Sudra Jagaran or the Awakening of the masses - His visions for a future world order - Part 1

By Shantanu -
A struggle to understand the prevailing social and economic conditions all over the world and a knowledge of Swami Vivekananda’s visions as reflected in his speeches and writings, can provide one with profound insights on the direction in which the world is moving. It does not need any prophetic vision, only some knowledge of history and ability to develop a regression model from the past data into future, based on variables shaped by the present conditions and an inspiration from Swami Vivekananda in his voice without his form. Swamiji’s profound thought was reflected in his essay – Modern India, and several of his letters. He said, “ According to the prevalence, in greater or lesser degree, of the three qualities of Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas in man, the four castes, the Brahmin, Kashatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra, are everywhere present at all times, in all civilised societies. By the mighty hand of time, their number and power also vary at different times in regard to different countr
Read more