Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Of Criminal Lawyers and Child Labour and Motherly Love

Criminal Lawyer:

What makes a person take the side of a criminal? Is it money? Is it just plain professionalism? Is it the urge to do something wild?
I know, a criminal is not one until proven so. Agreed. Also, as a constitutional right, everybody has to get a fair trial, be it a criminal or a poor person, or an influential person. I understand the legality of it. But as a lawyer, if you “know” that somebody has committed a crime (be it small or big), what makes you take the side of them and “fight” to free them?
I know in this materialistic world of complex laws, human rights, media attention, money, power and whatever else you can think of, it is too much to expect everybody to be righteous. But isn’t there something called as moral-conscience? A quiet inner voice which talks to you in the middle of the night?
How can a person sell his soul for money or fame? In comparison to people who sell their souls, people who sell their bodies for money are so much better!

Child Labour:

Today is children’s day. A happy Children’s day to all those millions of children out there in the world. Child labour, as we all know and understand and accept is a bad thing. That clearly shows how backward the society is where it expects a child to work and earn bread for the family. The government (for a change) did something good by banning it. We all also know that this law is in place for as long as we can remember, but unfortunately have not been followed strictly. Now I suppose there will be periodic checks and offenders will be severely prosecuted. This is a good move, but is it in the right direction?
I am all against child labour, but what are we achieving by just taking off their means of bread? The child does get free education and food in school, but what about his/her family?
The situation is not as simple as it meets the eye. Poverty leads to lots of misery. Do I even need to say that? These children work hard to fend not only for themselves but also for their family. If they are off the work, what next?
As I said before, it is a good move but in a bad direction. You cannot just expect to implement the law overnight. The grass root problem has to be looked into.
Provide them part time education. Set maximum hour of work that they can do and rest of the time let them go to school. In that way they are able to do both. And believe me once one generation is educated and has a good job, I am sure they will put their children in schools voluntarily. Provide alternative employment for their family members. Or even give some monetary compensation to such families.
Unfortunately all these measures can be put in place if and only if somebody high up there and every single person below him feels from the bottom of his/her heart for the betterment of the underprivileged children of our country. If it is just again the same old story of vote bank politics and other selfish interests, nothing can save us. Not even God!
God also helps only those who can help or atleast try to attempt to help themselves :)
Motherly Love:

In all this misery around us, there is also Love, plenty of it. Came across this beautiful article in
Bellur’s blog

http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/01-11-2006/85322-coma-0

That is called mother’s love. That is called the most powerful strength in this whole world. That is Love. Pure unconditional Love. That kind of love can be given only by a mother and nobody else.

6 comments:

Priya said...

Situation and his surrounding (family, friends & neighbors) make shim to go that way. If you say money, yes. If he needs he does it and thaz the easiest way for a criminal to go for it.

Thanks for sharing that blog:-))

pavan kumar said...

another reason that *might* be why he (Jethmalani) is defending Sharma:

thrills/risk-taking gives a high to many.. and when you know that there is nothing to lose (the worst case scenario: he would say that he didnt argue assuming he was innocent, but because Sharma had a right to get defense, and he would move on as if nothing happened..) and if he won, it would be BIG. For him, a win-win situation.

I wouldnt say it is eq. to soul-selling.. as 1) it is his job 2) it is legal 3) I dont think there is a Hypocrite's oath (as in medical) that prevents him from defending someone.. or anyone.. even Saddam had a defense attorney.. yes conscious/antaraatma might get trampled.. but whose job doesnt involve that.. people fake resumes, maybe that doesnt have large-scale implications but it *might*

what is sickening is that it is 10 years and things havent been resolved yet (and soap-opera like twists happening everyday).. that is more distubing.. I dont worry about the court's decision.. if he had got life-sentence within an year of crime, good, if he was left free, still good, as some radical would have shot him down, for sure.

/end-of-rant

Shark said...

@priya: A criminal's behaviour is understandable. He finds some happiness in doing wrong things to the soceity. But a Lawyer? So does that mean he is also a criminal?

@pavan: Vicarious pleasure? maybe Yes! As I have mentioned before, I am not questioning the legality of it. I know it's legal.. I am just questioning the morality of it. Specially when you "know for sure" that he is a criminal.

Resume faking is harmless, I mean what is the worst thing that can happen with it? A wrong man for the wrong job? You can always fire him if he is incompetent. It is not irreversible.

But Rape and Murder is a grave crime! Somebody lost their daughter at a young age for no fault of hers!

These both cannot be equated! We all cheat/lie... but they are harmless... and even if unknowingly it is harmful, we can always correct it. But a dead person does not come back.

Anonymous said...

I read it earlier...
waited to see if i have something to say...
but nope!
I guess i would not have minded becoming a lawyer if I thought it was ok. I never liked it.
Perhaps a lawyer can give an answer this.

Anonymous said...

about the lawyer: less said the better.

about child labour: hope it gets abolished soon.
please visit this link: http://features.ibnlive.com/special/child-interrupted.html

about motherly love: a mother's love is instinctual, unconditional, and forever.

btw, thanks for giving a link to my blog.

take care and cheers

Shark said...

@sojourner: Yes only lawyers can give answer to it... Any lawyers around???

@bellur: I had seen that link. It's a nice step. But I can't help myself thinking.. what section of the soceity is tech savy? What section of the soceity even reads news paper for anything other than the movie section?
20%? What about the rest 80%? How do we bring awareness to them? Door to door campaign is the only solution.