Why do I hate Salman Khan ?
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The charges framed against Salman Khan may not stand after long drawn proceedings at various courts. Frankly, I should not care. This has been my belief from a very early age that if everybody took the responsibility of enforcing the law, it only leads to chaos. There are right people at right places to do the right thing. This belief has been often shaken in the recent times. This has been one of those times.
Facts of the "pavement murders" case are simple.
Salman Khan was driving rashly under the influence of alcohol, in spite of warnings from the Police Constable. According to me, he had committed a crime even before he drove over the pavement. But this crime is committed by 100s of people every day in our country and is not practical to put each of them behind the bars. [alternative ??]. But definitely, when he ran them over he is culpable - homicide or otherwise. There are others culpable as well... but that's another story.
To make matters worse, he fled the scene... His explanation being that he was being beaten up by a mob. Would the mob touch him, if his initial reaction was to rush to the victims and try and administer first aid ?? Never. He would be a real life star if he did. People would have long forgotten that he caused the "accident" (which could have been avoided) and remembered him as a messiah who helped. But this super star does not even offer to help. An hour or so later... Arbaaz khan returns back to the scene. Again not with the intention of helping the victims but to threaten those who beat up his kid brother. Truly atrocious.
In western countries, it is a separate chargeable crime to flee the scene of the accident (how ever minor it may be) you are involved in it. In India however, it is clubbed with accident and thus makes hardly any difference if you flee or not if you are already identified.
Now, due to vagueness of our constitution or witnesses turning hostile or total lack of evidence or some lame reason a corrupt judge may find, Salman will be exonerated sooner or later.
From my point of view he is prima facie guilty. If not for IPC... blah blah blah... but for driving under influence... and fleeing the scene. According to me, he should be in jail for the rest of his jawani until his josh comes down to the level of his hosh (& akhal). Further Arbaaz Khan should also be behind the bars for bullying around the crime scene instead of helping. Further the owner of the bakery they were working in is to be charged for not giving them enough money to be sleeping in a safe place. How can one work all day and still not get a safe night's sleep... this is definitely exploitation.
If you think carefully, what is that which differentiates Salman Khan from his victims. Money. Contacts. If you take away these two things he will have to face the system that he helped build / spoil all alone by himself. I have decided to hence not see any of the movies / albums / ads where he has acted / produced / directed... Total economic boycott. You may argue, that does collateral damage to many innocent workers. In fact that leads to my next step. Destroy his contacts. By consistently boycotting his films he will be alienated in the industry. With not much dough left in him, the media and the Mafia will also lose interest in him.
If you agree with my reasoning and methods spread the word and enforce a total boycott.
If you still have some apprehensions in telling yourself to support this, may be the following paragraphs help you.
Why Salman ??
By now you must be thinking what personal interest do I have in seeing Salman convicted. Nothing. Nothing but a personal re-assurance of my childhood beliefs. There are other people in public life who have got away with more heinous crimes. I could / can do nothing about them. But Salman Khan lives on the money we supply. We can pull the plug and hence the moral compulsion to do it.
It is also not as hard as asking "not to bribe", although it is in the same lines. In case of not bribing you may run the risk of running against an entire system without anonymity. I am not asking you to be a Satyendra Dubey. Not even close to being him. Here you can have complete anonymity and still play a part in justice being done.
Isn't Salman a nice person at heart?
May be. I even read a small 1/2 inch column in Bangalore times that he donates his bone marrow at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. But any amount of charity, and good will, can take away the fact that he caused the death of a person under the influence of alcohol. Added to this, if he wins the case by subverting the law on some vague pretext, he makes it difficult for lawyers to get conviction on drunken driving cases in future by setting a wrong precedent.
Is it ethical/legal ??
Yes it is. At least according to me. But you have to do your own thinking. But I can assure you that it is legal. You are willingly keeping out of any economic activity which you feel will unjustly benefit the perpetrators of a crime. Its your right to be out. Nobody can deny that from you.
DUI - Driving Under Influence : is a serious crime. People put their life as well as other's life at risk if they drink and drive. At the same time, it is not practical to put everybody in jail for that. The legal procedures required to that is not worth the result. Hence more tangible way to handle drunken driving outside of the judicial system. Simple algorithmic approach must be taken to determine the punishment.
For Example :
1. First Offense => Police custody till Alcohol content is down to acceptable limits and 40 hours of community service. This can not be challenged in court if the readings are taken at the time of the crime.
2. Second Offense => Same as First offense. Driving License suspended for a year and 80 hours of Community service.
3. Third Offense => License Revoked permanently.
Mind you, this is only for driving under influence and not causing accidents.
Other people responsible for this tragedy are
- Bakery Owner: for being so miserly that his employees can not even afford a house to sleep in after a day's hard work
- Government of India: for not taking care of the poor and misfortunate
- Mob that beat up Salman and Arbaaz: Mob justice is not an alternative to any judicial system - however screwed up it is. The first priority is to get the treatment for the injured and not providing blind justice to the dead. But when it comes to giving sworn testimony no body raises his hand. Do you see a bit of hypocrisy in this statement??
- Passengers of the vehicle: for allowing Salman to drive.
Total economic boycott is not a new concept for Indians. Gandhiji called for it to starve the British from the money made from Manchester Cloth. He believed that if the English lost economic interest in India, they would leave voluntarily. Even before the efforts could take its full effect, he took back the movement due to some seemingly trivial reasons. But that's history. What it can achieve is there for us to see and emulate.
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