An Hour of Imprisonment per Murder

"What's in a name? That which we call a murder
By any other name would disgust as much."

Shakespeare would have surely said something akin to that; that is, if he were alive in December 1984. Whatever be the legal terminology, the fact remains that a murder is a murder is a murder irrespective of the the name given to confuse ordinary people.

Over a generation back, to be more precise, around midnight on the intervening night of December 2–3, 1984 a man-made tragedy struck. Over 16,000 lost lives, some immediately and others in following weeks, as a result of release of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other toxins, resulting in the exposure of over 500,000 people. State government estimates are much lower, as normally is the case in India, and its figures can not be relied upon. The actual tragedy is more gruesome than what mere numbers can tell. Most of the money meant for relief of victims has gone onto the pockets of politicians, babus, lawyers and middlemen; hundreds of thousands continue to lead miserable lives which is perhaps worse than death and the effect may continue for some generations, hopefully with diminishing intensity.

Indian judicial system is designed around the ancient concept of kshama (Sanskrit: "patience; forbearance and pardon"); albeit in a completely messed up manner. It is kshama given to convicts at the expense of their victims and victimizing the victims further.

This trial took 19 judges to preside over the case in good 26 years. The judgment which came very late gave punishment of two years imprisonment to surviving seven of the eight convicts. This works out to an hour of imprisionment for every murder and completely absolved for leaving a million or two as living dead. UCIL got fined by Rupees five lakhs (around USD 10,000) which is perhaps much smaller than their accounting rounding off error! This is some judgment!