This interesting news has struck me hard. Really hard. Criminals convicted in 1993 Mumbai Bomb Blasts had filed a case in Mumbai High Court against the Jail Administration for not providing them with Non Vegeterian food in Jail Canteen.
I was awestruck. But, after finishing reading this when I learnt that the Honourable Court had ruled in the favour of criminals and ordered the Jail Administration to revise their Menu, I almost fell off my chair.
What I perceived from the story was as follows.
In our Jails, different treatment is meted out to Foreigners. Reason : They are not habituated to Roti-Sabji and Dal-Chawal, as per a report submitted by Jail Nutritionists and thus the forigners are given different food. Now, on this basis, the Criminals are arguing, since they are not habituated to eating Vegeterian much they should be given the food as per their tastes. Fair enough.
What I fail to understand is, why are people sent to Jail in first place? Isn’t putting in Jail is supposed to be a punishment? Isn’t this punishment supposed to be some grave offenses, which do not come under category of spilling the food on carpet or pulling hair of classmates? What is the basic reason for confining someone under the law?
To deprive one of his own choices is the basic reason for putting in Jail, is what I think. When someone is forced to act on someone else’s directions, it is the biggest punishment of all. Jail is supposed to be that. Your movements are restricted. Your eating times are restricted. Sometimes, even your nature calls are put under supervision. Similarly, it has to apply to choice of food too. Why the hell on this earth do we give Foreigner Prisoners different food? I don’t understand the reason. But, here the Human Rights angle comes in to play. And I must say, this is entirely far-fetched assumption that Foreigners have a right to their tastes. Taste and Habit, by any normal standard cannot be counted as the basic Human Rights. Just because we discriminated for Foreigners, the Jail Administration is humiliated at the hands of Merciless Bomb Blast Convicts. Veg-Non Veg issue is laughable, but it raises serious questions about our system. Tell me, who is going to pay for these guys’ tastes? We are paying for this all. We the tax-payers pay for this. Imagine, them- the ones who killed many of us – demanding Mutton and Chicken paid by our money.
Going by this case, there will be one day, when the Jail inmates would also want to get married and ask for allowing wife to be with them for certain days a week, since they are not habituated to living without their wives.
Our entire system is known for its making mockery of everything serious. We give so many facilities to political leaders in prison, that he won’t even get on an official visit. We make a National Sensation out of Mass Killer Ajmal Amir Kasab. We make even death sentence equivalent to Rationing, by having 22 mercy pleas pending at President’s table and moreover, our ministers feel proud announcing it in front of nationwide media. This is just one more feather to our cap.