Being Inhuman

May 6 – The day when the verdict was finally going to be out whether Salman was going to be imprisoned for ramming his Toyota Land Cruiser over 5 people, killing one and injuring the others. A very anxious day for his fans and his family. People are praying for a positive verdict, the social media is abuzz with wishes and criticism. The verdict arrives and the lower court pronounces 5 year imprisonment for  Salman Khan.

Am a simple blogger, no one to comment on whether the verdict was fair or unfair; whether Salman deserved this kind of a treatment, whether he actually deserved to be behind bars. All this is something that the court would decide. But something that really struck me hard during all this frenzy was how inhuman we are turning out to be.

Am baffled by the huge number of supporters turning up and standing up with this star ,people who started the trend #BeingWithSalmanKhan and all the other stupid Bollywood stars who tweeted in support of Salman. I wonder are we totally losing out on humanity?I wonder whether the poor deserve a death like this because their only fault is that they are poor. Am enraged that  a singer like Abhijeet tweets , “Kutta rd pe soyega kutte ki maut marega, roads garib ke baap ki nahi hai I ws homles an year nvr slept on rd @BeingSalmanKhan @sonakshisinha.” I wonder whether the middle class and the lower middle class who purchase tickets every Friday to see their ‘Bhai-jaan’ on the big screen deserve a death like this.  This very tweet  and serveral other inhuman tweets show the mindset that these Bollywood demi gods have.

Am surprised by the hypocritical attitude of the Indians who created a lot of noise when Sunny Leone was brought to Big Boss 8. She was termed a western reject, someone who could possibly tarnish the so called Indian sanskaar. But it surprises me how we can easily forget the fact that the very host of the show Mr. Salman Khan was himself a convict. A convict who killed an innocent man lying on the streets of Mumbai because he cannot afford a Galaxy for himself. Am puzzled why people are praying that he be let free just because he has a charitable organization “Being human”. What is the point of offering charity and doing good stuff when you could ask your driver to take up all the blame and go to jail? What is the point of feeding thousands of poor kids when you have left a kid orphan by killing his father? Given the benefit of doubt Mr. Salman Khan may be a changed man ( as people claim) but the very fact that he has  pressurized his driver to accept that he was driving the Toyota Land Cruiser on that fateful night shows how little he cares for someone .. How does this qualify being human?

I am stunned by some Facebook posts and tweets that say he has done so many good things for people and helps people blindly. Does that compensate for a life lost ? From all those atrocious posts, some posted even by my friends I feel that my life has no value. If a car runs over me while am walking on the road, and if the car is a Bentley or Cruiser, that is totally fine because I belong to a middle class family and  I deserve to die on the roads. My family would get a compensation of around 19 lakhs and that would be the cost of my life or my murderer would pay up a bond of 30000 bucks the price of my life. Killing someone never sounded so casual till yesterday.

We are the very people who created chaos when two college going girls posted a simple status online.Their houses were broken , they were threatened just because they put up a simple status. But when Salman is convicted of homicide, it’s unfair. Why is it unfair ? Just because he is a star. Does this mean only the lives of rich have value in this country ?

For dumb people who say footpaths are not meant for sleeping, I would want to ask them are footpaths meant for drunken driving. If yes, then you are going to be next casualty or you could even die because some rich spoilt brat high on alcohol would unexpectedly or unintentionally ram over his cruiser on you, run away from the scene of the crime, get his driver take all the blame , offer your family a compensation to shut the case up. And if nothing works avoid the jail term by offering a paltry sum of 30000 and all that your family would get is 13 years of running across the corridors of the court and sleepless nights.

The verdict isn’t unfair but people supporting a crime like this definitely are. You can never compensate the loss of a life  even if you have 100 charitable organizations. I am baffled by people who are going out in his support by saying he is not  a serial killer so why the charge. So do you want to let someone be one?

The entire fiasco where in the sentence was pronounced and then the immediate bail shows the value of life in India. Your life has  a price if you are born with a silver spoon. For Indians, bollywood stars are like role models. But seriously guys, do you need a role model who has killed an innocent man, injured 4 others. Why do you still think the verdict is unfair. ? Did you ever think that night it could have been you coming late night from a party and being rammed over. The worst part is you are breathing the last moments of your life and you see no help coming inspite of begging for it. You pay the price of one wild party that your murdered had. Seriously do you or anyone deserve this kind of a life. Whenever I see Mr. Khan on the  big screen it reminds me of his cowardly attitude that night no matter how Dabangg he is on the big screen. He seems to be one who still doesn’t bother about anyone’s life except for his own. If he really was, he would have never allowed his driver to own up for the crime he has done.

What worries me isn’t the fact that Salman has got a bail or not, what worries is that this kind of a judgement will give rise to hundreds of Salman and every Salman would roam around freely at the cost of an innocent’s life. Every driver would get drunk and get the confidence of driving freely and ramming around every innocent sleeping on the roads after a hard day’s work. A judgement made by the lower court did instill a feeling that Law is above all but getting a bail within hours was nothing but a mockery of the system by their own torchbearers .

Only if Indians could understand that

" To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity- Nelson Mandela".