Hot news yesterday:
Saddam Hussein sentenced to death.... a welcome news indeed. Such a perpetrator of crime on humanity! But the irony is... who is punishing him? Can those who "gifted" democracy to Iraqis, at a great "cost" to their life and economy that it might be proclaimed a "sacrifice" to the cause of humanity, claim to be competent of passing such a judgement? Who will bring justice to the millions of civilians killed in Afghanistan and Iraq? How about air raids in Kosovo and the ongoing assault of Palestinians in Gaza, their homeland for centuries? So well, here comes the big question: WHAT IS JUSTICE?
This is a question, the answer of which was always considered controversial by many people for centuries. Since slave trade, the world hasn't seen such a blatant interference into the lives of people of a nation by the people of another. Saddam was sentenced to death for massacre on Dujail town in which 140 odd people were killed. It's true that there have been other unsaid crimes for which Saddam is responsible. And such a verdict is acceptable on that count. But the world may one day demand that Mr. Bush, The President of the US, is very much guilty of war and crime that resulted in a loss of life for millions all around the world. The alarming fact is that the other countries in the world, and especially India, that was always bold enough to speak out to the world, have been silent in their response to the news. India never opposed the attack on Iraq and never questioned the legitimacy of the US in the Iraq war even though the claims made by Bush administration before the war, on weapons of mass destruction and chemical warfare, were proved to the outright lie. So whose is a rogue country? Saddam's Iraq that never hid anything going on, Kim Jong-Il who shouts out to the world what it's upto, Muhamedijenad's Iran that openly expresses its anger or The United States of America that makes the people believe its false claims and shamelessly later says that they were wrong... It seems the world can't yet decide. I hope a day will arrive when the world will be in a position to decide. It may not be now, next year, next decade. But sometime, the world will recognise that the worst nation on the world had become a champion of democracy- in nations where it suited it. It campaigns for democracy in Iraq, Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela while it forgets that one of its closest allies ever, Pakistan, is under military rule and has been undemocratic for most of its short history. Let us hope, anyway, that no other country, whether Cuba or Pakistan, is brought to democracy in the same way as Iraq or Afghanistan.
