IPC Section 300 for Hooch makers and sellers, why not IPC Section 309 for Hooch drinkers?

Mandibles forwarded by Gujarat Assembly seem to be a subject of abhorrence for the Centre. Whether it’s Gujarat Local Laws (Amendment) Bill or Gujcoc, they were rejected by the President (on the recommendation of the UPA government). In this milieu, the Bombay Prohibition (Gujarat Amendment) Bill, 2009, suggesting death sentence for those involved in the business of the illicit country liquor or hooch, causing death of people, gives the impression to have cracked the curse. It is approved by the Attorney General of India.

The Governor of Gujarat forwarded this Bill to the Centre on the Gujarat Assembly’s recommendations in July last year as an outcome of the hooch disaster that claimed more than 150 lives. The Bill was approved by the Attorney General of India, G. E. Vahanvati, saying that the Bill was legally correct as per Section 300 of IPC which defines ‘murder’ - it says, If the person committing the act knows that it is so imminently dangerous that it must, in all probability, cause death or such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, and commits such act without any excuse for incurring the risk of causing death, then it could be categorized under murder. 

The anticipated amendments take in 7 to 10 years caging, plus penalty, for any person found distilling and distributing illicit liquor. In case of casualties, the edict asks for death sentence or life imprisonment.

OK… FINE… SO THIS WAS THE NEWS I READ YESTERDAY…

The story is about punishing the ‘murderers’ as per Section 300 of IPC. But…

In our country, attempt to suicide is an offence punishable under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code. Section 309 reads thus:

Attempt to commit suicide. “Whoever attempts to commit suicide and does any act towards the commission of such offence shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine, or with both.”

Article 21 of the Constitution of India enjoins that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.

If makers and sellers of the forbidden drink are considered as ‘murderers’ then those who drink hooch must be considered for attempting suicide. The Government at times give compensation to the families of these victims  of spurious brews (obviously, that reimbursement comes from people’s hard earned money, it is not the government’s hard earned money). Anyways, it’s not the government that is paying to the hooch victims families, it is us who are paying and why should we pay? If families of hooch victims are given compensation, then families of all the persons who commit suicide by any other famous ways also deserve the benefit. Compensation must also be provided to the families of the persons who unsuccessfully tried to pull down the ceiling fans with their necks, to the families of those who tried to experiment whether the train derails when their body comes under it,  to the families of those who tried to determine the taste of rat poison, to the families of those who doubted that their blood is red in color and checked by cutting their veins, and all such people who tried to find the truths of life in death.

This shows how short-sighted, uneconomical and weak system we have. Hooch drinkers should not only be charged for drinking the illicit liquor but also for suicide attempt. This should be the new upcoming Bill of any assembly.

Written By 

Kushagra Raval

The Balance of Nature and Terrorism Part - 2

Disclaimers:

1. The following composition is utterly a work of creative writing. The views expressed here are exclusively of the author. Anything or Anybody, dead or alive, on Earth, up in the heaven, down in the hell or anywhere stuck in between has got nothing to do with the making of this essay. If you are reading this, the author assures you that you are not wasting your time.

2. This succeeding part of the earlier post on “The Balance of Nature and Terrorism Part – 1” must be read with a matured mindset and should not be misunderstood that the author is favouring or encouraging violence.

RECAP: In the previous post we found God observing how humans subjugated other species on the Earth by their knack and competence to think and create. Now, let’s see how the nature imposes its law on this unafraid creature of the course of evolution.

Humans…..! Huh! now started exploiting and abusing other species of their time. There came not even a single species that could, leave dominating, even get parallel to the humans. They almost survived the Ice ages and the Steam age (that’s going on right now). Many species were known to get extinct, some naturally and some due to the heroic activities of humans – the great. Now there was, virtually, no enemy of humans left who could fight against them.

God was mystified on detecting the supremacy that humans had on the Earth. By the aid of their intelligences, they continued to feast upon the natural resources to a grander extent. Nevertheless, nature follows its law and sees to it that it is followed everywhere. The prey/predator affairs were to come into action once again. And they did come. Newer species evolved of the size which humans could not see. These types of organisms were to act as predators and humans were going to be their prey. However, humans by now had developed such technologies which could, if not see, at least diagnose the new enemies of micro sizes. Once humans come to know about any of these predators, they immediately search for micro-sized weapons against these micro-predators and use them in fighting against these micro-enemies. Initially, humans did loose against these predators but gradually they either fought back with their natural immunity or by using their designed drugs. Even these predators could not control the pigheadedness of humans. God was now very eager to know what is going to be the future of this undefeatable species and of the planet he chose for his experiment.

“Loha Lohe ko kaatata hai.”

It is a saying here in India that Iron cuts iron. In order to implement its laws on humans, nature was left with the only option of using humans against humans. Humans had, by now, flourished all over the world. There was not even a single place on earth left which humans had not visited. Humans even got out of the earth and started invading other celestial bodies. There were a few qualities humans had which made them fight amongst themselves, an intraspecific competition, a competition for the resources which were vanishing day by day, a competition for maintaining superior status than other humans, a competition of ideologies that they differed in. These ideologies taught them that there is someone known as God who created everything and who made the conditions favourable for the existence of humans. In fact, these were not different ideologies but the only one that was said in different languages which humans living in different regions could understand. So now different languages had different names for God and humans understanding a particular language started believing in that name of God only. Humans, subsequently, started to fight on His name too. This fight led to not only one, two, three and four, but many crusades which were not documented. In fact, they were not different crusades but a single crusade that started ever since humans knew roughly about God. The crusade is still in action, it was not and is still not a crusade in which one religion fights against another, but a crusade in which the righteous fights against the evil, the good vs. the bad, the God within vs. the devil within. But humans have brought this fight out of their selves and made it a fight that is external rather than internal. Humans were required to fight the devil within and live peacefully.

But if this happens, that is if humans start to live peacefully, then there will not be any war, any fight, and any terror amongst the humans.  This will lead to harmony which will not let humans to live in harmony. Why? Simply because this will lead to increase in human population which will require more food and other resources which nature does not have. Getting it? The whole of human species would suffer in that case. So the news of violence happening around the world should not shake us. It is a law of nature, believe me. It must happen in order to maintain the human population under control. It is the balance of nature that will automatically be balanced. Humans cannot help themselves as in the world in which they stay is guided by THE LAWS OF NATURE.

P.S.: In this masterpiece of literature, the expression “terror” or “terrorism” does not necessarily mean the acts which some of the legally banned organizations are doing in the name of their ideologies. Here it simply means any act of violence which creates fear – an emotional response to threats and danger – in the minds of humans, it may be done by some crime control authority also. By throwing light on the importance of terror for human survival, it should not be cognized that the author favours any form of terrorism. The ideas described here must be chewed and digested properly with a matured outlook. 

The Balance of Nature and Terrorism Part - 1

1

Disclaimer: Initial piece of the following composition is utterly a work of creative writing. The views expressed here are exclusively of the author. Anything or Anybody, dead or alive, on Earth, up in the heaven, down in the hell or anywhere stuck in between has got nothing to do with the making of this essay. If you are reading this, the author assures you that you are not wasting your time.

After He created the universe and the solar system in it, at some point of time, God was sitting leisurely and as we are all aware that an idle mind is a devil’s workshop, He all of a sudden thought that there is a lot of energy that is going surplus in the form of electromagnetic radiations from the stars that He fashioned in the space. After thinking for a time, He selected a planet which we now call Earth and put there some chemicals, so that these chemicals will utilize the electromagnetic radiations and some other forces like pressure and heat. This venture was just a prototype. His strategy was to replicate this project for other planets also provided it does well on Earth. While recording the observations of His experiment, He observed many things. But the most noticeable remark was that there never existed a particular form of chemical compound. Countless diverse amalgamations of an assortment of chemical compositions were produced. As time moved ahead, these chemicals evolved into organisms of various forms which had interactions with one another in different ways.

The earliest organisms that He observed were autotrophs – photo and chemo. In course of time, the number of these organisms amplified. As a consequence, struggle grew amongst them and predator-prey relationship established among these organisms. As the organisms developed further in the hierarchy of the evolution, this connection of competition amid them also grew more. In the beginning, God noticed the competition in between two species but soon after He also found competition within a species.

At first, He observed that when the population of plants (autotrophs) was towering, herbivores found an adequate amount of resources for their continued existence and subsequently their population increased. Step by step, the population of carnivores increased as they also had enough resources to flourish. However, when the resources for plants decreased and herbivores started consuming them more due to their escalating population, the population of plants decreased. As the food for the herbivores decreased, their number also gradually fell down and consequently, the population of the carnivores also got depressingly affected. God observed every creature fastened by this law of nature, this law of utilization of available resources, but to his astonishment, there evolved a creature which was a brilliant manager of the resources accessible to him. If he, in any case, was out of resources, he was able to create his resources by commanding other organisms to his service. Essentially, he had one of the most helpful resources, which even God had, that was his ability to reason, his capability to think and create which organisms of other species were short of. These organisms baptized themselves as Humans.

To be continued……….

A Metaphor of Human Laws

Rudyard Kipling used it in his fictional work, The Second Jungle Book, to mean an actual law code used by wolves and other animals in the jungles of India.

The entire verse of The Law of the Jungle with its relation to human laws is as follows:

Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.

As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back—For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

Wash daily from nose-tip to tail-tip; drink deeply, but never too deep; And remember the night is for hunting, and forget not the day is for sleep.

The jackal may follow the Tiger, but, Cub, when thy whiskers are grown, Remember the Wolf is a hunter—go forth and get food of thine own.

Keep peace with the Lords of the Jungle—the Tiger, the Panther, the Bear; And trouble not Hathi the Silent, and mock not the Boar in his lair.

When Pack meets with Pack in the Jungle, and neither will go from the trail, Lie down till the leaders have spoken—it may be fair words shall prevail.

When ye fight with a Wolf of the Pack, ye must fight him alone and afar, Lest others take part in the quarrel, and the Pack be diminished by war.

The Lair of the Wolf is his refuge, and where he has made him his home, Not even the Head Wolf may enter, not even the Council may come.

The Lair of the Wolf is his refuge, but where he has digged it too plain, The Council shall send him a message, and so he shall change it again.

If ye kill before midnight, be silent, and wake not the woods with your bay, Lest ye frighten the deer from the crops, and the brothers go empty away.

Ye may kill for yourselves, and your mates, and your cubs as they need, and ye can; But kill not for pleasure of killing, and SEVEN TIMES NEVER KILL MAN.

If ye plunder his Kill from a weaker, devour not all in thy pride; Pack-Right is the right of the meanest; so leave him the head and the hide.

The Kill of the Pack is the meat of the Pack. Ye must eat where it lies; And no one may carry away of that meat to his lair, or he dies.

The Kill of the Wolf is the meat of the Wolf. He may do what he will, But, till he has given permission, the Pack may not eat of that Kill.

Cub-Right is the right of the Yearling. From all of his Pack he may claim Full-gorge when the killer has eaten; and none may refuse him the same.

Lair-Right is the right of the Mother. From all of her year she may claim One haunch of each kill for her litter, and none may deny her the same.

Cave-Right is the right of the Father—to hunt by himself for his own. He is freed of all calls to the Pack; he is judged by the Council alone.

Because of his age and his cunning, because of his gripe and his paw, In all that the Law leaveth open, the word of the Head Wolf is Law.

Now these are the Laws of the Jungle, and many and mighty are they; But the head and the hoof of the Law and the haunch and the hump is—Obey!

This is what humans must remember, there are certain unsaid rules which they must follow. These rules are made by nature. These are unsaid but as true as the sky is. Nature always Balances the activities we do. The Balance of the Nature is always fair in every sense. So, this is the point where the concept of Universal Brotherhood is significant. There is no sense of elaborating on this as we all very well know how important it is to keep peace amongst ourselves and prosper together. (However, I am going to discuss something contradictory in my forthcoming post.) Remember, humans are to carry on with their own karma and get the fruit they deserve and must not enjoy the fruits of karma of someone else. Whenever at war, we must keep the violence away from the civilians otherwise it will definitely harm the innocent. We must obey what our experienced elders say. Their wisdom is certainly above the knowledge we have. 

The very same law that Kipling explained in his poem does exists in the human civilization also. Isn’t it?