Utsav Sharma : Right or wrong ?

For those readers who dont know about him , Utsav Sharma is a 29 year old post-graduate in animation and film designing from National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. His father, Sushil Kumar Sharma, is a professor of mechanical engineering at IT-BHU and mother Indira Sharma is a psychiatrist and a professor at Institute of Medical Sciences at Banaras Hindu University. The reason I am writing about him is because this young man showed extraordinary courage (and perhaps some mental imbalance) when he first stabbed Former DGP SPS Rathore when he was coming out of session court in Chandigarh after filing appeal for bail in Ruchika molestation case. He actually repeated his act yesterday when he stabbed Dr. Rajesh Talwar, Aarushi's father, when he was coming out of the Ghaziabad court.

Somehow when I had read about what he did to Rathore last year, I found myself supporting him unconditionally. Who can forget the devil grin on the man's face when he came out of the court with just a six month sentence ! At that time as well there were debates on many news channels regarding Utsav's action. Most senior speakers believed that he was wrong and that you cannot take law in your hands in a democracy. The young participants in the debate though supported his action. But no one had an answer to the one question - What do we do when the democracy fails?

Anyway, that was then. But his action yesterday somehow disturbed me. Though all rational thoughts would point to the fact that 14 year old Aarushi was murdered by her father, there still DOES remain a doubt. There are SO many unanswered questions. If a father wanted to do away with his 14 year old child,there can be SO many ways to do it such that no one would suspect him! It somehow makes no sense why he would do it in such an obvious way. Just for arguments sake , we assume that he is innocent (which he may quite possibly be), then he has not only lost his only daughter but he has been blamed for her death, he has spent 2 months in jail and now he has been stabbed in public ! How is hell any worse than this? After this incident, I found myself agreeing with all the senior speakers who keep parroting the same line "Law cannot be taken in your own hands".

5 years back when "Rang De Basanti" released, every other youth in India (perhaps including me) was mesmerized. "This IS the way we ought to handle things in our country now" were our thoughts. DJ,Karan,Sukhi,Sonia,Laxman and Aslam,etc were our torch bearers. The attitude of young India changed overnight and it was proved by the Jessica Lall case and the anti-reservation movement. But the question that now arises is where do we draw the line? Does the agitation have to stop at lighting candles and shouting slogans on streets? Does Gandhigiri work in every case or is the extremist view justified in some cases? And if it is , then who decides when to take the extremist road? We come down to the classic problem "Who will rule the rulers?" ? Who and what decides the fate of this young man now? It is ironical that the other question that immediately pops up is who was He to decide the fate of the two men he stabbed?

Links :

http://www.infocera.com/Rathore_stabbed_by_Utsav_Sharma,_former_NID_student,_Ahmedabad_7868.htm

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/I-only-wanted-to-hurt-Talwar-not-kill-him-says-Utsav-Sharma/articleshow/7364668.cms

Happy reading !