DesiDabba - Boss, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jaye

Yes we are Indians and we are morally bankrupt. I mean what else can explain the fiascos created over something as minute and insignificant as a “peck on the cheek”. Couple of weeks back, actor Richard Gere kissed a bharitiya nari Ms. Shilpa Shetty on her hand and her cheek at a charity event, as for the news channels covering the event this bit of action was the only portion worth reporting – after all who really cares about Aids awareness campaign, HIV positive people and the hard work put in by the man considered the culprit.

And then we have our opportunist political folks, waiting to jump into action since their large heads contain nothing but pea-sized brains, for them burning effigies, shouting abusive slogans and disrupting day-to-day public lives, terms as serving the nation and fulfilling their political duties.

But one is truly at loss of words when describing the Justice system of our so-called democratic nation. It’s like the people running the law & order structure completely lack common sense and believe only in extremism. On one hand they allow criminals like Manu Sharma, Vikas Yadav and Santosh Kumar Singh walk away scot-free and on the other hand they issue arrest warrant for someone like Richard Gere, whose only crime could be said was to come here with the noble intention of helping the needy and the poor.

Observing that their public kiss was “highly sexually erotic”, a Jaipur court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant against Hollywood actor Richard Gere and summoned actress Shilpa Shetty for appearance on May 5. Dinesh Gupta, additional chief judicial magistrate, issued the order on a PIL filed by advocate Poonam Chand Bhandari, who complained that their public kiss during an anti-AIDS awareness event in Delhi was an “indecent representation” of sexual activities in a public place.

The magistrate, who viewed the video footage of the programme, observed that the attitude of the two film personalities was “highly sexually erotic” which had “transgressed all limits of vulgarity and have the tendency to corrupt the

society”. He said Shetty’s attitude was “cooperative” and she never restrained herself, but kept inviting Gere for the kissing episode which stretched on for a good while.

The court felt that Shetty was equally involved in an action that was impermissible under the Indian laws and which “denigrated” Indian culture, tradition and social values.

Seriously I wonder what goes on in the minds of people like Ms. Bhandari who prefers to invest her time in nonsensical issues rather than using her law education for relevant causes and then you have judges like Mr. Gupta who instead squashing such ridicules PILs prefers to cater to them over thousands of others waiting in line for justice.

I simply can’t comprehend on what basis the chief judicial magistrate found the “kissing episode” to be “highly sexually erotic”; I mean what did he see that we didn’t, maybe somebody slipped him some porn instead of the actual footage. The only logical explanations behind such a thoughtless decision could be either the judge ain’t getting any or he himself intends to plant a kissy on Shilpa’s rosy cheeks or he prefers Mr. Gere’s luscious lips on his own cheeks.

Hopefully the higher court would intervene and people like Gupta and Bhandari would be restrained before we end up making a mockery of ourselves in the international arena. But then again haven’t we done that already?