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Lynch Mob Psyche

At times I wonder whether we are actually the liberal democracy we claim to be. Or are we just a lynching mob driven by the smell of blood?

What I hated most about the city where I grew up was this yen for street justice. It was disgusting to see mobs in Calcutta beat suspects to death. They had no qualms about killing as long as it looked like the collective will of a people at work. Whether it was a child pickpocket or a poor driver whose brakes had failed or a demented old woman suspected to be a witch, punishment was always swift and savage.

This bloody ritual now appears to be spreading. The new villains on the block are our cricketers and what started as hearsay and rumours supported by a bit of circumstantial evidence has now assumed monstrous proportions.

As the gospel according to the CBI. The whole nation is now ready to believe that Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja have connived to take bribes and lost matches for India and must, therefore, be punished for high treason.

We conveniently forget the fact that cricket betting exists all over the world. It is not a crime, just another form of gambling. If casinos can be licensed, if horse racing can be so popular, if Kaun Banega Crorepati and its clones can go on air, why are we so outraged that some people put money on cricket?

Maybe it is not just gambling. It is insider trading. Someone has access to privileged information and he uses that to improve the betting odds for himself and others. Anyone with insight into the stock market will tell you that our businessmen have done this for years and no one ever suggested that they be hanged in the public square or sent to prison for life. Yet we are anxious to punish our cricketers exemplarily, erase their performance records, ban them forever. If we could, we would send them to Alcatraz.

If you have the patience, sift through the evidence. You will find it paltry, inadequate and almost entirely circumstantial, based on hearsay. This is not to undermine the fine investigation done by tehelka.com. But all the investigation in the world cannot justify punishment unless the courts agree that the evidence is clinching. You cannot put someone in prison or threaten to appropriate his life's earnings only because he is under a cloud. By that yardstick, most of our politicians would be in jail.

These cricketers have played some great matches for India. They have won some, lost some. They have given us much joy, much thrill and today if cricket looks a bit like the WWF matches on television why are we getting so uptight over it?

In a country where politicians, civil servants, law enforcers, doctors, teachers, members of Parliament, school principals and even those who run old people's homes and orphanages are ready to take bribes, where prime ministers face corruption charges in open court rooms, why should our cricketers be expected to be as pure as driven snow? Are we being so harsh on them because they have committed a crime? Or are we punishing them because they are young, rich, successful, much sought after? Are you sure envy is not that is driving our outrage?

Why is it that our flashy, foolhardy film stars get such huge attention when they are raided by the tax guys? Why is it that these foolish greedy cricketers who are prey to the machinations of bookies and punters are getting so much jootas in the press while the Jharkandi MPs who took crores in cash from Narasimha Rao have got away scot free?

I may be entirely wrong and the law enforcers may find many more sordid details of what our cricketers did on and off the field but from the facts as they are today there is nothing to hang Azharuddin for. Or Jadeja. Or Nayan Mongia and Manoj Prabhakar, the original whistleblower.

This is not to say they did no wrong. They were foolish and indiscreet and, if for that they must be punished, so be it. But it is wrong to hound them, to hunt them down with every agency at the command of the state just to try and prove their culpability. If the CBI fails, stick the tax guys on to them. If they fail, unleash the ED and see if you can nab them under FERA or TADA or whatever. It is nothing short of a witch hunt today. A witch hunt in which you and I have also joined in.

It is not a crime to dress in Armani. It is not a crime to marry a movie star. It is not a crime to flaunt a Rolex or whatever watch it is that Azharuddin wears. It is not a crime to appear in ads and earn a lot of money as Jadeja did. It may be improper to take a gift for sharing information regarding the weather, the pitch, the health of the team with some idiot who wants to improve his betting odds.

But cricket is not freestyle wrestling. You cannot influence the outcome of the game so easily. No player, not even Sachin Tendulkar, can win or lose a match for India all by himself. However much you may tamper with the odds, the chances remain 50:50.

For those dying to lynch these foolish young men in flannels, I have a simple advice. Wait till the courts find out if they are guilty or not. In fact, whether a crime has been committed at all. If you allow the State to punish these cricketers without adequate evidence, you will be giving the law enforcers a handle to hurt all of us unjustly one day.

Pritish Nandy

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