Le Misérable

LES MISÉRABLES is  a great literary classic about a man who is more poor than evil but made to relentlessly chase redemption. Jean Valjean wants a loaf of bread, but an act of petty theft turns into a life-long trial. To escape, he changes his identity, but life, his heroism, and the churnings of the world around him in the form of revolutions won’t leave him alone until the inevitable end. There is very little of Valjean in Sohanlal Valmiki, lately discovered following a 42-year vanishing act after the assault that left Aruna Shanbaug in a vegetative state. It took her death to locate him, as if Aruna was biding time for her revenge.

Valmiki’s life was rather ordinary after his release from prison, where he served seven years. This was a sentence that, when the case was revisited periodically, everyone judged as too mild for a crime tantamount to murder in how it left Aruna.

Valmiki returned to his family, worked for his living, and, as far as we know, didn’t do anything criminal. Was he repentant? He claims to be (he denies the rape but accepts having assaulted her), but nobody hangs onto repentance for four decades, especially with the difficulty of living. People move on. Like Aruna’s fiancé at the time, who too was found recently, a 72-year-old with memories but leading a quiet practice as a doctor in Mumbai.

Valmiki, who worked as a daily wage labourer, is now out of work, having been asked to leave once the publicity told his employers about his past. In his village, there are plans to exile him, but he has already left from there. If anyone imputes natural justice in all this, then he or she is wrong. Valmiki is no Valjean but he has done all that was asked of him from society. He was tried, found guilty and sentenced.

He was no son of a politician. He was no superstar with superstar lawyers and you can bet that he didn’t get bail the day he was convicted. Valmiki was a sweeper. If he had been sentenced to be hanged, it’s likely he would have meekly accepted it. If he got out in seven years, then it was not something that he had any choice in. If the criminal justice system failed Aruna, then blame it.

The man who has been forced on trial again today is not the man who committed the crime 42 years ago. Actions have consequences, but they must be just. That is why we get angry when khap panchayats order rapes and murders. That is why we should also feel distaste when another panchayat rules that Valmiki is not fit to live in their midst because of something he did 42 years ago.

At some level, we have already sensed the unfairness in Valmiki’s plight. That is why the media, even though it brought him out of his wretched anonymity, did not rage and launch campaigns against him. It would be so easy to get some TRPs with that. That is why Twitter, where everyone is judge, jury and executioner every minute, is relatively muted on him. There is no closure in the Aruna Shanbaug tragedy by the unveiling of Valmiki.

About The Author

Madhavankutty Pillai

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