Accidental deaths: Now it's time to amend the weak law

If you stab somebody on the road, you may land up in jail, but if you murder somebody by hitting him to death, you can just walk free. That's the strange law in this country.

Though Sanjeev Nanda did get the sentence in the infamous BMW case as he was booked for culpable homicide also, it is time the archaic section 304 (A) of the IPC should be amended and law given more teeth to deal with errant motorists.

Nanda got sentenced in this section of IPC, just because of media pressure and the hype surrounding the case. Else, he would have easily walked out.

Hundreds of errant drivers simply walk away, furnishing a personal bond, after killing people on the roads, every day.

The law suited the British, who were the rulers, and mostly they only had the motors. Else, among INdians the Nawabs, Rajahs, the top businessmen and lawyers were seen driving a car in those days.

An Indian's life was cheap then. And it was important to let a White off, after any such incident. But the situation is different now. Nearly 3 lakh (3,00,000) people were killed on the Indian roads in 2005 and the figure has gone up since then.

Traffic cops hardly have the equipment to check drunken drivers. It is unfortunate that the scenario has become so horrifying but there is little focus on the need for amending the existing law.

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Coverage of anti-Christian violence in Orissa

Most channels were confused about the communal carnage in Orissa. The murder of VHP leader Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati and his associated, led to attacks on Christians in the state.

It took a few days before the State responded. But the news channels and even prominent newspapers were quite delayed in understanding the situation. The battlefield was Kandhamal district where Vishwa Hindu Parishad is quite active. The district also has an unusually large number of Christians (over 20%) compared to their ratio in the state 2.4%.

Among English channels 9X stole a march over others in its reporting of the aftermath of the tragedy. It focused on the trauma of the women and children. Specially, the interviews of victims were horrifying. The fact that VHP and Bajrang Dal cadre gave them only the option to leave Christianity (re-conversion to Hinduism, as they claim tribals as Hindus) else get killed, was unsettling.

A Christian woman was told that she should leave her faith else her daughters would be raped. The fact that nearly 50,000 Christians fled their hometown and hundreds of churches burnt speaks volumes of the failure of the Naveen Patnaik government.

The relief measures are on but rehabilitation will be a major issue. Laxmananada Saraswati's death was a criminal act but taking revenge on innocent Christians was absolutely wrong. Still, the State failed to rein in Pravin Togadia and other VHP firebrand leaders.

Orissa has been the second hate Hindutva laboratory after Gujarat. Though Maoist (left-wing Naxalites) claimed that they had killed the VHP preacher, the mostly poor minority became the target.

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