Power of justice

The burning to death of Australian missionary Graham Staines, along with his two young sons, Timothy and Philip, in January 1999, was recogn...

The burning to death of Australian missionary Graham Staines, along with his two young sons, Timothy and Philip, in January 1999, was recognised by every Indian as a blot on conscience of the nation.

As K.R. Narayanan — the then president — had put it, it was a “barbarous killing” that belonged to the “world’s inventory of black deeds”, a “monumental aberration” in a nation known for its tolerance and humanity.

Given this, and given the international concern the murders caused, it was extremely crucial that justice was done and seen to be done and Monday’s judgement, convicting Dara Singh and 12 others for the crime, goes some way in achieving this end.

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Punishing the perpetrators of these murders was vital for another reason as well. They took place, it may be remembered, at a point of time when the Christian community in the country had felt targeted — 1998 had witnessed unprecedented attacks on Christian institutions and clergy, beginning with the incidents in the Dangs district of Gujarat.

The burning alive of the Staines only added to the great disquiet that these attacks had caused. Indeed, the responses of leaders of groups like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Hindu Jagran Manch to the murders, which they regarded as the inevitable outcome of the proselytising activities of Christian missionaries, only went to create the impression that there may well be a miscarriage of justice in this case.

Political leaders, too, didn’t inspire great confidence. A three-minister fact-finding team comprising Naveen Patnaik, George Fernandes and Murli Manohar Joshi, after a lightning visit to the site of the killings, came to the astounding conclusion that it was an “international conspiracy” by “forces that would like this government to go”.

The big question, of course, that the Justice D.P. Wadhwa Commission, instituted to inquire into the killings, and the CBI had to grapple with was whether Dara Singh — the man who was quickly identified as the brain behind the strategy to eliminate the Staines — and his accomplices were being supported by any authority or organisation.

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Both the Commission and the CBI veered around to the view that the killers acted as individuals, albeit ones motivated by “misplaced fundamentalism” as Justice D.P. Wadhwa had concluded.

The public responses to the district and sessions court judgement — including those from Christian groups — reiterate popular faith in the independence and professionalism of the country’s criminal justice system.

Hopefully, the verdict will also help unify the country against hate crimes and campaigns of communal polarisation of the kind that led to these horrific murders which have besmirched the reputation of Orissa specifically and India, as a whole.