Father, we have sinned
For you,
The preambular values and Article 21 have been binned.
As a society, we take selective outrage
A journalist, yes
Yet, denial of a sipper and straw is not met with enough umbrage.
Your case may be under the UAPA, with the NIA prosecuting
I say!
Does that justify such a denuding?
Delay defeats justice
Is known to all alike
But for you, the judiciary is cold as ice.
A humanitarian request is not entertained
For want of
A reply to your plaint.
I am instantly reminded of a picture
Adorning the High Court at Panaji
Depicting a chain around legal scriptures.
With anguish, I propose one addition
Nay, an amendment
Clarifying that in our legal system, there's no place for your kind of petition.
Does no one understand – the only lock that a straw can pick
Is what unshackles
A monster who makes our Constitution and conscience sick.
If this is the way we treat our octogenarians,
I ask myself,
Is there any place for my generation?
However, be rest assured that your struggle for a sipper and a straw
Will not go down in history,
And equate you to a man of straw.
For Father, while we have sinned
In your case,
Only the devil has grinned.
(Rohan Deshpande practices as a Counsel in the Bombay High Court and writes on law and current affairs. The views are personal.)