The joke is on us.

Various former VIPs are illegally occupying government houses which were given to them while they were in office, of which the former governor of Bihar, Buta Singh is one, despite previous Supreme Court orders for the houses to be vacated. Last week the Court gave them 4 more weeks to vacate the properties. TOI, 7 December. On 4 August 1989, 8 men were convicted of second degree murder by a court in Bihar and sentenced to 10 years in prison. They appealed to the High Court in Patna which allowed them out on bail till 10 November 2000, that is for 11 years, when it decided to uphold the appeals. On 17 June 2008 the Supreme Court overturned the High Court's order and upheld the earlier sentence of 10 years in prison. It was not until 9 May 2012, that is a full 23 years after the first sentence, that a local court issued arrest warrants for the accused. By this time 3 of the criminals had died. TOI, 23 December. Thus so called VIPs and murder accused are able to flout orders of the Supreme Court with impunity but God help if anyone dared to criticise our judges. Vengeance will be swift and you will end up in prison on charges of contempt of court. It is against this background that we have to try to make sense of the horrific attack on a young woman in a bus in Delhi. The rapists were so confident of not being punished that they made no attempt to flee and went about their normal business. They would probably have been out on bail by now if the public anger had not boiled over and thousands come out in angry demonstrations. So what has been the police response to the demonstrations? They allege that " vested interests " are inciting people and have resorted to water canons in the biting cold and beating up people with sticks, also called " lathi charge ". This extreme brutality is all they have been taught as a police state seeks to maintain its absolute power on its citizens. On 4 June 2011 the same Delhi police brutally beat up Baba Ramdev's supporters who were asleep at 2 AM and claimed that they were rioters. One woman died. They had dared to ask for a Lok Pal bill to rid the country of corruption. Needless to say the bill has not been passed. The most surprising fact is that India today is ruled by women and yet no woman is safe in our capital city. Trouble is that a lot of politicians are rapists and if they were to be jailed the balance of power might change. Also women in power are just as corrupt as the men and want to protect their children who have amassed enormous wealth through rent seeking. All it needs is an independent police force, women police to care for rape victims very gently, lady doctors who will examine the victims and collect samples for analysis and judges who will restrict corrupt lawyers from endless delays. Will it ever happen? No. The entire justice system is a joke and the joke sadly is on us.