Some day we Indians have to answer for 1984 and 2002 riots! Beautifully summed up....... And as Lavanya Viswanathan writes so eleoquently ..Some day, we Indians will have to admit our national guilt for the 2002 and 1984 riots. We will have to bring the criminals of those events to justice (including Modi and other prominent politicians). Unless we do this, we will not be able to rid ourselves of the burden of the past and proceed into the future. Read on...what she writes so well.... Judgement at Nuremberg is a 1961 movie which reenacted some of the trials at Nuremberg, specifically the one in which judges who served under Hitler were put on trial for their willful misinterpretation of law and justice that ultimately allowed Hitler to commit his crimes. It is a beautifully crafted movie that forces us to ask ourselves - what does guilt mean? What is national guilt? If we look the other way when crimes against humanity are being committed around us, then claim not to know about those crimes, does that make us innocent? The main defendant of this case is Herr Ernst Janning, an eminent jurist who rose among the legal ranks long before Hitler came to power. The prosecutions case against him revolves around the idea that his crime was the most grievous of all, for he had the power to stop Hitler by refusing to endorse his criminal policies and facing the consequences. Essentially, by doing the right thing. The defenses case revolves around the argument that a judges job is not to make laws but to enforce them, whether it not he agrees with them. But as the trial proceeds, Herr Jannings conscience doesnt let him go along with his lawyers defense. Herr Janning rises to make a statement. This movie clip captures most of his statement - an absolutely amazing portrayal of his internal conflict. At the end (not in the clip), he says - if we did not know, it is because we did not want to know. I personally feel that his admission of guilt (and of others like him) is the main reason why Germans found in themselves the courage to survive the aftermath of World War II. The presiding judge at the trial (Judge Haywood, played by Spencer Tracy) pronounces a verdict of Guilty, despite dissent from the rest of the bench, and sentences them to life imprisonment. The most powerful scene of the movie is the last scene, in which Judge Haywood visits Herr Janning in his prison cell. Herr Janning: Judge Haywood, the reason I asked you to come, those people, those millions of people, I never knew it would come to that. YOU must believe it. You MUST believe it. Judge Haywood: Here Janning, it came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death you knew to be innocent. The words are still resonating in me. By voting for Modi, we Indians are guilty of the deaths of countless Muslims. Even the death of a single innocent person was unacceptable. And we have killed so many. By voting for Modi, we say that we do not want to know the truth about him. We do not care. And that makes us much bigger cowards than him. We have no right to claim innocence. We have no right to look the other way. We have no right to say - I never knew it would come to that. The only way we can exonerate ourselves of our guilt is by actively seeking for the truth, and by not voting for criminals while the jury is still out on them. https://facebook/lavanya.viswanathan.54/posts/10203617409650753
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 21:02:55 +0000
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