Introduction:
The Justice system often comes out with a community service verdict, in place of a suspended jail term. The causative infringement might be a drunken driving, tax fraud or drug abuse. The natural doubt that arises in these cases is, whether this ‘serve the community’ sentence is reserved for only the celebrities or has universal applicability! Let us for the moment leave it to those Judges who deliver such sentences, hoping that overcrowding in jails and avoiding financial burden to the state is their considerations.
A commune might have been an isolated human settlement, in the hoary past. Over a period of time, it must have become a community to mean any commune living in unity – for a purpose.
In this unified commune, every one contributed and did everything together with out drawing any distinction on the basis of skill sets or utility value. The main purpose, in those times and minds of people, was to ward of external challenges. This challenge came in the form of evil designs of expansion or suppression, from the neighbouring communes.
The prefix good or bad got slowly attached to the communes or communities like worms in an apple. The worm did its part to eat away at the apple, steadily. A separate kind of unity started raising its ugly head, amongst the bad communes, by discriminating on the basis of skill sets and utility quotient.
The earlier communes thus caused the initial damage – lacking the urge to exploit beyond a limited domain and focusing only on survival of the commune. Thank God! Lacking foresight, the compulsions of an electoral battle was not on their radars.
The communes that succeeded the earlier ones progressively developed ‘communities’ - a dogma based on greater deviousness in the art of exploitation and aggression. The stragglers – the remaining good communes, followed suit, albeit reluctantly, to defend their sovereignty and tried to close the gap between the good and the bad communes. The obvious reason – to void increased enmity and check the widening social chasm.
Thus one bad apple in the barrel managed to spoil the lot and in the bargain gave birth to a plethora of social problems – defying logic of mathematics - multiplication leading to division!
One would easily get inspired about this community service system, hearing about routine judgments handed down by presiding officers, in most of the western countries. I can empathise with your feelings, when western culture is easily adapted why not this kind of justice?
Have you forgotten the deep rooted VIP culture? If at all such a system is employed, you know who will benefit most!
Wait! Wait! I could hear your murmur- prison sans VIP will be devoid of glamour. It is unfair to award this community service sentence to those who are already doing ‘community service’ and is it not a double taxation? And how, tax evaders be awarded a community service sentence?
But, my friend don’t you have this dream - fast track courts try scams, wilful loan defaults and quid pro quos. Yet, you have this fear of seeing such personalities sanitizing the hospital corridors, regulating traffic, spending time among hutment dwellers -- along with those others who aided and abetted in these crimes!
You are in a dilemma, is it not! You want their mischievous deeds to come out in the open and yet don’t want them to be seen in public under the garb of a community service sentence.
Now I can hear clicks and whirs out of your mind, loudly saying “I am right now confused and want to think about it little cautiously”
Saying “Let me know, when you come to conclusion” Bystander folded the Newspaper, came out of his reverie.
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