The Fight For Justice Continues

On Saturday night I got a strange call from a colleague of mine. He clarified that this call had nothing to do with work and was personal in nature. Well what was this call about then? Rizwanur, he said. Well the point being that Rizwanur who has got so much attention, media support, judicial support and most of all the support of the people of Kolkata hardly made it to my blog. And its such a strange coincidence that on the way home that very afternoon on my way home I came upon a procession that was in support of Justice for Rizwanur. And while I pulled my car over to the kerb and hurriedly jumped out my car to click some pictures, the only thing that went through my mind was that, Yes Mr. Rizwan Rehman was not just worth a mention, but more than that. In his death he has brought Kolkata together.

From the day after his death Kolkata has gone from strength to strength in its resolve to get justice for the young departed Computer Graphics teacher. It started a bit on the wrong foot with some violence and burning of a Police Jeep the day I was leaving for Bangalore but slowly a non violent protest outside St. Xavier’s College on park Street had become a shrine with candle light vigils seeking justice for the victim.

I’ll refrain from passing judgement on whether it was murder, suicide or an accident and let the investigators draw conclusions on that. Its not that I don’t have an opinion on the case; I do and so does every Kolkatan and maybe a lot of people from Kolkata in other parts of the world are following the events leading to his death. All I will say that it has put the West Bengal Government in a strange position, the Kolkata Police force under the scanner and the nexus of money, power, underworld and politics once again established.

The Government was trying to buy time, a commodity in scare supply once Ms. Barkha Dutt of NDTV brought the case on National Television. Star Ananda, 24 Ghanta and all the leading dailies like the Ananda Bazar Patrika, the Telegraph and The Times of India in Kolkata have had a field day with the story making front page news every morning.

Each passing day just makes you wonder how big this web of people responsible for the untimely death of a young talent man is going to be. Now that the CBI has been handed the investigation anyone even remotely associated with the Rizwanur has been brought under the scanner.

I’ll not get into the fact that class discrimination exists. That is quite evident, but one thing that has come out of this is that though this case could have taken a religious twist at the behest of opposing political forces trying to shift focus from the truth, Kolkatans have kept solidarity and sought the truth.

Now what remains is for Justice to prevail.