THIS was one fantastical story, perhaps so unreal that it could give competition to all the MSG movie series. The “Messenger” would have found it hard to beat the potboiler value of his own story. And the story sold. TV news channels found it worth devoting nearly a week to the Panchkula grand finale that did not fail in its promise of horror. Newspapers scrapped their regular page plans for dera specials. Producers, designers, writers, editors, all tried to outdo themselves in bringing home the drama, in case you still had the appetite for it.

The plot had every conceivable element needed for any genre — a poor child, a benefactor, faith, love, trust, greed, betrayal, rape, murder insinuations, money, big cars, sadhvis, silver screen, crowds, the teeming poor, legal battles, scheming advisers, a brave judge, saviours, genuine heroes, police, journalists…. Of course, all of this climaxing in an astounding sense of justice, for now, i.e.

But all of the above is for a lighter view of the 15-year demonstration of an otherwise distressing display of all that is wrong with our scheme of civilisation. It is also to be rectified that the proceedings have left many sections of society terribly disturbed, angry, scared, or even wrecked personally, if not dead. Several fraternities have been left righteously feeling hurt, or wronged, in being blamed for the faults of others.

It is natural for everyone to sit in judgment, and fix responsibility. The first to be blamed are the politicians, but their claim is they are the only ones who take the ultimate test every five year, and no one can deny that. The police are up next. But does anyone let them work independently at any stage? Theirs is the job to clean up the mess created by anyone — babas, politicians, bureaucrats… hey, who mentioned bureaucrats? What was their fault? Err… none! The Army is not blamed by anyone, but they end up being grumpy about being pulled into business that is not theirs.

So who worked all this up, who’s got everyone feeling hurt and bruised? The media; the only ones whose job is to do nothing but find fault with everyone — the dera chief was criminal, the politicians only want votes, the police are always incompetent and corrupt, bureaucracy just interested in status quo or lining their nest, the judicial system is also compromised. But really, was the media to blame? Weren’t they the ones to lose their vehicles in Panchkula, weren’t they doing their job, wasn’t it a journalist who is the hero of the novel?

It must be the people then — the masses, the classes… who paid the media for an entire week to do nothing but watch the violence, craziness, and the blame game. The ignorant poor and the crooked rich who made it possible for the obviously dumb ‘Baba’ to become what he did.

But the people say it is the politician who makes a fool of them in the first place! Now, this is becoming impossible. How did this mess happen, and who is responsible? Perhaps this incomprehensible, unfathomable, inexplicable web of all things social and political is what an academic would call the “system”.

So was it a system failure that led to at least two women being first subjected to indescribable horror for a long period, and then being denied justice for 15 years? Perhaps, but may be this was not an instance of system failure at all!

We all know that women are exploited, the poor robbed, the innocent murdered and gullible citizens cheated every day — more often than not by people in positions of power, or the rich. But how often do we hear of any such person being brought to justice? The wheels of justice just do not turn if they are headed towards the well-heeled, with or without a beard. That is the system. And this was an exception to the rule.