Grilling of DN

May 19, 2015

Some Buddhist monks and laymen have taken exception to the manner in which the police recently interrogated the Diyawadana Nilame (DN) of Sri Dalada Maligawa. What the police have done is tantamount to an affront to the sacred temple, they argue.

However, there are others who point out that everybody is equal before the law and, therefore, the DN shouldn’t be given special treatment; he should be dealt with like any other ordinary citizen. Their argument is also not without merit.

The police must be able to act without fear or favour and nobody is above the law. However, regrettably, they often conduct interrogations and make arrests in such a way that they allow their independence to be called into question. They are notorious for currying favour with the powers that be by conducting megaphone probes, as it were. This, they have done under successive governments. The Rajapaksas used the police to harass their opponents and the boot is now on the other foot!

True, those who voted for President Maithripala Sirisena want the racketeers shielded by the previous government brought to justice and they expect the police to act fast. They must not be disappointed. But, the question is whether things should go so fast and furious as a form of public entertainment. Police probes shouldn’t have the trappings of political circuses.

The question of lay custodians of sacred places being interrogated by the police or hauled up before courts won’t arise if the right persons are appointed to those posts; misfits must not be allowed to have themselves elected by bribing state officials who are entitled to vote.

Right to fly

An Indian court has recently declared that birds have a fundamental right to fly and, therefore, humans cannot cage them. Birds, too, have fundamental rights including the right to live with dignity and they cannot be subjected to cruelty by anyone, Delhi High Court Judge Manmohan Singh has said as we reported yesterday.

This is a trailblazing judgment which will certainly redefine the concept of fundamental rights which have hitherto been thought to be limited to humans. People for Animals should be thanked for having taken trouble of invoking the jurisdiction of the court.

Bird trading is also a moral issue. It amounts to cruelty as the learned judge has rightly pointed out. That is why Mahatma Gandhi has said the greatness and moral progress of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. If birds cannot be kept in cages for sale as pets, it must also be illegal for them to be imprisoned and slaughtered systematically.

It will be interesting to see the legal implications of the Delhi High Court judgment as regards aviaries in zoos where hundreds of birds are denied their right to fly in the sky. Besides, they are being kept in cages for a commercial purpose. People have to pay to visit zoos, don’t they?

In this country, too, there are people thriving on the suffering of birds kept in cages, especially near some famous temples, as devotees buy them freedom to redeem vows. A former president also maintained an aviary at his official residence and there were occasions when the police were asked to search for some imported parrots which had escaped from that gilded prison. (Have those poor birds been released by the ‘good governance’ administration?)

If the scientific claim that birds are descendants of dinosaurs is anything to go by then man is a Johnny-come-lately, where life on earth is concerned, and has no right to curb the feathered critters’ freedom to live and fly, court orders or no court orders.