Can government guarantee right to life?

He grew up watching the terror inflicted dance of death around the world, in India and around him. As a seven year-old, he did not understand the gravity of terrorism in the horrifying live pictures of the burning ?twin towers? crashing down and claiming thousands. He had seen teary-eyed citizens silently light candles at ground zero.
In 2006, he was aghast watching suburban trains ripped by bomb blasts in Mumbai. Overcome by emotion, he and his friends expressed solidarity with Mumbaikars by lighting candles in Delhi.
Now a teenager, he saw terror merchants snuffing out lives on the streets, in railway stations and playing their macabre game for three days holed up in prominent hotels of Mumbai. He heard the bursts of AK-47s. He saw a beaming NSG commando walking out of the hotel -- unusually poised yet high-fiving mates who played with their lives to silence the death merchants.
A TV correspondent asked this commando -- "How difficult was the operation". We all knew how difficult the operation was and were about to ridicule the reporter for the stupid question, when the key figure answered, " Hamare liye kuch mushkil nahin hai (nothing is difficult for us)."
The boy was stunned by this immensely positive answer. It probably erased all negative feelings generated by the continuous beaming of gory pictures 24x7 on TV. He possibly saw in the commando a protector of life, who can guarantee right to life -- the most important among our fundamental rights.
He took a decision -- he will not light a candle this time for those who were killed by terrorists in Mumbai, instead he will study hard to join the Army and try for an assignment in NSG.
He may mirror the thinking of many among us, for our politicians show a complete lack of seriousness and professionalism when it comes to citizens' right to life guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution, which also assures a right to live in a secure atmosphere.
The Batla House encounter, five days after Delhi serial blasts, is a grim reminder. On September 19, Delhi Police personnel went there on a mission to pre-empt a situation, who might have turned into something similar to what happened in Mumbai.
Leaving his ailing son in hospital, Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma went to take part in the mission. He was felled by the bullets of the desperadoes. The politicians, who are lavishing praise on the richly deserving bravehearts of the NSG, Army and Mumbai Police commandos today, were then among those doubting the encounter.
Cops like Sharma have been dying since 1993, when Mumbai was first targeted on a massive scale -- 13 blasts and scattered firing from AK-47s by terrorists resulting in the death of 250 people. Intensity, frequency and spread of the terror attacks have increased since then. Instead of uniting the political class for a joint strategy against terrorism, disgustingly, it has led to diverse views, basically on religious lines.
The supremacy of people is understood by politicians only for a few days during election time. They would do well to read this judgment in the D K Basu vs State of West Bengal case [1997 (1) SCC 416]. The Supreme Court, in this judgment, had said, "The Latin maxims -- salus populi suprema lex (the safety of the people is the supreme law) and salus republicae suprema lex (safety of the nation is the supreme law) -- coexist and are not only important and relevant but lie at the heart of the doctrine that welfare of an individual must yield to that of the community."
The teenager had not read this judgment, but understood the vital importance of right to life and safety of people. The politicians, at least those who are at the helm of affairs, must have read this. Then why the dithering for a joint fight against terrorism, notwithstanding the ceremonial all-party meetings in the aftermath of a massive tragedy?
Courtsey: Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Mumbai/Can_government_guarantee_right_to_life/articleshow/3776666.cms