While we in India are grappling with the sensitive issue of how to treat juvenile delinquents who commit horrendous crimes, the UK is pursuing its own demons by ferreting out the rich and famous who may once have crossed the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. The latest to fall prey to a seeming witch-hunt for an alleged sexual misdemeanour a quarter of a century ago is Sir Cliff Richard, the Lucknow-born pop icon of the 1950s whose father worked for a prosperous railway catering contractor in Lucknow and Howrah.
Cliff has vehemently protested his innocence, saying he is neither gay nor a paedophile. But far from giving the singer a chance to be available for interrogation, the British police seem to have run a hatchet operation, tipping off the media. There being no statute of limitations on such crimes in the UK, the country has been dogged in its pursuit of ageing celebrity offenders. There can be no two opinions about the long arm of the law being able to reach anyone. However, the question is would a fair trial be possible in a case that has been dug up after so long. This “tall poppy” syndrome does exist in advanced societies in which the high and mighty must be brought down, while the system in India tends to favour the high and mighty by delaying justice so much it is invariably denied.
