What Do You Say?

Once upon a time, there used to be a common man. He was always proud of calling himself a common man and the people would identify him as one of them.  It was a happy situation.

One day, the CM (common man) happened to jump a red light. It is not clear whether it was accidental or intentional; but when he was stopped by the traffic cop, he termed it as unintentional and apologised for his carelessness. His innocent face and apparently genuine plea had the desired effect and the traffic cop let him go with a simple warning and a word of advice. 

This incident emboldened the CM to start taking advantage of his innocent looks and convincing oratory skills. Twice again, he was able to manage the traffic cops effectively.

However, next time he ran out of luck and the cop on duty turned out to be a tough guy. The CM pleaded with all sort of reasons which did not cut much ice with the cop. Now, the CM got angry, refused to pay the fine and was not even apologetic.  The cop sent the matter to the court in a routine manner as a part of his duty.

The CM, though not very happy with the developments, decided to oblige and appeared in the court. His plea was simple – he was let off without any fine in earlier cases, so why should he be treated differently now? The judge didn’t want to be tough and to avoid any further waste of time, asked the CM to just give an undertaking that he would not repeat it in future, and go; but the CM recalling earlier cases, insisted that he should be allowed to go on the basis of his verbal assurance. Citing the procedure, the judge said that a written assurance was the least he could allow. The CM was very curt in his reply, “OK. You can send me to jail.”

The judge tried to convince the CM by recalling the instance of another associate of the CM, who had paid fine a day before for jumping a red light. The CM argued that his case was different as he had jumped the signal on a normal road. The CM had jumped a red light on a highway, which was as good as a freeway. So, the two incidents cannot be compared. The judge was spell-bound!

At this stage, a very senior lawyer intervened to educate the judge, “I will tell you what the law is. You don’t understand even English. The law states that a person who jumps a red light may be prosecuted. It does not say that he will be prosecuted. It is MAY, MAY, MAY.... it is not WILL, WILL, WILL. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”, he shouted.

The judge was calm. Coolly, he replied, “Yes, it is MAY... and I may or may not. Who will decide that? ME only. It is my judgement, not yours! ”

The CM jumped in, “Common people are supreme. You cannot be biased against them.  You send me to jail. Let the people decide who is right.”

Out goes the message – “What is happening in this country? A common man is jailed for jumping a red light, whereas who make such draconian laws are relaxing at their homes. Come out in the streets and protest against discrimination.”

So, thus starts another movement for the common people!

Poor judge cannot even resort to such tactics! What should he do?