Satya Meva Jayate

Satya Meva Jayate - I read these three words while looking at a five-rupee note way back in school. I did not understand the meaning right away. I found it out later – truth always triumphs. Wonder how true is that. I have been brought up on a steady diet of tales from Mahabharata which, as we all know, is filled with acts of subtle deceit and questionably forgivable lies. Truth never always won in that epic saga – what makes us think it will always win in our daily life? The Bhagavad-Gita justifies and endorses a lie as long as it does not harm anyone. I wonder – which line of thinking is an idealist one and which one is the pragmatic one?

November 19, 2006: The first death anniversary of Shanmughan Manjunath - a graduate from IIM, Lucknow. He had an exciting future lying ahead. While receiving the coveted degree from the IIM, little did he know about his tragic end. He was just doing his job – loyally. He was canceling the licenses of petrol pumps, which sold contaminated fuel. For siding with truth, Manjunath was abducted, badly beaten up and eventually shot dead. His body, riddled with at least six bullets, was found in the backseat of his own car. Not many remember him today. Some wonder why he just did not shut up and let the status quo be. Some see his name pop up in a random "Indian of the Year" contest, try to recollect his claim to "fame", frown for a moment and then move on to the next channel. His parents continue to cry on prime time television. Satya Meva Jayate??

November 27, 2006: The media suddenly woke up to the memory of Satyendra Dubey. "Satyendra..err…who??" – that was the reaction of one of my colleagues when he heard of this news. Well, Dubey was the man who was killed just because he tried to bring to the notice of the PMO, the blatant corruption going on in the Golden Quadrilateral Highway construction project. He was an IITian with a bright future ahead. Today he is a distant memory and just a name tossed across in intellectual debates and discussions. His father continues to shed tears till date. Satya Meva Jayate??

Jessica Lall was shot on April 29, 1999. Manu Sharma was awarded life sentence on 18 December 2006. Priyadarshini Mattoo died in 1996. Santosh Kumar Singh was awarded capital punishment on October 17, 2006. Nitish Katara died in 2002. His case is doing the rounds in the court till date. Justice was delivered in some cases because of the intense media pressure and the mass involvement of people. What about the million of other injustices which remain untold and which go by unnoticed just because people do not have the guts to stand up and fight for truth, in those scenarios.

Satya Meva Jayate – Truth ALWAYS wins. Looking around me, I don’t think so. But, truth wins – sometimes. Having said that, what should prompt us to try and be on the side of truth, knowing very well that being on the side of truth need not mean being on the winning side. I guess the fact that all of us would want our children to inherit a society where Satya Meva Jayate – in the true, literal sense – always.