Justice and Accountability.

- Roger Srivasan -

The sacrosanct principle of “innocent until proven guilty” must never be manipulated as a shield behind which the powerful, the affluent, or the politically connected evade prosecution. Whether they be Buddhist monks, Hindu priests, Christian clergy, or Imams, any individual against whom there exists cogent evidence of child molestation, rape, or other scrofulous crimes must face the full majesty of the law without fear or favor.

Religious office must never become a sanctuary for depravity. Those credibly accused of such heinous offences should be arrested with dispatch, produced before the courts, and subjected to the same rigorous judicial scrutiny as any ordinary citizen. If an Attorney General were perceived to be obstructing lawful prosecutions or shielding the influential from accountability, the government would be duty-bound to act swiftly and restore public confidence in the administration of justice.

A civilized society is ultimately measured not by how reverently it treats the powerful, but by how fearlessly it subjects them to the rule of law.