A man of conscience is paying the price for being a truth seeker. If only, life could have been like movies. Unfortunately, the real is very different from reel and so Edward Snowden has been stuck in the transit area of Sheremetyevo International Airport (Moscow), something like the character Viktor Navorski (played by Tom Hanks), who gets stuck in the New York City airport for several months in the movie Terminal.
US intelligence services snoops on their European allies, a man of conscience spills the beans and he instantly becomes a political criminal. I wonder what would have happened if Snowden like, many others, would have
just sealed his lips, killed his conscience and would have been a silent spectator. He would have been a happy man, living a normal life in some posh locality in the United States. Today, he is a hero for some, while a
villain in his own country.
Snowden has written to 21 countries, including India, for asylum. A country which have given asylum to the Holiness Dalai Lama, Sri Lankan Tamil leader V Perumal and many others, India refused Snowden's request
with record speed. Of course, India would eventually have to give him up someday even if it would have granted him asylum as it has an extradition treated with the US but what strikes one is the spontaneity with which the
decision was taken, which clearly stinks of India's reluctance to not offend Uncle Sam.
It is funny that a country which considers itself much superior to any other nation and vows to uphold International laws, is violating all such laws blatantly. They talk of acting against 'cyber terrorism'
but themselves hacks our computers, they talk of privacy and individual rights but then taps phones, they swear by friendship and then break trust. Clearly, Mr O is no better than Mr B.
Soon, it would be all over for Snowden. He will be either forced to return back to the US or extradited to his country, arrested and punished for speaking the truth and the world will go on. Directors will make films on his life, which will go on to win Oscars and Golden Globe awards and everything will be just like before. But in all this
hoopla, truth and conscience will die a silent death once again.
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