My Opinion

Eleven years after the Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad, the Special   NIA Court on Monday acquitted Swami Aseemanand and four other   accused, with the judge saying that the investigation agency failed to   prove any of the charges.

This has brought to the fore the issue of ‘saffron terror’ coined by the   then UPA ministers P. Chidambaram and Sushil Kumar Shinde. Both   Chidambaram and Shinde, who are senior Congress leaders, had   claimed that they had documentary evidence in several terror related   cases, and got affidavits filed in court changed to support their charge   of “saffron terror”. At one point of time, during the UPA rule, an impression was created as if some radical Hindu outfits played a role in the Malegaon blasts, Ajmer shrine blast and Mecca Masjid blast.

The latest court verdict along with some other recent verdicts make it amply clear that genuine documents were removed from files and fake affidavits were filed to bolster the charge of “saffron terror”. This brought a bad name to India in the international arena. Even Rahul Gandhi went to the US and spoke of “saffron terror” being more dangerous than the ISIS.

Now that the accused are being acquitted in most of the terror related cases, the Congress cannot absolve itself by saying that since the BJP is in power, the judiciary has given such verdicts. Had it been so, all the accused in the 2G scam, in which UPA leaders were accused, would not have been acquitted. One should respect the verdict of the courts.

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An eight-year-old girl, belonging to Bakerwal community of shepherds in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, was first abducted and then gangraped for several days before she was brutally murdered. One shudders in horror after reading details about the inhuman and horrendous torture the victim went through.

It does not matter to which religion or community the victim belonged to. It also does not matter to which religion or community the perpetrators of this dastardly crime belong to, because such culprits do not deserve to be called human beings.

It is a question of humanity and we do not need politicians to explain that. The question is, what should be done now: the victim must get justice, and the perpetrators of the gruesome crime should get a deterrent punishment, which should be an eye-opener for all. Such acts of inhumanity lowers the trust and confidence that the common people have in law and it brings a bad name to the country on the world stage.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all BJP MPs are observing a day’s fast today to protest the complete washout of the recent Parliament session. A handful of MPs stalled proceedings daily and did not allow any debate or legislative proceedings to take place during the budget session, thus paralyzing the parliament of the world’s most populous democracy.

The budget session was adjourned sine die on April 6, and the ruling party had announced the same day that its MPs would sit on a day’s fast on April 12. The washout of parliament session amounts to sheer wastage of public money, apart from weakening the very fundamentals of our democracy.

But I do not think sitting on a day’s fast will have any impact on those MPs who stalled parliament proceedings. When we see the proceedings of the parliaments of the world’s powerful democracies in action, we naturally feel sad that our parliament never witnesses such lively debates. Parliament is constituted to ensure that the people’s representative could convey the wishes, aspirations and grievances of their electorates, and to watch people of different ideologies and persuasions engage in lively debates on issues of national importance. Parliament is not supposed to be a theatre for pandemoniums, and when such pandemoniums occur on a daily basis, our democracy is weakened considerably. If the parliament of the world’s most populous democracy is paralyzed, then there is very little space for a democracy to prosper.

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All the main opposition parties in West Bengal – BJP, CPI(M) and Congress – have alleged that the Trinamool Congress has nearly “hijacked” the panchayat elections due on May 1, 3 and 5, by “forcibly” preventing opposition candidates from filing their nominations. The state ruling party, on its part, has rejected the charges and has claimed that opposition parties are unable to “find” candidates because of what it called “lack of organisational strength”.

The truth is, however, completely different. Suspected TMC activists hurled bombs injuring two former CPI(M) MPs when they went to file nominations. In one district, TMC supporters attacked and killed a BJP candidate when he went to file his nomination. There have been clashes between the opposition and TMC workers in most of the districts, vitiating the atmosphere that is required for a free and fair poll. In Birbhum and Murshidabad districts, the TMC has already “cornered” several panchayat samiti and zilla parishad seats as its candidates were “elected unopposed” in the absence of opposition. News channels have telecast videos of how TMC supporters beat up the daughter of a BJP candidate near Kolkata, when the latter went to file his nomination.

The role of the State Election Commission has become suspect under such circumstances. The State Election Commissioner on April 9 extended the last date of filing of nominations by one day, but after he was pressurized, the notification was promptly withdrawn.

Questions are now being raised about the credibility of the State Election Commission. One can understand the state administration and the police bowing to unreasonable diktats from their political masters, but it would be a black day for democracy, if the state election commission starts working under the pressure of the state government and ignore acts of violence and intimidation against opposition activists.

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The Congress party had announced nationwide token fast on Monday to voice its concerns on Dalit issues and social harmony, but clearly there was lack of planning. In several states, leaders sat on three-hour fast and then went away for lunch. In Delhi, party leaders were seen on social media having a hearty breakfast of chholey bhature and they then proceeded to Rajghat to sit on fast. Rahul Gandhi came to Rajghat at around 1 pm and sat for a few hours.

The question is: why this farce? The immediate provocation seems to be BJP’s plan to organize nationwide fasts on April 12 by its MPs to protest against the washout of Parliament session.To pre-empt this, the Congress announced nationwide fasts over Dalit issue. Since it was called in a hurry, in some places the fast began at 10 am, at some other places at 12 noon, and 1 pm. Clearly, there was lack of seriousness and planning.

To sit on fast means to register one’s protest by abstaining from food. When Delhi Congress leaders sat on 3-hour fast after having a breakfast of chholey bhature, they were lampooned on social media. One should hope that Rahul Gandhi should be careful in future before announcing fasts in a hurry.

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Reacting to a Jodhpur court sentencing film star Salman Khan to 5 years jail on charge of poaching, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif told a local news channel that Salman was convicted because he belonged to the minority community. Khawaja Asif went on to say that ” if Salman Khan had belonged to the religion of the ruling party of India he would not have been sentenced and the court might have been lenient with him.” For good measure, Asif also alleged that ” (this) shows that lives of Muslims, ‘untouchables’ or Christians are not valued in India.”

One should not commit the blunder of describing Khawaja Asif’s remarks as merely foolish. It is part of a well-planned conspiracy: to sow seeds of hate among Hindus, Muslims and other communities in India. This is part of a move to instigate minorities by spreading rumours and lies among them.

Khawaja Asif is an experienced Pakistani politician. He must surely be knowing that there were co-accused like Saif Ali Khan and Tabu in this poaching case. Both these film actors are Muslims, and the same court which convicted Salman Khan, also acquitted these two Muslim actors. Also, in three other cases of poaching, the courts in India had acquitted Salman Khan, and Khawaja Asif knows this fact pretty well. But Asif’s real motive was to sow seeds of hate among communities in India, and that is why the Pakistani foreign minister made such remarks.

Khawaja Asif should know that the people of India are sagacious and mature enough to understand the motive behind such atrocious remarks. Minority communities in India are not going to fall in such a trap. They do not need lectures on secularism from politicians from a theocratic state like Pakistan.

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I am surprised to read the judgement of Chief Judicial Magistrate (Jodhpur Rural) in the blackbucks poaching case, wherein Bollywood superstar Saman Khan has been convicted and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment along with fine, while five of his co-accused were acquitted giving benefit of doubt.

I feel Salman Khan has been convicted for being a superstar, and not for being a culprit.

In this case, there were the same set of witnesses who deposed against Salman and his associates, and there were the same set of evidences which were put forward against Salman and his co-accused. How can we term it as justice if the five co-accused are acquitted and Salman is sentenced to five years’ imprisonment? Does it not imply that it was Salman who has been hunting alone, of driving the vehicle alone, of firing at the black bucks alone, and thus was adjudged the lone culprit?

The other point is that Salman was acquitted by the Rajasthan High Court in a similar blackbuck poaching case in another village near Jodhpur. Then where is the logic behind convicting him in this case?

The sad part is that the chief judicial magistrate in his verdict has mentioned that ‘Khan is a film star whose actions are followed by the common man and still he shot dead two innocent and mute blackbucks (sic), a Schedule-I animal under the Wildlife Protection Act, so he cannot be granted benefit under the Probation of Offenders Act as sought by the defence.”

In my opinion, if this is considered a valid criterion, then it is also a fact that Salman Khan donates crores of rupees in charities, arranges free treatment for lakhs of people, and the common people could also ‘follow’ his good work too. In such a circumstance, Salman should get the benefit for his positive work.

I personally feel that injustice has been meted out to Salman Khan. One should punish a culprit, not a superstar for his fame. I hope Salman Khan will get relief from higher courts soon.

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The situation in Bhind, Morena and Gwalior of MP, and in Agra, Allahabad and parts of westerm UP continues to remain tense, as reports pour in about how local politicians having vested interests planned violence and arson during Monday’s Bharat Bandh. The rumour factory via WhatsApp was active throughout this volatile period.

UP police has shared with media how politcians at the local level hatched conspiracies to unleash violence. The question arises as to why the local intelligence units of the police were not active.Had the local intelligent units been active, police could have acted in time.

I want to appeal to all sections of society to refrain from retaliating and act with utmost restraint. If some people have unleashed violence, the police is trying its best to round up these elements. Acts of retaliation will further vitiate the atmosphere. Peace is the need of the hour.

It is also clear that vote bank politics acted as a motive behind this cycle of violence, and most of the political parties worked with this ulterior motive. It is a known fact that tickets during polls are distributed on the basis of caste equations. Distributing tickets and seeking votes in the name of caste can be tolerated to some extent but inciting riots and unleashing violence in the name of caste is reprehensible and unacceptable.

All political parties should introspect and see in which direction they are leading our country. On one hand, we have unruly mobs unleashing violence, and, on the other hand, instructions are issued to police not to use teargas shells or lathis nor fire, to control the situation. Had the police used maximum force and if lives were lost, the situation could have deteriorated further.

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The Delhi High Court on Tuesday brought to an end the sordid affair of two civil defamation cases filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after the latter and his associates offered unqualified apology for levelling baseless and false charges of corruption against the former. Kejriwal has apologized to Jaitley and his family members for accusing the Union Minister of corruption during his 13-year stint at Delhi and District Cricket Association.

Simultaneously, a trial court in Delhi accepted Kejriwal’s apology to Jaitley and disposed of the criminal defamation case. I want to mention here that when Arun Jaitley filed the defamation cases against Kejriwal, I appeared as witness number one in support of Jaitley. In my heart of hearts, I was convinced that the slanders and accusations levelled by Kejriwal against Jaitley were baseless and false, and it was a blatant act of defamation.

I know Arun Jaitley for the last 44 years. To allege that he promoted corruption while helming the affairs of DDCA, was a great injustice to an honest man. It was my firm conviction that I should stand in court to defend a person, honest to the core. I had then felt that if I did not publicly defend an honest person, I would never be able to forgive myself.

Today I am contented that my conviction has been proved true. Kejriwal offered apologies again and again, clearly and succinctly, to Jaitley in court. The court also accepted his apologies. Arun Jaitley came out of this entire slanderous drama, unblemished and untainted. I hope this legal case will give support to all those who are honest and are working tirelessly in politics. I also hope that this would act as a deterrence to mischief mongers and liars, who try to tarnish the image of others without any shred of solid evidence.

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The Bharat Bandh call given by some Dalit organisations and supported by Congress, BSP, RJD, Samajwadi Party and other opposition parties to protest against the Supreme Court order diluting SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, turned violent in some states on Monday leading to the death of nine persons, and wanton destruction of public and private properties.

Hooligans indulged in largescale violence in the name of Dalit rights, even as the Centre filed a review petition before the Supreme Court seeking restoration of mandatory arrest in cases of atrocities on Dalits and tribals. Rumours and fake news factory worked on overdrive and in some states internet services had to be suspended.

The picture is clear – those who indulged in violence were supported by the party which had the largest base of Dalit supporters in UP, MP, Rajasthan and Haryana. The maximum number of arson and violence took place in these states. On the whole, violence took place during Dalit protests in 10 states, which have 71 Lok Sabha seats, where SC/ST voters are predominant. These seats are significant in view of the forthcoming 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Most of the violent incidents took place in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where assembly elections are due towards the end of this year. Clearly, political motives were at work behind the largescale violence that took place during these protests.

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Millions of Class X students across the country, except Delhi-NCR and Haryana, heaved a sigh of relief on Friday evening, when the Education Secretary announced that there would be no retest for Maths in all regions except Delhi-NCR and Haryana, where question paper leaks are supposed to have taken place. The date for Class XII Economics paper was also announced ending uncertainty and confusion in the minds of examinees and their parents.

There were three issues before the Education department of HRD Ministry: One, how to end uncertainties in the minds of examinees. This ended with the announcement of retest date for Class XII Economics, and a possible retest for Class X Maths, if required, in Delhi-NCR and Haryana.

Two, questions were raised as to why CBSE did not take action when it was getting leaked question papers on e-mail, fax and courier. The reply given was that in the past too, such claims of leaks were made but were later found to be fake. This time the board could not establish that the leaks did take place and hence, it did not pre-empt the cheaters by cancelling the exam.

Third point: How will the board ensure that such leaks do not recur in future? The reply given by the Education Secretary was that since the exams are due only next year, necessary measures to plug all loopholes in the system will be put in place.

The question now is: CBSE had an impeccable record of leak-proof examination system till date, there used to be more than one set of question papers to tackle such eventualities, question papers used to be kept in SBI branch lockers, question papers were printed at government security printing press, then how was the security breached? Till the time there are no specific answers to these questions, all other replies make no meaning.

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It has now come to light during investigation that the Class X Maths question paper that was leaked to students and tutors, was forwarded by a parent to a senior CBSE official five days before the exam was to take place. The official routinely forwarded this to a junior police officer for investigation, and nothing happened during the intervening period because of weekend holidays. The shit hit the fan when the exam took place five days later and it was found that the question paper was already leaked. CBSE then cancelled the exam and ordered retest.

It is clear that the CBSE management has not taken the leak of question papers seriously, otherwise this could have been avoided. On its part, the Delhi Police special investigation team is still shooting in the dark. It is questioning those students and tutors who got the leaked question paper on their WhatsApp. Police is yet to ascertain who were the real masterminds behind this leak. CBSE officials, on their part, are obfuscating the entire issue by giving vague replies.

CBSE must reply why it did not take immediate steps when the leaked paper landed with their official five days before the exam. The board could have postponed the exam and could have ordered fresh question papers to be reset, but it did not.

This is a sheer case of negligence and amounts to injustice to millions of students who toiled hard for the board exam. While the police is trying to nab the real masterminds behind the leak, the Centre must immediately take action against those erring CBSE officials who were responsible for conducting the exam in a fair manner, but did not take the complaints seriously.

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