My Opinion

Ram Vilas Paswan’s one major aim is that those who betrayed him and supported CM Nitish Kumar should not be given a ticket to fight the upcoming Bihar polls.

Pakistan knows that during the NSA level talks, terrorism issue will be raised. Captured militant Naved’s details will be put forth, information on Hafeez Saeed will be asked for and whereabouts of Dawood Ibrahim will be conveyed. To avoid humiliation, Pakistan will raise Samjhauta Express blast case. But our neighbour has forgotten that along with 42 Pakistanis, 26 Indians also lost their lives in this blast which took place in February 2007. Secondly, Aseemanand might have got bail, but he is still inside jail.

OROP is a bygone concern which was first raised by the Parliament standing committee in 1992. Sharad Pawar was the then Defence Minister. Many new governments were formed after that, but the issue was not resolved. That is why this issue is now a very complex. Ex-servicemen are waiting for this for the past 23 years. A number of political approaches have been made in this but, the practical implementation of plans still remains a complication. Govt has not been able to find a resolution for the issue in a way that it does not lands them in financial crisis.

Congress thinks that not allowing the Parliament to function will defame the Modi government, they won’t be able to do any work and by levelling allegations against PM Modi will enhance the leadership prospects of Rahul Gandhi. BJP will tell the public that disruptions in Parliament by Congress is a plan to relaunch Rahul Gandhi. People will be told that Congress is blocking the growth story of the country. But all this is short term. If the Parliament has to function, then the two major political parties need a working relationship, talks should be held, which is not on the cards for now.

President Pranab Mukherjee in his address to the nation today said that Parliament has been converted into an arena of combat rather than debate. No one can oppose this. Everyone will agree but no one will adhere to this. We saw this even today. BJP and Congress continued the blame game. They blamed each other for the disruptions in the Parliament.

While it seems clear that Gajendra Chauhan is not worth being the Chairman of FTII and that the government has committed a mistake, it also seems unfair on part of the students to carry on with their agitation like this for months. They should rather attend classes, complete their assignments and leave it to the government to remove Gajendra Chauhan. Both should happen simultaneously.

A Mumbai court today lifted the ban imposed on Nestle’s flagship product Maggi, while setting aside the lab test reports. It is unfortunate that the government is planning to sue the company for Rs 600 crore. It is the same Maggi which has got clearance from USA’s Food department. United Kingdom and Singapore have found it good for consumption. But our government has put a ban on the popular product. More than 29 thousand tons of Maggi was destroyed after the ban. It could have fed millions of hungry people. The ban will portray India as non business friendly country. Such decisions should not be taken in haste

Congress definitely succeeded in highlighting Lalit Modi’s issue, questions raised on Vasundhra Raje and allegations on Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Sushma Swaraj inside the Parliament. They didn’t allow any work to happen with disruptions every now and then. But as the last day of the Monsoon session came, Congress stance became weak. Sushma Swaraj got a chance to make a statement, she kept her words very effectively. Right from Quattrocchi to Anderson and Adil Shariyar was reminded to everyone by Sushma. She raised such questions which can be embarrassing for Rahul and Sonia Gandhi.

I was out the country for the past 10 days and let me tell you that the whole world talks about our Parliament and how there are only disruptions happening. Many experts say that Parliament is not a place to protest but discussions and debate. Placards should not be displayed, there shouldn’t be ruckus in the house. If protests take place inside Parliament then what will be the difference between Jantar mantar and Parliament. When Congress was in power, the BJP didn’t allow the house to function. Now the Congress is has gone steps ahead to disrupt the house. this has no doubt affected India’s image and of course Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has a reason to worry.

This time the discussions that happened inside and outside the Parliament took a bad shape with attacks going personal. Rahul Gandhi dragged Prime Minister Modi into everything and BJP leaders launched personal attacks on Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. We also saw Congress President Sonia Gandhi angrily rushing to the Well of the house just because one of the BJP MP attacked her sister on the Lalit Modi row. It is essential for a democracy to avoid such personal attacks and focus on debates of national issues in the Parliament.

Yakub Memon is a criminal, he was sentenced by the Supreme Court, he was given a fair trial. His mercy petition was rejected by the President of India. Now there cannot be any debate that he was not given a chance to defend himself. But it is also a fact that the victims of 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts will not get complete justice even after executing Yakub Memon. His only mistake was that he provided financial assitance along with logistics, the main culprit is Tiger Memon. Until Tiger Memon is punished, the victims of the blasts won’t get complete justice.

Yakub Memon was given a free and fair trial, all the witnesses were heard by the Supreme Court. He should have been hanged by now but there still lies a debate even today on his execution. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, many people believe that he came to India and helped the government gather a lot of information on Tiger Memon. He thought that he would turn an approver in the case and would be let free after the trial. Secondly, Yakub only provided financial assistance for the blasts which is not a crime to be hanged for. Now these arguments are in front of the apex court. The date of the execution has been finalised. The controversy is so big that even the two judges of the Supreme Court handling the case have different opinions.