Opinions and Editorials

US: No Entry For Mr. Modi – By Ram Puniyani (May 8, 2013, Countercurrents)

Mr. Narendra Modi, for whom some countries are warming up to relate to him in Europe and in the East; the latest report from US must be very disheartening. Despite a strong lobby for pressurizing to grant him Visa, the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), has called on the Obama administration to maintain a visa ban on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his role in the pogrom of 2002 that claimed over 2,000 lives and displaced over 150,000 people, many of whom are still in makeshift houses. The commission chairwoman Katrina Lantos Swett, of the US commission for international religious freedom (USCIRF) said that “There is significant evidence linking him (Modi, added) to the violence and the terrible events that took place in Gujarat and for this reason, a visa would not be appropriate,” In recent times Modi seems to be the only person so disgraced by the Human rights watch body. John Kerry, the present Secretary of the state of United States, had similar position about Modi, when he was the senator. He had written to the State department to the effect that Visa should be denied to Modi on the grounds of his possible role in 2002 anti Muslim pogrom. The US Intentional Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) bars entry of aliens ‘responsible for directly carried out, particularly severe violations of religious freedom’.

The US panel points out that there is a significant evidence linking Modi to the carnage. It is on this ground that Modi is on the Visa ban list from 2005 of US, and the recent efforts of pro-Modi lobbyists is not cutting any ice, in the face of the evidence against Modi. The report also takes cognizance of Muslim community’s suspicion that Maya Kodnani, who has been jailed, is a ‘fall guy’ for Modi, a ‘sacrificial lamb’ so to say. The Commission has also put India in tier two, as for as religious freedom is concerned. It also points out that the bringing in of ‘Freedom of religion’ bills in different states of India has increased the intimidation and atrocities against religious minorities in India. This trend of bringing in such bills is more in BJP ruled states, while few other states have fallen into this unconstitutional trap.

In India last three decades in particular have seen the rise of sectarian tendencies and intimidation of religious minorities. Sikhs in 1984 (Delhi), Christians in Dangs, Kandhamal and in various scattered acts of violence in Adivasi areas in particular, and Muslims in an ongoing manner in Meerath, Malyana, Bhagalpur, Mumbai, Gujarat, various places in UP etc. The intimidation is being orchestrated at social level as well. One example of this is the religious congregations like Shabri Kumbh, the ones’ held in Dangs and many other places, through which Hindus particularly the Adivasis are frightened. The sectarian violence against Muslims is leading to a situation where the whole community is being relegated to the status of second class citizenship. Various states have brought in ‘Freedom of Religion Bill’ which in an Orwellian manner prevents the free choice of religions by the people, a right granted by the Indian Constitution. These laws cannot stand the test of the values of Indian Constitution. But they give a big handle to the communal forces in collusion with the section of communalized state apparatus to intimidate the hapless religious minorities. The underlying reason of these tactics is to polarize the communities along religious lines, to prepare the ground for the ascendance of Religious nationalism, the communal fascism.

The acts of violence against the minorities are changing their pattern. On one hand instead of big massive violence, a scattered sustained violence is being organized in different parts of the country. The target is the non BJP ruled states like UP and Maharashtra in particular. In these states in particular local city based communal violence is taking place and communalizing the society. This trend will inherently strengthen the diehard communal party, which is the electoral wing of the agenda of religious nationalism. While Modi has been too clever and has changed the paradigm of his speeches from the communal one’s to the one’s revolving around the development, which as such should rather be termed as ‘pseudo development’. Modi he has already consolidated his communal-social base, so now to win the electoral battle he has to lure other layers of Hindus and communities, so the total projection around development. Somehow, though law has not fully caught up with him, the blood on his hands is refusing to get washed off despite his shrewd attempts in that direction. The US commission report gives the hope at deeper ethical and moral grounds. Our laws and legal mechanisms are such that the guilty of communal violence are getting away while the innocent are getting killed during the communal carnages. The demand for a law which can punish the guilty for their acts of omission and commission during the violence is very much overdue. One hopes that we don’t have to depend on International agencies to nab guilty of those people who let it happen under their nose, either in a proactive way or by looking the other way around.

The test of democracy lies in assessing as to how secure the minorities are, what the level of their dignity is. On that scale India is gradually sliding down, it’s a blemish on our democratic norms. It’s time that irrespective of our religion, caste and creed we come forward to press for protection of innocents, and for this the we must come forward with suitable legislation so that those in authority cannot get away after presiding over such inhuman acts and couch them in deceptive statements to escape the noose. The supplementary observation is about the rising trend of restriction of religious freedoms in South Asia as a whole. In recent times we have painfully seen the persecution of Christians and Hindus in Pakistan, of Buddhists and Hindus in Bangle Desh, of Muslims in Burma and Srilanka. The health of democracy in South Asia is a worrying matter. We know that regions grow together. India has been a strong pillar of democracy while other South Asian countries are in a different stage of evolution towards democracy. Somewhere military Generals are hovering over the elected leaders; at other the fundamentalist outfits are having a lion’s share in shaping the course of the events of the country. Tragically India is witnessing the downward slope on the scale of democratic ethos. Need for us to revisit the values of Freedom movement and the norms of Indian Constitution.

http://www.countercurrents.org/puniyani080513.htm

SEE ALSO:

• SIT Concealed Evidence of Modi Govt’s Complicity in Pogrom – By Amol Saghar (May 12, 2013, Peoples Democracy)
  http://pd.cpim.org/2013/0512_pd/05122013_10.html
• Voice of victims – By Anupama Katakam (May 17, 2013, Frontline)
  http://www.frontline.in/cover-story/voice-of-victims/article4666653.ece
• Are legal wars Narendra Modi government’s Achilles’ heel? – By Nikunj Soni (May 8, 2013, DNA India)
  http://www.dnaindia.com/print710.php?cid=1831986
• Trending Modi – By Sagnik Dutta (May 17, 2013, Frontline)
  http://www.frontline.in/cover-story/trending-modi/article4669744.ece

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How Many Skeletons Can He Fit In His Closet? – By Paranjoy Guha Thakurta (May 18, 2013, Tehelka)

With a substantial section of the Indian media choosing to hype the upcoming 16th General Election as an American presidential style contest between Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, it is not surprising that popular interest in the controversial leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has grown exponentially in recent months. Predictably, two journalist-authors and their publishers have sought to ride the crest of this wave of interest about a person who is arguably the most divisive and deeply contentious political personality in India at present.

It is, of course, a separate matter altogether that Modi’s attempts to project himself as a potential prime minister of the world’s largest democracy may well come to nought and his endeavours at playing a wider role in national politics outside Gujarat may prove to be more bluff and bluster than hard realpolitik. It is also very likely that if he is indeed sought to be projected as the tallest leader of the BJP, he will run into considerable opposition from not just within his own party, but, more importantly, from within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition headed by the BJP. There is a real and present danger that the NDA may implode if Modi acquires the stature that he apparently seeks, an outcome that would likely result in the coalition’s next largest constituent, the Janata Dal (United) led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, breaking ranks with the BJP.

Even more significant is the fact that it will be extremely difficult – rather impossible – for a so-called national political party and one of its important leaders to aspire to lead a heterogeneous country like India on a Hindu nationalist agenda after alienating one out of seven of the country’s citizens who believe in some variant or the other of the Islamic faith. Despite his best efforts at wooing them in his state, Muslims in India have a visceral hatred for Modi and this is hardly a secret inside and outside the BJP. In fact, as many political analysts have argued, the best bet for the Congress is to have a strong Modi in Gujarat, for this automatically ensures that Muslims and a section of ‘liberal’ Hindus remain distant from the BJP.

As Kingshuk Nag points out right in the beginning of The NaMo Story – much shorter and more tightly written than Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay’s Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times – there is perhaps no one in the country who is indifferent to Modi: you either love him or you hate him. His personality is not amenable to dissection in nuanced shades of grey. There are no ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ as far as the Gujarat chief minister is concerned. Nag is clear where he stands. He is certain (as is this reviewer, who has been quoted in The NaMo Story) that Modi will never ever be able to live down the fact that he presided over an administration that oversaw the genocide of at least 700 Muslims, most of them in Gujarat’s capital Ahmedabad, in a three-month period between late- February and early-May 2002.

The ghosts of the not-too-distant past will invariably return to haunt Modi over and over again, no matter how hard he tries to change his public image to that of a go-getting, pro-business leader, the chief executive officer of an industrialised and commerce-friendly state. Some of his overtures have borne fruit: it is hardly surprising that he is the only leader who has been showered with so many accolades by corporate captains, who otherwise prefer to play coy about disclosing their preferences about political leaders.

http://tehelka.com/how-many-skeletons-can-he-fit-in-his-closet/

SEE ALSO:

• Modi myth – By Venkitesh Ramakrishnan (May 17, 2013, Frontline)
  http://www.frontline.in/cover-story/modi-myth/article4666766.ece

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How The Southern Portal Crashed – By Imran Qureshi (May 20, 2013, Outlook)

In the circular logic of politics, it’s apt that the election results in Karnataka generate a meaning that goes beyond immediate victors and losers, and has a relevance not limited to the state’s borders or political culture. The grizzled players of the state Congress, instead of losing themselves in celebrations, are eking out a moral from the story and holding it up for the big bosses in New Delhi to see. It’s a nervous message: corruption is bad politics. What’s behind this curious note of caution tempering the elation and relief at returning to power in Karnataka after a gap of seven years? The survival instinct, pure and simple – and an honest appraisal of events as they evolved over the last few years. What lost the BJP its precious ‘gateway to the south’? There may be no answer as grand as the question. Yes, maybe a ‘correction’ to a rightward lurch in the polity, a bit of saffron fatigue. But equally, an accumulated frustration with the simple, everyday facts of massive institutional corruption. Dovetailed with visible misgovernance.

The way Congressmen tie the narrative to the present situation at the Centre – with the UPA unwilling to let go of two ‘tainted’ ministers for even form’s sake – has a lot to do with how things unfolded in Karnataka. For, whatever gains the Congress secured in this election owes to what the BJP did during its five-year rule. More than the scams, it’s in being totally impervious to public opinion that the real damage came. A feeling had set in at some point that the party cared little about public perception. Which hopefully will not be the mistake the Karnataka Congress will make. Or will it? Things have started off with the usual sounds of tug and pull, with over half a dozen candidates announcing they had a hat in the ring for the top job. Opposition leader in the outgoing assembly and padayatra man Siddaramaiah and Union labour minister M. Mallikarjuna Kharge headed the list of pro-spective CMs as we went to press; other major names in the air included Union oil minister Veerappa Moily and ex-KPCC chief R.V. Deshpande. That said, matters are unlikely to come to a head, all players agreeing amicably that “everybody will abide by the high command decision”.

The same cannot be said for the BJP’s innings that just came to an end: it had started by changing its very outlook to power. Its innovative ‘Operation Kamala’, to wean away Congress and Janata Dal legislators who later got elected as BJP men, was a classic example of how democracy can be subverted. It was as if, with opportunity knocking by way of its 100 seats – two short of the halfway mark of 112 in the assembly – it would brook no obstacle in the bid to grab and hold on to power. The lack of trust was obvious – it neither trusted the independents (whose support gave it a simple majority) nor its own partymen. Unlike the late Janata leader Ramakrishna Hegde, who was caught in a similar situation in 1983 but went on to provide a good government, the state BJP was just not prepared to make good on its first chance. To be sure, there was a dichotomy from the beginning between the principles enunciated by the party’s tallest leader then, L.K. Advani, at the time of the 2008 campaign (“Give us a chance to provide a clean government”) and the mechanisms the BJP found handy to gain power. The Bellary iron ore mines had pretty much financed the whole campaign, and Operation Kamala to boot. There was going to be a payback time. B.S. Yediyurappa finally lost his hold on the sceptre by trying to manage the tensions inherent in the BJP’s deal with the Reddys.

And then there was also the humbler corruption of those who were tasting power for the first time. Take the land deals, well exposed by H.D. Kumaraswamy of the JD(S). At one point, the ex-CM was pulling out one scam a day for almost a fortnight. Each of the deals were violative of all norms, including high court verdicts, and related to acquisition of land for BSY’s family members, or whoever found favour with the CM. By then, it was obvious that Yediyurappa considered himself a law unto his own. For, after all, hadn’t he led the BJP to power almost single-handedly, as he claimed to a senior party leader trying to reason with him on behalf of his colleagues. Indeed, the BJP’s rise to power was entirely due to his caste base: the large, dominant community of Lingayats who had stood by him. But then hubris struck. He became so brazen that even standard practices his predecessors followed-like not ignoring a bureaucrat’s written note quoting high court rulings-was given the go-by. The man even denotified land on a site lawfully allotted to his law minister!

The situation had clearly changed dramatically for the man who grew up in the RSS shakhas of Mandya. The time had come to unlearn the moral and cultural codes that had been drilled into him in the shakhas. The new mantra was RoI (return on investment). It’s what the Reddy brothers wanted. Yeddy went the whole hog: from land deals to mining; to backing the transfer of an honest forest official probing the theft of eight lakh tonnes of illegally mined ore the department had seized and retained at Belekere port; to the family’s Prerana Education Trust getting Rs 20 crore donations from the South West Mining Co and getting exposed by an active Lokayukta, Justice Santosh Hegde. And when the mining scam hit the ceiling, Yediyurappa punctured the party’s high command balloon further by walking in a procession to the Raj Bhavan to submit his resignation. It was also to send a message: that he alone mattered in the BJP and if it didn’t care, he would teach it a lesson. The high command, bent on protecting its ‘gateway to the south’, boosted his stature by caving in yet again. Why didn’t the party sack him then? Was it the fear of losing Lingayat support, as had happened to the Congress when community strongman Veerendra Patil was removed by Rajiv Gandhi in 1990? (It’s said that they never forgave the Congress – until now.) Whatever it was, BSY successfully converted every single crisis – even his three weeks’ stint in jail in the mining scam, the first ex-CM to do time – into an opportunity. …

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?285355

SEE ALSO:

• Karnataka as Bellwether – Editorial (May 18, 2013, Economic & Political Weekly)
  http://www.epw.in/editorials/karnataka-bellwether.html
• The Sene Patis Lose Their Marbles – By Gauri Lankesh (May 20, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?285356
• Karnataka Elections: Spoils of Fragmentation – By Srikrishna Ayyangar and Suraj Jacob (May 11, 2013, Economic & Political Weekly)
  http://www.epw.in/web-exclusives/karnataka-elections-spoils-fragmentation.html
• Soot In The Soul – By Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi (May 20, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?285357

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Will The Biases About Terrorists Remain Permanent? – By Ram Puniyani (May 7, 2013, Countercurrents)

We have witnessed number of acts of terror in India, during last two decades. While those involved in the acts of terror have been coming from individuals of different religions, the net outcome of the actions of investigation agencies and police has been to arrest Muslim youth, to put charges against them and in most cases to release them after the charges are not proved on any ground. This pattern had a ‘mini-break’ for sometime after the Malegaon blast of 2008. The professional, unbiased and meticulous investigation of the Malegaon blast by the then chief of Maharashtra ATS, Hemant Karkare came as a big step in getting to the terrorists. Due to this; starting from Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Dayanand Pandey, Swami Aseemanand and many others belonging to the ideology of Hindutva nationalism are currently cooling their heels in the jails. Investigations into Malegaon and many other blasts are showing the imprint of these Hindutva groups and people. One thought that this major breakthrough into acts of investigation will change the mind set of police authorities and they will overcome their biases and do a more professional job in investigation into the acts of terror.

Alas that was not to be and guided by Pavlovian reflex, in a knee jerk fashion, police continues to repeat its pattern of giving statements immediately after the acts of terror in which the organizations like Indian Mujahedeen. Lashkar and others continue to be being named without a thorough probe. This is followed by the usual arrests and framing them. Recently first in the case of Hyderabad twin blasts on 21 February 2013 in which 17 people died and over hindered were injured. These bombs were kept on a bicycle and Indian Mujahideen were blamed for this dastardly act. Later in Bangalore on 17th April a bomb exploded 300 meters from the BJP office. For this blast a motorcycle was used. In this blast around 16 people were injured. It was propagated that the blast took place near BJP office! As usual Indian Mujahedeen were blamed. In this blast again there was an additional factor about propaganda that blast took place near BJP office, when in reality the blast was 300 meters away from the spot. Congress spokesperson Shakil Ahmad said that this blast and the propaganda of its being near BJP office will benefit BJP in the forthcoming elections, while another Congress spokesperson and BJP countered the statement of Shakil Ahmad.

In Bangalore blast, the preceding incidents are very disturbing and revealing. Just ten days before the Bangalore blast, on sixth April in Kannur (Kerala) a blast took place from the motorcycle and RSS swayamsevak A. V. Dileep Kumar who was carrying four kilograms of explosives died. One recalls that the RSS associates also got killed in blasts in Nanded, Kanpur and many other places. This Kannur incident was underplayed and not much is known about the investigation so far as such. It is interesting that police authorities who immediately named Indian Mujahidin have been totally silent on the Hindutva connection of probable terrorists, as by now the nation knows the involvement of Hindutva groups in many acts of terror. The real loser of these biases held by authorities and common people is the country as a whole. The real reason being that if we don’t nab the real culprits and remain trapped in the usual prejudices and biases, the real culprits will continue to carry on their nefarious work over and over again.

As such apart from other things on this trend of Muslim youth being arrested a good amount of documentation and people’s investigation has been done by various human rights groups. ANHAD held a people’s tribunal and published it report, ‘Scapegoats and Holy Cows’. Lately a significant report by Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association led by Manisha Sethi has published ‘Framed, Damned, and Acquitted’. This report in a analytic way tells us the stereotypical manner of police investigation and actions and the plight of those who were arrested particularly by the Delhi Police Special Cell on charges of these youth being part of terrorist outfits. In most of these cases they were acquitted by courts. This report as such should have created awareness about the police methods and a pressure on police to mend its ways. The report also points that the biased atmosphere has been created as media is publishing the police version uncritically. This is in contrast to the journalistic ethics where the official versions have to be checked, cross checked and examined critically before publishing them. The human rights groups also have been struggling for getting compensation to these victims in good measure but to no avail so far. And then the question comes up as to what about the police officers who are guilty of these acts of wrongful investigation and implicating innocent youth, ruining their life in a serious way? Should they not be punished? The pattern of police reporting is also very stereotypical and needs to be seriously criticized.

The question is what the senior leadership is doing in the face of findings of these reports. Is it not important for the policy makers to take cognizance of such important reports and respond to them in the form of policy change for the investigation authorities? Amongst others another human rights group, Rihai Manch from Uttar Pradesh is also campaigning on this issue and trying to get the innocent youth released. UP Government had appointed a Nimesh Commission to investigate these cases, but for reasons known to itself the government is not releasing the report and is doing some patch work here and there. While UP Government is dodging over the issue of implicating the Muslim youth, one of its ministers is having the taste of these biases in United States, where he was detained at Boston. While he is blaming Indian External Affairs Minister for this, he is forgetting that these biases against Muslims are equally widespread and before him, people of the stature of ex President Abdul Kalam and the celebrity like Shah Rukh Khan have faced similar situations. Is it not an indication enough for the UP minister to set his own house in order as for as the implication of Muslim youth in acts of terror are concerned. The real worrying point of all these incidents is the way biases against Muslims are becoming rooted more and more. What efforts are needed to counter this stereotypical nature of understanding security agencies and perceptions at popular level needs a serious course correction on urgent basis.

http://www.countercurrents.org/puniyani070513.htm

SEE ALSO:

• Cashing in on prejudice: Police torture of Muslims in UP – By Lenin Raghuvanshi (Apr 29, 2013, Merinews)
  http://www.merinews.com/article/cashing-in-on-prejudice-police-torture-of-muslims-in-up/15884761.shtml

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A community does some soul-searching on 1984 cases – By Chander Suta Dogra (May 3, 2013, The Hindu)

With the recent acquittal of Sajjan Kumar by a Delhi court which sent a wave of dismay among Sikhs in Punjab and across the world, the realisation has started to grow that the Sikh community as a whole, barring a few exceptions, has done little to lend a helping hand to those seeking justice for the 1984 riots. The anger and frustration at repeated setbacks in courts is no less than the sense of collective shame that is beginning to pervade sections of the community at not being able to bring the key perpetrators to book. This is partly why the demand to reopen and investigate afresh the hundreds of cases that were closed due to lack of evidence is gaining resonance.

Until 2007, when the Central Bureau of Investigation filed the first closure report in a case against Jagdish Tytler stating that it could not contact any of the witnesses, the complainants were mostly fighting the cases on their own with very little resources or support. It is well known that many key witnesses were either purchased or coerced into giving contrived testimonies, often changing what they said, contributing to the perception in the courts that their statements were unreliable. On Tuesday, when District and Sessions judge J.R. Aryan acquitted Sajjan Kumar, he did so on the ground that the prosecution’s star witness, Jagdish Kaur, had not named him in her statement before the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission in 1985.

The 2007 setback in Tytler’s case however proved to be a watershed in the legal battles of the 1984 riot victims. For the first time it drew the attention of a group of U.S.-based Sikh lawyers to what was happening here. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a New York-based attorney, who later formed the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), helped trace Jasbir Singh in the U.S, one of the witnesses who the CBI said could not be traced. Another witness, Surinder Singh, who had resiled from his previous statement before the Nanavati Commission, was also located and persuaded to depose again. The CBI sent a team to the U.S. to record their statements, but later told the court that they could not be relied upon because of inconsistencies. Similarly, 17 other witnesses were located by the combined efforts of the SFJ, H.S. Phoolka, the Delhi-based lawyer who has taken up the cases of the riot victims, and Navkiran Singh, a Chandigarh-based human rights lawyer.

It took an appeal by the SFJ for the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to offer protection for these witnesses. Surinder Singh who had served as a granthi in several Delhi gurdwaras(he died a couple of years ago), told this correspondent in 2008 that for years, he had lived in fear of goons who used to harass him for implicating Tytler. In 2008, after the CBI recorded his statement afresh on the killing of three Sikhs outside Gurudwara Pul Bangash on November 1, 1984, he was a terrified man, unwilling to return to Delhi and take up his old job. Today, the overwhelming sentiment in Punjab is that in the face of a hostile Congress, it was the responsibility of the Sikh political and religious leadership to motivate and help the victims firm up the cases. “This was never done. They always played politics with the issue. If it was the pro-Congress Sarna brothers heading the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Committee who sided with the Congress and openly intimidated the witnesses, in Punjab, the Akalis only paid lip service because the Delhi Sikhs who suffered the most were not its vote bank,” says Gurpreet Singh of the International Sikh Confederation, an umbrella organisation of Sikh religious and social groups.

It was the small group of Mr. Phoolka, Navkiran Singh and the SFJ that brought to light as late as 2011 the deaths of 51 Sikhs in Haryana during the riots, including the destruction of the village of Hondh Chillar. A fact finding committee of the SFJ found that an FIR registered by the sarpanch after 23 Sikhs of the village were killed and their houses burnt down was never investigated properly. Through an RTI query, they also discovered that there was violence in nine out of Haryana’s 19 districts. Trials were being conducted in only 36 of the 65 cases registered while 29 cases had been cancelled. The activists then moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court and have succeeded in getting a commission of inquiry appointed into the killings in Haryana. Says Navkiran Singh: “It is unfortunate that the biggest setback to the victims has been the apathy of the Sikh community itself. The well-off Sikhs in Delhi joined hands with the Congress to feather their nests and left the poorer victims to fend for themselves.” He quotes the example of Badal Singh, who died in the rioting for which Jagdish Tytler was booked. “Badal Singh had run into the house of a rich Sikh to seek shelter, from where he was seized by the mob. That Sikh refused to become a witness.” …

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-community-does-some-soul-searching-on-1984-cases/article4677410.ece

SEE ALSO:

• Blood trail in Assam – By Rahul Karmakar (May 13, 2013, Hindustan Times)
  http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/1059237.aspx

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The unravelling – Editorial (May 9, 2013, Indian Express)

The UPA government’s reputation is being battered in a perfect storm of its own making. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court, as expected, took a stern view of the Union law minister and other government officials vetting the CBI’s status report on the investigation into coal block allocations — this highly unusual oversight was first reported in this paper, and subsequently confirmed by CBI Director Ranjit Sinha to the court. Even more damningly, the court blew a big hole in the government’s attempt to pass off its recommended changes to the status report as mere proofreading. The Supreme Court bench says the changes went to the heart of the report. This is crucial. The UPA has so far been resolute in brazening it out, parsing the court’s observations to improvise excuses and troubleshoot on a day-to-day basis. It must now pause to consider the juncture to which this brazenness has brought not just the government, but also the delicate relationship between the political executive and the premier investigating agency.

In fact, were the government to glance beyond the immediate repercussions of its defence of the law minister, it would find that the court has, once again, left many exit routes for all concerned to recover institutional equilibrium for the CBI and the posts of the law minister and the law officers. But for that, the UPA needs to see the crisis for what it is, a deeply political one that had to be managed politically, not fought as a legal brief in the public domain. Ashwani Kumar may or may not have had particular beneficiaries in mind while running his blue pencil through the CBI draft — though the dynamic of the intervention has to be probed too – but excising a line of inquiry in the case reinforces the galling breach of propriety overseen by him as the incumbent Union law minister.

Taking moral responsibility, and immediately so, by having him step down was vital for the Congress party, and especially the government, to demonstrate an acceptance of institutional dignity, of the CBI and also of the Union council of ministers. Now, no matter what measures the government takes, they will be seen to be under duress, and not born of moral conviction. At this late stage, a strong demonstration of political humility by the government is in order. It is the bare minimum needed under these appalling circumstances.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/1113216/

SEE ALSO:

• A New-Found Agency? – By Uttam Sengupta (May 20, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?285354
• Phantom democracy – By Pratap Bhanu Mehta (May 9, 2013, Indian Express)
  http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/1113222/
• CBI & Coal Scam: Stop Such Crass Interference – Editorial (May 5, 2013, Peoples Democracy)
  http://pd.cpim.org/2013/0505_pd/05052013_1.html
• Bread Lines – By Saba Naqvi (May 20, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?285352

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