Tag: Law and Order in India

Khalil Chisti gets bail

India, Pakistan
Comments

On 9/4/2012 Supreme Court granted bail to Khalil Chisti, a man sentenced to life for murder of one person. It had referred to the goodwill generated by Asif Ali Zardari’s visit the previous day and hoped it would continue. The event makes one wonder whether India is governed by rule of law.

It is immaterial that Khalil Chisti is a Pakistani and the victim is an Indian. It is immaterial that Khalil Chisti is 80 years old and not in good health. What is material is that he is convicted of murder and serves life sentence.

Asif Ali Zardari’s visit should not have had any bearing on Khalil Chisti’s case. When did Khalil Chisti apply for bail? Was it before 9/4/2012 or on 9/4/2012? If it was before 9/4/2012 after how many days the court took up the matter? If Zardari visit had gone wrong and both sides had blamed each other what would have been the verdict on bail plea?

Someone said Khalil Chisti had spent 20 years in jail. If he had been convicted within three years he would have been out of jail. The court was aware of his time in jail. Life sentence does not mean a prisoner has to be released after 14 or 20 years.

Judiciary is for judgments as per law. Judicial pronouncements should not be influenced by political events or public relations. The issue of release of Khalil Chisti was discussed in June 2011. PM had written to Shivraj Patil, Governor of Rajasthan, to release Khalil Chisti. Shivraj Patil had sought legal advice and there the matter rested. PM did not seek presidential pardon to Khalil Chisti.

As a rule people serving life sentence are not granted bail. There are life convicts who get parole or spend time in hospital. Khalil Chisti case can be used by them to get bail. Their lawyers will not mention that Khalil Chisti was 80 years old and was in poor health. They will say he was a life convict and got bail by Supreme Court.

FIRs against 14 ministers

Corruption, General, India
Comments

IAC wants FIRs against 14 ministers. The ministers are P. Chidambaram, Ajit Singh, Farooq Abdullah, G. K. Vasan, Kamal Nath, Kapil Sibal, Sharad Pawar, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Sushilkumar Shinde, Vilasrao Deshmukh, M. K. Alagiri, Virbhadra Singh, S. M. Krishna and Praful Patel.

Kapil Sibal reduced fine on Reliance from 650 crore rupees to 5 crore rupees resulting in a loss of 645 crore rupees to the country. He should reverse his decision or pay 645 crore rupees.

Someone in Congress wanted to get rid of Ashok Chavan as CM, after a stage managed revelation with the help of a TV channel in which one Congress politician told another Congress politician that Ashok Chavan was unwilling to contribute to Sonia Gandhi’s rally but later fell in line and contributed two crore rupees, so Adarsh scam became public knowledge. The person does not want to get rid of Sushilkumar Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh so they have remained ministers.

If there is evidence of attacks on political rivals against M. K. Alagiri, IAC can approach Jayalalitha. She will be glad to file FIR and put him in jail.

If there is no loss to the exchequer in JKCA financial irregularities then the central or state government cannot file an FIR against Farooq Abdullah unless there is a complaint from someone in JKCA. JKCA has its income from BCCI and other sources. In case of Syed Yusuf Shah’s death, there has to be some evidence against Farooq Abdullah.

Virbhadra Singh has denied there being any video of him demanding a bribe from an IAS officer. He has demanded an apology from Arvind Kejriwal failing which he has threatened to take legal action against him.

IAC wants FIR against Kamal Nath for rice export scam. Tarun Das in his conversation with Radia had referred to him as having 15% of contract amounts. Later he had apologized and called himself a bloody fool.

Not much is known about G. K. Vasan causing loss of 2,00,000 crore rupees by giving away 16,000 acres near Kandla Port.

There is not much publicity to the case where P. Chidambaram’s wife is a lawyer to Kashinath Tapuriah against Income Tax department’s claim of 580 crore rupees tax. Subramanian Swami has a case in Delhi High Court against P. Chidambaram to make him an accused in 2G scam.

NDA was in power when stamp paper scam surfaced. Sharad Pawar was not prosecuted then. It is unlikely UPA will prosecute him.

CAG report about coal is not final. If the report indicts Sriprakash Jaiswal or there is other evidence FIR against him can be rightly demanded. When anything in the CAG report is leaked and that embarrasses Congress, Congress spokesperson either refuse to comment saying the report is not submitted or question the leakage. When incomplete Karntaka Lokayukta report on mining was leaked they had no hesitation in commenting on it.

Praful Patel’s actions as civil aviation minister caused loss to the country. He placed orders for unnecessary aircrafts. Boeing has not delivered the planes even after three years and not likely to deliver for another year. Air India continues to make loss. Ajit Singh, current civil aviation minister, should cancel the order placed with Boeing. If pilots go on strike Air India should be shut down.

There is no proof that Ajit Singh received money for voting in favour of UPA in 2008. Wikileaks cable is not sufficient.

Karnataka iron ore mining scam happened under different chief ministers. Apart from S. M. Krishna, FIRs have to be filed against other chief ministers.

The beneficiaries of the acts of ministers will do everything to thwart filing of FIRs. In Lok Sabha MPs spoke against IAC and passed a censure motion. MPs belonging to NDA and Left Front did not demand that the ministers step down. The issue is diverted from FIRs to dignity of Parliament. MPs who disrupt proceedings are not punished.

IAC also should demand FIRs against eight corrupt CJIs and other corrupt judges, bureaucrats, ministers and so on.

Someone said Lokpal will paralyse governmet. Government is already paralysed due to cabinet’s subservience to NAC, allies like DMK and TMC, Congress ministers who speak against their colleagues, Congress members who speak against the government and so on. Retrospective amendments have created uncertainty. If someone has scientific ideas to fight corruption he should mention them.

Fight against corruption must continue

Corruption, India
Comments

India Against Corruption seems to have lost direction and momentum in fight against corruption. IAC wanted a Lokpal Bill. That did not happen. They wanted right to reject and right to recall. Both are unlikely to happen soon. Anna Hazare seems unable or unwilling to lead the agitation. Other members should resume the fight against corruption.

IAC members need not go on indefinite fast. They can go on chain hunger strike. Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Prashant Bhushan can fast for some hours every day. Then Shazia Ilmi, Gaurav Bakshi and Manish Sisodia can take their turn. Then some other people fast. Every day the cycle is repeated. The fight for Lokpal should be separate from fight for Lokayuktas.

Elections are said to be major reason for corruption. That is partly true. Many people who don’t fight elections are also corrupt. In India elections take place throughout the year in some part or other. IAC must fight for a single election day once in five years. Elections to all Lok Sabha, Legislative Assembly, Zilla Parishad, municipality, panchayat and other local body constituencies should be held on a single day. That will reduce corruption. A candidate should be allowed to contest from one constituency only.

IAC should fight for presidential system. Parliamentary democracy has failed. Coalition compulsions result in wrong people being ministers. Even when there is single party government in states there is dissidence. Someone who is not chief minister tries to become chief minister. President should be elected by MPs and MLAs. Vice President should be elected by MPs. Governors should be elected by MLAs. Direct election to President, Vice President and Governors are expensive.

IAC should fight for an easy process to remove corrupt judges, bureaucrats and other officials.

IAC should fight against corporate debt restructuring. Corporates who have borrowed must pay the debt as per the conditions on which they borrowed. Properties of defaulters should be attached. List of borrowers and defaulters should be public.

IAC should fight for abolition of Rajya Sabha and Legislative Councils. Parties sell Rajya Sabha seats.

IAC should not worry about not being representative of OBCs, Muslims, SCs, STs and so on. Those who talk of such things have lost elections.

Fight against corruption demands fight for a new constitution. IAC should draft a new constitution. Supreme Court judges should be appointed by President after approval by Parliament. High Court judges should be appointed by Governor after approval by Legislative Assembly. Let not IAC worry about self-styled followers of Ambedkar protesting against new constitution. Those followers do not have much following. Ambedkar did not write the constitution. He was the chairman of the drafting committee of the constitution. The followers of Ambedkar have not protested when the constitution has been amended around hundred times.