More than two millennia ago, Greek philosopher Plato had had a good grasp about people like L.K.Advani, Narendra Modi and Jayalalitha, when he said, “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find ways around the laws’. Nothing of what had transpired in recent times, in Rae Bareli in the CBI court or in Ahmedabad at the in-camera questioning by the Supreme Court appointed SIT or in Special Court in Bengaluru, may seem to be of any ‘revelation’ to the people of the country and perhaps the whole world.
The entire world witnessed on televisions the live telecast of the orgy of demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodya on December 6, 1992, but it has taken nearly decades for the legal process to enter the pre-closing stage. Everyone who witnessed televisions saw the unruly kar sevaks climbing over the tombs of the mosque with crowbars etc., and bringing them down while Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, ‘Sadhvis’ Uma Bharti and Ritambhara along with other BJP/VHP leaders in exhilaration hugging each other and distributing sweets. The deposition by an IPS officer Anju Gupta, who was Personal Security Officer of Advani on the days, that he instigated the kar sevaks to demolish the mosque by repeatedly insisting on the need for building a temple at the disputed site, he never asked the mob to stop their attacks on the structure but was only concerned over the safety of those who were standing over the crumbling tombs and subsequently participated in the joy and celebration of the destruction along with other saffron leaders. That the entire sangh parivar leaders were jubilant after the demolition of the ‘protected’ monument and distributed sweets and that the entire police force (under the control of BJP government in UP) on duty remained silent spectators to the vandalism, that Advani had a closed door meeting with the District Collector and SSP of Faizabad after the demolition and Vinay Katiyar exhorted the police personnel that their names will be inscribed in golden letters in history (for the ‘loyal’ service!) - all show that it was a well-planned and meticulously executed conspiracy to damage India’s secular image.
The entire world witnessed on televisions the live telecast of the orgy of demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodya on December 6, 1992, but it has taken nearly decades for the legal process to enter the pre-closing stage. Everyone who witnessed televisions saw the unruly kar sevaks climbing over the tombs of the mosque with crowbars etc., and bringing them down while Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, ‘Sadhvis’ Uma Bharti and Ritambhara along with other BJP/VHP leaders in exhilaration hugging each other and distributing sweets. The deposition by an IPS officer Anju Gupta, who was Personal Security Officer of Advani on the days, that he instigated the kar sevaks to demolish the mosque by repeatedly insisting on the need for building a temple at the disputed site, he never asked the mob to stop their attacks on the structure but was only concerned over the safety of those who were standing over the crumbling tombs and subsequently participated in the joy and celebration of the destruction along with other saffron leaders. That the entire sangh parivar leaders were jubilant after the demolition of the ‘protected’ monument and distributed sweets and that the entire police force (under the control of BJP government in UP) on duty remained silent spectators to the vandalism, that Advani had a closed door meeting with the District Collector and SSP of Faizabad after the demolition and Vinay Katiyar exhorted the police personnel that their names will be inscribed in golden letters in history (for the ‘loyal’ service!) - all show that it was a well-planned and meticulously executed conspiracy to damage India’s secular image.
The law in India moves at an excruciatingly slow pace, and it is only now that the legal processes instituted into the massive Ayodya confrontation mounted by the Hindutva forces look to be entering a decisive stage. In between the BJP used the communal mobilization to usurp power at the Centre and the accused Advani becoming the Deputy Chief Minister and Union Home Minister when he was discharged in the case in September 2003, the charges against him only to be reinstated at the behest of the High Court in July 2005, well after the removal of the BJP-led government in New Delhi. Now within the BJP he may be nearing his sell-by date and in any case, for the BJP, the utility value of Ayodya factor as a mobilizing tool is over.
Similarly in the public perception both in the nation and internationally, Gujarat Chief Minister of the BJP, Narendra Modi, had been held guilty of the State-sponsored pogrom, in which thousands of Muslims were butchered and crores worth of their properties destroyed by organized Hindutva-fanatics, in connivance with State machinery and police forces, in the post-Godhra riots in the year 2002.
Enormous and extensive evidences were made available by print and electronic media along with confession statements (rather made out heroically) of the culprits for the culpability of Modi in all those crimes, that he was denied visas by other nations for his tours). But still the law-enforcing system in India was searching the colossal crime with microscope to pin him for a nine-hour grilling by the SIT. Now at least it is time the SIT took the investigations to the logical conclusion as per the orders of the Supreme Court and render justice to the 2002 riot victims and their families.
Similarly in the cases of corruption against Jayalalitha in the eyes of the people of Tamil Nadu and elsewhere, she is definitely guilty, because it was they who experienced the trauma of her corrupt regime and witnessed the ostentatious exhibitionism of ill-gotten wealth during the wedding of her foster son and her imperious life-style. However using all the loopholes in the already nail-paced judicial process, Jayalalitha had been unduly protracting the hearing process in courts and was able to subvert evidences to escape from conviction in many cases.
For instance, in the TANSI land case against her, the Trial court convicted and sentenced her for 3 years RI, which would have disqualified her from contesting elections. But she went on appeal after appeal and finally was acquitted by the Supreme Court. Nevertheless the Supreme Court judgement said that there were reasons for “strong suspicion of her involvement” and ordered her to return the wrongly acquired property back to TANSI. However, the court passed enough strictures against her, like ‘these aspects worry our (judges) consciousness, Jayalalitha in her anxiety to save her skin went to any length even to deny her signature on documents which her auditor and other government officials identified, she must atone her conscience in the whole controversy” etc, which would have made any morally-sensitive person bow out of public life. But Jayalalitha is known for her thick skin.
In the on-going disproportionate assets case against her in the Special court, Bengaluru, the Supreme Court on March 19, refused to entertain an appeal filed by her seeking to set aside a Karnataka High Court order declining to quash proceedings in the case pending before a Bengaluru court. Already the case was taken to and fro in High and Supreme Courts all these 15 years since it was originally filed in Chennai Special Court in 1996. As accustomed to her protractionist attitude, her lawyer wanted the Bengaluru court to grant eight weeks to read through the S.C. order (which would take less than 15 minutes) and that the 45 witnesses should be heard one on a day with an interval of a week between two hearings which were rejected. Nobody is sure when the case would be concluded and judgement delivered finally.
In the context of growing menace of extremism and terrorism of various hues all over the country, it is high time the justice delivery system is made expeditiously active and responsive to the needs and expectations of the society and get rid of the blame of being accused of causing social unrest and resultant casualities and loss of properties. If Advanis, Modis and Jayalalithas become the order of the day and William E.Gladstone were alive now, he would not have stopped with uttering his famous words: ‘Justice delayed is Justice denied’, but would have added, “Justice denied is Justice executed’ (by the aggrieved). Who will be held responsible for such anarchy?
(04-04-10)
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