Bury the campaign

It was good that the entire political spectrum was present at Pratibha Patil8217;s swearing-in ceremony.

Bury the campaign

It was good that the entire political spectrum was present at Pratibha Patil8217;s swearing-in ceremony. The ceremony in Parliament was witnessed by representatives of all political parties, from Bhairon Singh Shekhawat to Nitish Kumar. The outgoing president set a high standard by attending the ceremony as well.

I would urge BJP leaders to bury the campaign they had launched during the presidential election. Senior leaders should not get carried away by political advisors who feed them dubious stories. None of the allegations against Patil have been proved in court; in fact, none of them are in court. Nobody can prevent anyone from holding a public position on the basis of mere allegations 8212; especially in our country where allegations are thrown around without anyone bothering to gauge their veracity or substance.

Cop out

Former Mumbai Police Commissioner R.S. Sharma was one of the brightest stars of the Maharashtra police force. He had a meritorious record as director, SPG, and received more than 100 letters of appreciation written by various ministers, bureaucrats and senior police officials. Sharma was later posted as police commissioner in Pune, and subsequently in Mumbai. He solved the Taj Mahal Hotel bomb blast case in 24 hours, and reportedly captured RDX immediately after intercepting the calls of Pakistan based terrorists.

As commissioner of police in Pune, Sharma unearthed India8217;s largest scandal, the Telgi stamp paper scam. But later he found himself implicated in the same case, because of what has turned out to be a shameful conspiracy hatched by his own colleagues. Sharma spent almost a year in jail and saw his career ebb in front of his eyes. His bail applications were refused by the MCOCA court and Maharashtra High Court. Finally, the Supreme Court granted him bail after giving him a clean chit.

For years, Sharma fought to redeem himself. He was finally rewarded last month when a special court acquitted him of all charges. It also found that Sharma had a limited role in the investigation. The Special Investigation Team formed to look into the scandal had DIG Subodh Jaiswal at its helm, and the court has observed several acts of omission or commission that clearly hint toward malicious castigation of Sharma in the SIT chargesheet. Sharma alleged that Jaiswal hatched a conspiracy against him, along with DGP O.P. Bali and another senior officer S.S. Puri. Interestingly, ever since the investigation was entrusted to the CBI, no incriminating material was seized from the Telgi syndicate. Even though the court ruling discharges Sharma from all charges, there needs to be further investigation against those officers who falsely implicated him.

The writer is Congress MP in Rajya Sabha