Opinion Foot the Bill
An article in the RSS Organiser says the UPAs attempt to embrace transparency in drafting the Lokpal Bill is set to backfire.
Foot the Bill
An article in the RSS Organiser says the UPAs attempt to embrace transparency in drafting the Lokpal Bill is set to backfire. It argues this would force the government to disclose crucial information it is still hiding and would further tarnish its image as a harbinger and protector of the corrupt in higher echelons of the government. The article says while the government has made public the drafts of all the eight Lokpal Bills framed between 1968 and 2001,the Lokpal Bill that was considered by the cabinet in October and December 2004 and then referred to a GoM headed by Pranab Mukherjee was missing. The UPA has neither made public this bill nor the minutes of EGoMs. It adds: As the chairman of both the GoM and the present joint drafting committee is the same person,it is important for civil society to know what that GoM had recommended and why… The discussions within JDC might turn fruitful and move towards consensus if the government discloses as to whether the 2004 version of the Bill was the same that was approved by BJP-led NDA Government in June 2003,incorporating amendments proposed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs in February 2002. PSC had endorsed the 2001 Bills provision to keep the PM under the proposed law.
It points out that the draft Lokpal Bills of 1989,1996 and 1998 clearly included the PM in its ambit.
No mercy
Organisers editorial revisits the Sangh Parivars oft-repeated line on Afzal Gurus mercy plea. It says the callous attitude of the government can be gauged from the fact that the mercy petition of Afzal,whose death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2004 for the 2001 Parliament attack,is yet to be forwarded to the President by the home ministry,a delay of seven years for no apparent reason.
It claims the case of Ajmal Kasab is equally,if not more,nauseating. Keeping him alive in the prison has so far cost the government Rs 45 crore. The daily expenditure on him is Rs 9 lakh… Whose need is it to keep Kasab alive?
The editorial adds that the Congresss forked tongue on the issue of fighting terrorism was exposed when it openly joined hands with the Shiromani Akali Dal in demanding the remittance of the death sentence of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar,cleared by the president. The Congress under Sonia Gandhi and the UPA government under Manmohan Singh have committed one of the worst crimes against the nation in communalising the anti-terror war, it says.
Referring to Afzal,the article adds: It is as though the government is afraid of hanging a Muslim terrorist lest it loses its votebank… By linking the terrorists punishment with the sentiment of the people,in one sweep the government has categorised the entire minority community as supporting terrorists,whereas the vast majority of Muslims,like the overwhelming majority of Hindus want to see the terrorists punished,hanged,for their inhuman,mindless violence and proxy war against the nation, it says.
Minority report
In another article,Organiser delves into the draft Communal Violence Bill that has been finalised by the National Advisory Council. The draft bill is structured on the premise that the majority community could never be the victim of communal violence. It believes they would only be the perpetrators. Those who have drafted the bill have forgotten the recurrence of communal violence by the minority community in the 1960s in UP and Bihar. The states like Gujarat suffered recurrent minority violence till late 1980s. The Godhra burning of Ramsevaks in 2002 is too recent to be forgotten, the article says.
Another flaw in the draft bill according to the article is that it has no provision to deal with communal violence when two minority communities indulge in violence against each other. So if there is a Shia-Sunni riot in Lucknow,the bill would not be applicable. It would also not be applicable if a Muslim group initiates violence against Christians,as witnessed recently in Kerala. No wonder it would give freedom to perpetrate crimes against Pandits and evict them from Kashmir for all times to come, it says.
Compiled by Manoj C.G.
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