People's Democracy

EDITORIAL

 Subversion of Justice Once Again!

THE brazenness with which this Vajpayee-led government is willing to violate all constitutional authorities and the law of the land to whitewash the heinous crimes committed by senior leaders of the saffron brigade is truly amazing! 

The prime minister, on the floor of the house, has denied the opposition charge that his government has influenced the CBI to drop the conspiracy charge against the deputy prime minister, L K Advani, and other colleagues in the case concerning the Babri Masjid demolition. Vajpayee told the Lok Sabha that the CBI was an autonomous body and his government has, in no way, interfered with its work. The law minister, in his usual high school debating style, has told the Lok Sabha that "there is a conspiracy to add the conspiracy charge" against L K Advani.

Before coming to these baseless and untrue assertions, let us get some facts straight. After a long delay, in the later half of 1997, the designated court which chargesheeted the accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case gave its order on September 9, 1997. This order clearly states the following in para 59:

"From our description it is concluded, that in the present case, a criminal conspiracy to demolish the disputed structure of Ram Janam Bhoomi/Babri Masjid was hatched by the accused persons in the beginning of 1990 and was completed on 6.12.92. Shri Lal Krishan Advani and others hatched criminal conspiracies to demolish the disputed premises on different times at different places."

The additional session judge (Ayodhya episode), Shri Jagdish Prasad Srivastava, proceeded to state that he found a prima facie case to charge Lal Krishan Advani, Bala Saheb Thakre, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti --- a total of 49 leading lights of the RSS octopus --- under sections 147/153A/153B/295/295-A/505 of the Indian Penal Code, read with section 120-B of Indian Penal Code.

This chargesheet was challenged in the High Court, and was struck down on a purely technical ground of a lapse on the part of the state government. The High Court, however, stated that this was a minor administrative lapse that could be corrected and sent back to the court for trial. The BJP's Rajnath Singh-led government, however, chose not to heed the court's advice and refused to make the necessary correction. Subsequently, the Mayawati government, which survives with the BJP's support, chose once again not to issue a fresh notification in this case for the trial to proceed. Instead, to please her masters, she referred the case to a Rae Barely court abinitio. After a full decade and after seven years of legal wrangling, a chargesheet was finally served. Now the case was to restart again from scratch. Such are the devious fascistic methods employed by this government to deny justice and not apprehend criminals!

It is at this stage that the CBI had dropped the criminal conspiracy charge. The prime minister Vajpayee himself and his cabinet colleagues cry innocence and claim that they have nothing to do with the CBI's functioning.  For a moment, let us assume that the CBI is functioning autonomously.  Suppose it fails to investigate properly and lets a culprit off the hook. What, then, is the job of the government? The government is under oath to uphold the law of the land and ensure that justice is delivered by booking the culprits. Instead, Vajpayee & Co collude with the CBI to drop charges, which in the first instance were framed by the CBI itself!

Once again, what are the facts? The Lucknow designated court's order, cited above, states in para 3 that the CBI filed chargesheets against the 49 accused in the case and proceeds to state on the basis of the CBI chargesheet that "Central government has sanctioned the prosecution of S/Sh Bal Saheb Thakre, L K Advani to D B Rai (Accused 1 to 40) u/s 196 of code of criminal procedure u/s/153-A/153-B/295/295-A/505 Indian Penal Code, read with section 120 Indian Penal Code, and the UP state government has granted sanction for prosecution of Sh Kalyan Singh, R N Srivastava and D B Rai."

Once having filed a chargesheet before the designated court, upon which the court has framed the charges of criminal conspiracy and sent the case up for trial, on what grounds has the CBI dropped this charge of criminal conspiracy? One need not look far for the answers. Clearly, the investigation agency, working under the direction of the prime minister's office and administered by people working under the home ministry, has been influenced/coerced to drop this charge. It was in anticipation of such an eventuality that the CPI(M) has repeatedly stated that no justice in this case could ever be expected until and unless those charged with the criminal conspiracy are kept out of office. Such a brazen misuse of office to protect criminals has rarely been seen in independent India. 

For the sake of India, i e, Bharat, the earlier this government goes, the better.