EDITORIAL

Modi Again Violates Law of Land, Can Centre Remain Silent?

ONCE again, the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat has, in a brazen manner, flagrantly violated the law of the land. It has decided not to move for the withdrawal of the terrorism charges against the accused in the Godhra train attack case. This violates with impunity the guidelines set by both the Gujarat High Court and the Supreme Court. 

Through these columns earlier, we had quoted in detail the report of the central review committee on POTA cases which unambiguously ruled that the attack on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra was not part of any terrorist conspiracy. Hence, it proceeded to rule that the accused must be discharged of charges of terrorism under POTA and proceeded against under the provisions of existing laws like the IPC, CrPC etc. 

Once the review committee has reached this conclusion, Gujarat’s public prosecutor is bound to file an application seeking the withdrawal of the cases under POTA. This needs to be done under section 321 of the CrPC which deals with the withdrawal of prosecution. 

That the public prosecutor is bound to undertake no other course than the above, was ruled by the Gujarat High Court in April 2005. Citing the opinion of the Madras High Court in the Vaiko case (readers will recall that the MDMK leader Vaiko was detained under POTA in Tamilnadu) as upheld by the Supreme Court, the Gujarat High Court pronounced that the public prosecutor has no discretion in the matter. In other words, the public prosecutor is legally bound to move for the withdrawal of the POTA cases and the courts on the basis of their own earlier judgements are bound to uphold the matter and withdraw the cases.

By refusing to implement this established law of the land, the Narendra Modi government seems to have decided to once again confront directly the law in particular, and, India’s secular democratic republican character in general. This once again demonstrates that Narendra Modi, under the RSS/BJP leadership, is set to advance their pernicious ideological agenda of converting India into a fascist “Hindu Rashtra.” 

Such brazenness cannot go unnoticed by the central government. This UPA government came into existence and has functioned for over an year primarily on the basis of the determined support of the Indian people who prevented the communal forces from returning to power in the 2004 general elections. The state-sponsored communal genocide in Gujarat figured prominently in making the people vote the way they did in the elections. Mr Vajpayee himself has gone on record to state that the Gujarat carnage played an important role in preventing his bid to return as the prime minister. Trusted BJP allies like the TDP have publicly blamed the Gujarat carnage for their defeat in Andhra Pradesh. Yet, when the Narendra Modi government, once again, proceeds in the same direction, these people chose to remain silent.

The UPA government at the centre, however, cannot be a silent spectator.  It must immediately act to ensure that the law of the land must prevail. It should take the necessary legal recourse. Though the POTA has been repealed, the provisions under POTA continue to apply in the cases that are already being tried under POTA. Given this, if the Gujarat state government is refusing to honour the review committee’s ruling, then the central government should exercise its powers using section 23, 28 and 35 of the act. These sections empower the central government to a) constitute a special court (in the case of Gujarat, it means shifting the present court away from Sabarmati, Ahmedabad), b) transfer the POTA cases to another judge, c) change the public prosecutor.

In the meanwhile, the central government should immediately hand over  the cases concerning the most outrageous of communal attacks to the CBI for speedy investigation. It must be underlined that even three years after the gory genocide, the guilty continue to roam freely while the victims continue to languish. The system of delivery of justice in Gujarat has been reduced to a mockery. 

This cannot be allowed to continue.  Such a Modification of India must be sopped forthwith. The UPA government at the centre must immediately act to uphold the law of the land and to ensure that justice is delivered and any effort to hijack this process is punished. This is the least that the people expect from this government that it is committed on paper in the Common Minimum Programme to uphold and safeguard India’s secular democratic republican character.