Round The States

New Delhi, 27 March 2008

Transparency In Justice

Fresh Look At Gujarat Riots

By Insaf

Gujarat’s post-Godhra riots are once again in the spotlight. Six years after the National Human Rights Commission moved a petition seeking the transfer of post-Godhra riot cases to an independent agency outside Gujarat, the Supreme Court on Tuesday last agreed to constitute a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to probe further into 14 major cases arising out of 10 incidents during the 2002 riots. The trial in all the 14 cases was stayed following the Supreme Court order. These include the Gulberg Society massacre in which some 70 people were killed, including former Congress MP, Ehsan Jaffrey. Also probed further under the criminal procedure code will be the killings in Naroda Pattiya and Sardarpur and the monstrous torching of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, which sparked the riots. Importantly, the Supreme Court has asked the proposed SIT to submit its report in a sealed cover within three months.

Importantly, the Narendra Modi Government conveyed to the Court through its senior counsel, Mukul Rohtagi, that it had “no objection” to the SIT probe. This won the Modi Government kudos from the Court on Wednesday. A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat, which set up the five-member SIT, said: “This seems to be a very fair approach on the part of the State Government.” What Rohtagi said deserves to be noted since the NHRC’s petition before the Apex Court had apprehended that the trial, if conducted in Gujarat, would not be fair as witnesses were being threatened. The Gujarat Government told the Court that further investigation by SIT would “fortify the peoples’ faith in the transparency of actions taken by the State”. Equally significantly, the Court did not accept the NHRC’s plea for the transfer of the main riot cases outside Gujarat and a fresh probe by the CBI.

Trial Could Be Outside

The Gujarat Government has, no doubt, succeeded in its object of keeping the CBI out of the picture because of the sharp erosion of the latter’s credibility and the widespread impression that it tends to “play politics” and “oblige the powers-that-be at the Centre.” Nevertheless, the decision by the Supreme Court to set up SIT, headed by former CBI Director, R.K. Raghavan and comprising three serving Gujarat IPS officers and one retired officer from outside, is viewed by experts as hinting at the possibility of the trial being transferred outside the State. Remember, the Apex Court has already transferred two high profile cases in the interest of justice. While the Best Bakery case was shifted after the High Court had upheld the acquittal of all the accused, the Bilkis Bano case was transferred while the trial was still on. The Supreme Court had moved the Bilkis Bano case to Mumbai after fresh investigation by CBI.

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Farmer Suicides Continue

Grim tragedy continues to play havoc with the farmers in Vidarbha. Incredibly enough, P. Chidambaram’s much-hyped and greatly glorified Union Budget has failed to stem the suicides in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. As many as 14 farmers of the crisis-hit agrarian region have reportedly committed suicides in the first three days of this week. Taking the overall toll to 61 after the Rs.60,000 crore farm loan waiver was announced. One Shrikrishna Kalamb, a 48-year-old from Akola district, has left behind five daughters. He did not qualify for the loan-waiver because of the two-hectare ceiling in the Centre’s package. Another farmer, who hanged himself on Monday, owned 16 acres and wasn’t eligible either for the loan. All in all, the States want the Centre to show greater imagination is working out a practical package for bailing out India’s crisis-ridden farmers!

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Congress-SP Cosying Up?

Politics is known the world over to make for strange bed-fellows. But anything, yes anything is possible in India where politics is increasingly being run on the feudal basis of personalities, not principles. Latest happenings in UP and in New Delhi point to a cosying up between the Congress and its bete noire Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party. The UPA Government has decided against a central investigation into some of the cases that the UP government wanted the CBI to take over, including the police recruitment scam, which led the Mayawati Government to sack 18,000 cops. UP Chief Minister and BSP Chief Mayawati had sent a series of cases to North Block to seek a CBI probe into allegations against the former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh. A CBI probe would have pitted the Central Government against Mulayam, something which would have suited Mayawati and her politics greatly, especially in the run-up to the Lok Sabha poll.

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Parched Gurgaon

Gurgaon, the modern and high-tech city of Haryana hit the headlines on Monday last for the wrong reasons. Taps in thousands of homes dried up for a week and people had to be at the mercy of water tanker’ suppliers. The water crisis was caused by a breach in a canal that supplies water to nearly 70 per cent of Gurgaon. Caught in a calamity, the city administration sought help from neighbouring cities such as Faridabad, Mahendragarh and Jhajjar  and even had to approach the Army to bail it out with supply of groundwater through tankers. The private water tanker suppliers made a killing and charged anything between  Rs 500-700 for 5,000 litres to the hapless residents. The breach in the canal was repaired and water supply was restored on Wednesday last. The crisis may be a blessing in disguise as it has forced the civic body to sit up and start extolling the virtues of water-harvesting and rain water management. With the water table declining over the years in this city, which mostly houses high-rise buildings and offices, the administration would need to ensure that the builders and colonizers adhere to the rules. Of course, a lot depends on how strict the authorities are—whether they will insist on adherence of regulations or let another water catastrophe play havoc with Gurgaon.  

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Hope For Endangered Vultures

Patience and perseverance has been handsomely rewarded in Haryana’s Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre at Pinjore. It has been able to successfully facilitate the breeding of a white-backed vulture nestled in captivity at the Centre. The 55-day-old vulture chick is perhaps the world’s first to survive this long after being born in captivity. According to Haryana’s Minister of State for Forest and Environment, Kiran Choudhary, doubts about breeding these vultures, which are on the verge of extinction, have been laid to rest with the hatching of the nestling, which is showing good growth and is expected to fledge in another 45 days. This year two species of vultures, the white backed and the long-billed, nestled at the Pinjore. The Centre is a joint project of Haryana’s Forest Department and Bombay Natural History Society and is leading vulture conservation efforts in India.---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)