Special Report
Editorial
Op-Ed
Opinion
Columns

Politics
Literature
Music
Art & Culture
Sikh Religion
Rights
1984
Books
Education
Business

Entertainment
Lifestyle
Travel
Health
Heritage
Sports
Kids Corner

Panjab
India
Pakistan
South Asia
US of A
Canada
Asia-Pacific
UK
Europe
Middle East
Africa
World
 

Archives
Newsletter
Advertise

Obituaries

Feedback
Contact Us
About Us
Site Map

Graft and Badal Craft:All U-turns permitted
WSN Bureau

AMRITSAR: The great leader has shown the best path. The corruption cases against the Badal family are falling by the wayside, witness after witness turned hostile and even responsible government officials said they spewed out, spouted, wrote and swore on oath lies against the Badals because they were under pressure. India, which suddenly remembered in the Jessica Lal murder case that it has no witness protection program in place, had by then gone off to sleep again; so no one asked how these officials are expected to stand up for an innocent, simple citizen if they could not stand up for a three time former CM and leader of the opposition.

The pattern is being repeated in the murder case against former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur. Key witnesses are turning hostile, and case is now punctuated with Hindi film style sudden memory recalls in which senior doctors say they had forgotten that actually they were the ones who were carrying the young daughter of the incumbent SGPC chief to a Ludhiana hospital and she died in their arms of perfectly natural causes. People are emerging from woodwork with a Ph.D. under their belt on the Lubana baradari to say it was normal for the Lubanas to cremate dead young girls in a hurry and then throw the ashes into a flowing river immediately even as police was registering cases and newsmen were asking uncomfortable questions.

Lesser leaders have always followed the taller ones. Now, in a clear move aimed at allowing some selective witnesses to turn hostile, Akali MLA Manjinder Singh Kang, who is facing a corruption case, has sought the re-examination of a DSP and has moved an application in the court of Additional Sessions Judge R.S. Rai, pleading that the police officer be investigated under Section 161, CrPC.

Reason? The DSP in question knows that the government has changed, so he has suitably made a departure from his previous statements under Section 161 of the CrPC while examined in court. "New facts were brought on the file when after the evidence produced by Rachhpal Singh, the case was re-investigated by the Vigilance Bureau SSP. Taking this into account, the cross-examination of the DSP is necessary to arrive at a just decision," Kang has argued.

While Kang may have a good case that he was indeed framed during the Congress regime, the pattern set in motion bythe Badals will haunt Punjab polity for a long time. The Vigilance Bureau, with one of the most elastic investigation machinery, works in complete coordination with the regime of the day and finds someone guilty or not guilty with equal vehemence, depending upon who is in power.

5 March 2008
 

Bookmark with

Reddit    Yahoo     Furl    Delicious