Home Minister L.K. Advani, Human Resource Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and the State Education Minister Uma Bharti have been chargesheeted in the Babri Masjid demolition case Jayalalitha did not name them but it was clear to everybody that she meant all the three.
Crime is after all a crime. They have been accused of complicity in the destruction of a structure that represented India's pluralistic society, its composite culture. And how can anyone forget the enormity of Hindu-Muslim riots in the wake of Babari Masjid's destruction? According to an Intelligence Bureau report, the killing and the looting were the worst since Partition.
In fact, the three should have themselves refused to join the Cabinet, knowing well that they had been charge- sheeted ... Those who claim to stand by values cannot afford to compromise for the same of office. He, and for that matter, the BJP itself, have lessened their credibility.
The President also cannot run away from his responsibility. He tries to give an impression that he is not a rubber stamp. But he tends to go along. He was not bound to accept the list of ministers that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had submitted. He should not have administered oath to such persons who had been chargesheeted. The nation would have been saved from the embarrassment its faces today. ...
.. The BJP and its allies are trying to differentiate between those who have been chargesheeted and those against whom the cases are pending. How does it matter as long as their crime has been delineated? The rest is the bureaucratic procedure. At least Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti should quit because they have been chargesheeted
Agreed, political cases should not be linked with those relating to corruption. But how do you define political cases? The general understanding is that such cases as are filed against protestors, agitators or processionists, relate to politics. During the entire history of national struggle, the civil disobedience and the acts of defy British authorities were political crimes because they violated the pernicious laws. Surely, the crime committed by Advani and the co-accused not fall in that category. The definition of political crime does not cover those who, despite the Supreme Court's order to protect the Babari Masjid, are involved in its destruction.
In fact, my fear is that the government may not pursue the cases on the Babari Masjid destruction, at least not as rigorously as before. It is difficult to image a CBI officer dragging his boss, Home Minister Advani, to the court or interrogating him to testify how the destruction took place. Officers have already got the message when the persons they chargesheeted ar'e sitting in the chairs of authority. I shall not be surprised if the CBI takes the initiative in the next few days to tell the court that there was very little to proceed in the case ...
Placed as the BJP is, it has only two options. Either the party comes clean or makes compromise. The BJP appears to have gone for the latter. The first one would have spread message that it is cut above the rest in toughness and credibility. The second shows that the party has been sucked into the vicious circle of power. It is a sad spectacle because the party is blamed for pursuing communal policy, but not for compromising on principles easily ...
... By retaining ministers who have been criminally chargesheeted, the party or , for that matter the government cannot talk standards. Power is necessary but so is the image ... Already the Vajpayee government looks too compromising ... (Source: The Radiance Viewsweekly, 3-9 May, 1998)
