Author: Editorial
Publication: Free Press Journal
Date: July 26, 2006
URL: http://www.samachar.com/features/260706-editorial.html
Democracy has its downside, specially in underdeveloped
countries like India. Rampant poverty, widespread illiteracy and, consequently,
ignorance make for an imperfect democracy. Only informed people can make informed
choices. Populism of the bank nationalisation variety did succeed in its immediate
purpose of getting Mrs Indira Gandhi a huge number of votes. But, as by now
everyone knows, it, and other so-called socialistic measures came in its wake,
ended up inflicting huge costs on the economy.
The economic wheel was moved back several
turns by these cynical steps to hoodwink the people. Another example is the
current competition between various players to woo the numerically important
OBCs by reserving jobs and seats in educational institutions. The objective
is votes; any good that might flow to OBCs is incidental.
Affirmative action to benefit these castes
would of course not net the same electoral benefit as the crude device of
reservations would. Besides, the more the so-called elite groups protest the
OBC reservations, the more the targeted castes are expected to root for the
pro-reservation politicians.
But very often cynical shortcuts politicians
take for votes harm broader national interest. The case in point is the extraordinary
care and concern being shown to the main accused, Abdul Nasser Madani, in
the 1998 Coimbatore bombings. The ring leader of that dastardly operation
which left 58 dead and several more injured is now jailed in Coimbatore. But
so solicitous have been the self-avowed secularists about the well-being of
this leader of the anti-nationalists that they have bent all rules in the
jail manual and relevant judicial precedents in order to make his stay in
prison most comfortable.
The man who masterminded a murderous assault
on the then Home Minister of India L. K. Advani, which mercifully failed,
is being serenaded by the Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, M. Karunanidhi
and V. S. Achuthanandan respectively. These self-appointed guardians of secularism
have joined hands to ensure that Madani and his band of terrorists go scot
free. With the prosecution under their control, there can be little hope the
trial in the Coimbatore bomb attacks case ending in a stiff punishment for
the heinous criminals.
It is the twisted vote-bank politics that
both the Marxists and the DMK are willing to go out on a limb to comfort Madani.
It is notable that months before the last election to the Kerala Assembly,
the then ruling United Democratic Front Government of Chief Minister Oommen
Chandy had moved a resolution in the House seeking the release from prison
of Madani. Now, it should be underlined here, Madani was not being held on
any political charges. He was the main accused in a criminal case which had
caused the death of 58 innocent people and left several more injured severely.
The adoption of such a resolution itself was
an affront to good governance, nay, good sense. But because Madani as the
head of the rabidly Islamic fundamental group, People's Democratic Party,
could deliver the votes of the sizable Muslim community, even the then opposition
CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front had voted for the resolution seeking his
release. Given that various courts had rejected his bail application, the
Kerala Assembly resolution was in fact a crude attempt to influence the judicial
process.
But the latest to keep Madani in good humour
does take the cake. According to reports, on the specific directions of the
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, the State authorities have built an Ayurvedic spa
inside the Coimbatore prison for the rejuvenation of the ring leader of the
killer group. Apparently, poor Madani had lost weight and a very concerned
Karunanidhi marshaled a battery of best Ayurvedic masseurs and allopathic
doctors to restore youth and vigour to the frail leader of the fundamentalist
Islamic group.
And, what is more, he allowed Madani's wife
to visit him in high security prison at all times of day and night. This when
an arrest warrant was pending against her, too. Only after a national daily
exposed the palpably illegal exertions of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on
behalf of Madani did Madani's wife secure bail from a court. Naturally, the
prosecution did not press for her police or judicial custody.
Back to the negative costs of democracy. In
any other informed democracy, it is unlikely that politicians would be so
brazen as to go out on a limb for the sake of a terror accused. Nor would
they dare mock prison and judicial custody rules to mollycoddle a high security
prisoner.
And one last question: Do you still think
that DMK boss Karunanidhi and CPI (M) leader Achuthanandan are epitomes of
secularism? Or pandering to Islamic fundamentalism is the only way one can
burnish one's secularist credentials?
