HVK Archives: Partial Justice
Partial Justice - The Times of India
Editorial
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9 September 1996
Title : Partial Justice
Author : Editorial
Publication : The Times of India
Date : September 9, 1996
Slowly but surely, the wheels of justice have begun to
turn. Had a suggestion been made even a year ago that
one day the long arm of the law would catch up with
practically the entire political spectrum, it would have
been laughed out of court. It was precisely this
unimaginable spectacle that was on evidence on Friday -
the law taking within its sweep the whole political
class, as it were. But clearly this is not enough as the
levers of power remain largely untouched. A designated
court ordered the trial of the Bharatiya Janata Party
president, Mr L.K. Advani, for corruption even as the CBI
- albeit under pressure from the judiciary - moved
simultaneously against four leaders of the Jharkhand
Mukti Morcha and a close kin of former communications
minister, Mr Sukh Ram. The worst affected of the lot is
undoubtedly Mr Advani, not because he is more obviously
guilty but because, taking the charge as a personal
affront, he had vowed to stay out of parliamentary
politics. A clean chit from the judiciary was then
all important for the man. It would have restored his
lost prestige, helped him score a vital moral point
against his detractors and brought him back into
leadership reckoning within the BJP. To the extent that
one of its top leaders has been prima facie held suspect
by the court, the BJP too has been left hamstrung at a
particularly crucial point in its political destiny.
Indeed, the trial order has not just immobilised Mr
Advani for a good length of time but also placed valuable
ammunition in the hands of the BJP's rivals on the eve of
the Uttar Pradesh elections.
One wishes, however, that the zeal shown by the court in
this instance were matched by a similar concern for
justice in the investigating agencies. All that the CBI
has done, for instance, is to give an illusion of acting
of its free will; it is loath still to go after the big
guns, particularly former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao.
There is a whole body of evidence in the JMM case
pointing to the culpability of Mr Rao. That amounts
totalling an incredible Rs 3.5 crore were paid into the
bank accounts of the four JMM leaders has been fairly
established as also the fact that the monies were
received in 1993 as a quid pro quo for voting with the
Congress on a no-confidence motion. Indeed, one of the
four accused, Mr Shailendra Mahato, had admitted in
Parliament to taking the bribe. And yet the agency seems
unable and unwilling to proceed against Mr Rao. The four
M.P.s have finally been arrested, but Mr Rao, the main
accused in the bribery case, remains very much a free
man. In the Lakhubhai Pathak case too Mr Rao has had one
providential escape after another, with the Supreme Court
now going out of its way to transfer proceedings from the
trial court. Mr Sukh Ram seems similarly well-placed,
what with the agency deciding to satisfy itself with
raids on his son, while the former minister took time
recovering from his many illnesses. The CBI has to do
its bit to make the wheels of justice turn faster, or
else it will have forsaken its right to appear above
suspicion.
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