Let Law Take Its Own Course !

By Manuwant Choudhary

"Let Law Take Its Own Course," when an Indian politician says this on television know for certain that he does not mean the rapists or dacoits will land up behind bars, what he really means is that our system will move so slowly or not move at all and the result will be a dead end - like whats happened in the Aarushi murder case.

When an Indian politician says "I have full faith in the judiciary", what he really means is that the judicial system has become such that I will be let-off.

Every single case the CBI has been given they have messed up. Maybe Aarushi's case was messed up before the CBI got it but I think there should be an inquiry into the CBI to see what our men really do there.

From Bofors to Jain Hawala to you name it..every single case has resulted in a nought. Not just the Aarushi case, should we just close down the CBI?

I am not sure what consolation people get when they demand a CBI inquiry.

As a journalist my experience is that the CBI angle is just good for a debate, nothing else. From Sheila Kini (Ramesh Kini murder allegedly by Raj Thackeray ) in Maharashtra to the murder of Shilpi Jain in Patna the CBI found nothing (Sadhu Yadav the accused is a Congress member now)

But there is no one to question the CBI - afterall India's Prime Minister controls it.

The only achievement of UPA 1 government was to let-off Quattorochi in the Bofors case.

A few days ago I saw a news report saying `Nitish Kumar deeply mourns the death of Yashodanand Singh'.

You may not know Yashodanand Singh but he was a former Bihar MLC. Originally an RSS man and then BJP but in his last few years he quit the BJP and from what I recollect he was among the few Bihar politicians who opposed the bifurcation of Bihar.

I met him quite accidentally. I found a very small news item on him in a Hindi daily on the 7th page. When I followed the story and met him he showed me the documents of a fertiliser scam running into some 40,000 crores of rupees across India. This scam was discovered by an all-party house committee.

I recall Yashodababu telling me when the house committee went to New Delhi to meet the agriculture minister Nitish Kumar, he refused to see them.

At the time Laloo was in Beur jail in the fodder scam and the RJD government hated the word CBI but when I went with this story to Bihar's agriculture minister he recommended a CBI inquiry to the chief minister and Rabri Devi demanded the CBI inquiry.

A worried Nitish Kumar frantically called up journalists close to him to find out my political leanings.

The fertiliser scam is..let me explain....the state government gives certificates that so many million tonnes of fertiliser has been distributed amongst farmers. Now private companies take this certificate to the union government and claim matching grants. The finding of the committee was that the Bihar government had issued certificates without actually procuring certificates from the District Agriculture Officers. In fact, no fertliser was distributed. Perhaps, the fertiliser never even came to Bihar.

The CBI did take up the case but we do not hear about it.

So when a person like Yashoda Babu passes away `the law has taken its own course'.

I am not an RSS man yet I can say Yashoda Babu worked in the interests of Bihar when all our politicians followed the mob.

In fact, as a journalist although I do have my own prejudices and leanings I always believe one should listen to what people have to say.

Like Yashoda Babu I have had sources who were Maoist sympathisers yet they gave me one of the best stories I have done..how tribals homes were destroyed by wild elephants because of reducing forest cover and hunger...the elephants came and destroyed tribal homes for grains.

I interviewed a tribal family in Dumka for NDTV, they were scared and literally living on a tree...the wife had just given birth on the tree.

And when the tribals demanded help and protested by blocking a road, the government arrested them and said they were all Maosists.

Take the claims of Nitish susashan (good governance), a local TV channel has come up with kidnapping statistics. It shows during the Rabri Devi government there were around 10,000 kidnapping cases in five years between 2000-2005, while under Nitish Kumar the kidnapping cases were 12,500 between 2005 and 2010.

A BJP minister on the program explained the law and order situation was much better now..its just that the police now register more cases.