This refers to ‘Sebi needs to explain’, February 10. The editorial, and the story on it the day before, both point to the same issue, that of unbounded power of the state in what is supposed to be the world’s largest (greatest?) democracy.
In the case of Shankar Sharma, once the government of the day decided to go against Tehelka, there was no one to save him — the regulator, to its discredit, behaved in an unabashedly partisan manner. As your news story brought out, (‘First Global uses RTI to set record straight’, February 9), even after the NDA had demitted power, the real facts were never brought out by Sebi.
While this does not detract from your story in any way, it is unfortunate that the news should only become important when a Shankar Sharma is involved — the sad plight of undertrials who spend more years in jail than they would if they were even convicted of their alleged crimes doesn’t get us as agitated as it should.
Sanjay Sinha, Gurgaon
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