In Punjab, the declared killer of a former state chief minister is honoured by those speaking in the name of a whole community. In Tamil Nadu, Andimuthu Raja returns to his home state as a conquering hero, after having had to resign as communications minister and then spending 15 months in jail. In the first case, the killer is awaiting execution, while in the second the trial is still to get under way. In that sense, the two are on different planes. But it is necessary to ask whether the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is no better than some of the Akali factions when they cock a defiant snook at the law.
Some have asked whether the state government should not have stepped in to prevent the honouring of someone who has been convicted and is on death row. That may have been ill-advised, for it would have made the misguided venture a bigger issue than it deserves to be, but one wonders why the Bharatiya Janata Party has not reacted politically, considering that it is in partnership with the ruling Akali Dal in the state. It was left to the general who led Operation Bluestar to express his unhappiness at a memorial being built in memory of those killed by soldiers during Bluestar, since those killed included terrorists and armed separatists.
As for Mr Raja, he is technically innocent, since no court has declared him guilty, but he has been indicted in no uncertain terms, as a simple reading of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG’s) report on the telecoms scam shows. He twisted the principle of “first-come-first-served” by fixing arbitrary cut-off dates and other criteria in such a manner as to make the ultimate choice of licensees completely arbitrary, and therefore devoid of principle. Even when it came to simple paperwork, he gave licences to companies that did not qualify or were not eligible because they had not given the prescribed information or the prescribed documentation in time. Quite apart from the CAG’s findings (and the issue here is not whether the losses to the government were stratospheric numbers or not), it is now publicly known that Mr Raja modified an important document by deleting a key clause, and sent letters to the prime minister that mis-stated his intentions. It would be clear to most people that he abused his office and misused the power vested in him. Whether he committed any crime is something that is yet to be determined, as also the question of any quid pro quo. But on the evidence already set forth, it is clear that Mr Raja is not someone who should be getting lionised by any serious political party, given that his handling of a ministerial portfolio did not set standards worthy of emulation. That the DMK has chosen to lionise such a person tells the country that politics in Tamil Nadu is as disconnected from propriety as it is in Punjab.