The government has conceded a JPC to inquire into the 2G Scam from when the NDA took office in 1998 onwards. This is a mistake. Though hailed by the Opposition, Parliament — and the country at large — might live to rue the day it succumbed to inglorious coercive tactics that denigrate the supremacy of due process and debate in a democracy.
All debate in Parliament was frustrated, even on the 2G Scam, until the government conceded a JPC. This, despite the fact that the Public Accounts Committee was seized of the CAG’s report and special inputs had been sought in this regard from Mr Shungloo, a former CAG, on procedures, Justice Shivraj Patil on policies and the Enforcement Directorate on criminality, apart from a Supreme Court-monitored special investigation by the CBI. Further, the PM had expressed willingness to appear before the PAC while the government was prepared to face Parliament and answer all questions and criticism levelled against it.
Yet the Opposition would only be satisfied with a JPC, as this alone could take a comprehensive view of not just the 2G scam but all related issues. Some Members even demanded the terms of reference of the proposed JPC be extended to cover the Commonwealth Games, the Adarsh housing scandal and even the Antrix-Devas (Isro) matter. In other words, what was sought was a fishing expedition, which fortunately was firmly rejected.
Even so, why should the appointment of a JPC by consensus be a cause for worry? Because there was a reluctant yielding to pressure — without even acceptance of the government offer to appoint a JPC after Parliament had had opportunity to debate whether such a course of action was necessary and desirable. A precedent has thus been set to subvert the parliamentary process for purely electoral-political ends.
It is difficult to see what a JPC will add to the PAC and other inquiries under way. Worse, there could be contradictions between these two sets of investigations and findings. What then, other than fresh controversies and more grist to political mills? The party-political jostling for representation in the 30-member JPC suggests that parties are looking for opportunity to leverage the inquiry for political ends. Witness the BJP canvassing AIADMK representation to counter the DMK, thus introducing Tamil Nadu politics into the committee. Likewise, principle has been forfeited by the BJP’s perverse stand in the matter of the iron ore and land scams involving its government and leadership in Karnataka.
Indeed, the various scams have been used to hit out not merely at the Congress-led UPA but specifically to denigrate the prime minister whose competence, courage, leadership and integrity have been comprehensively and repeatedly attacked by leading BJP functionaries. The most incisive commentary on all of this came from the BJP spokesperson, Prakash Javdekar, who said some weeks ago that with these scams, the “kursi” (seat of political power) that had altogether disappeared from sight in 2008-09 had now come into view!
We wait and watch the unfolding. Some of this may not be very pleasant for the BJP and its allies as the Gujarat-2002 and Malegaon, Mecca Masjid, Ajmer, Samjahuta Express and other bomb blast investigations progress. It is still early days in regard to these matters, but the RSS-Parivar’s unease is palpable. There was a cry of relief when the special fast track court appointed by the Gujarat High Court on the orders of the Supreme Court gave its verdict 10 days ago. The Court found a deliberate conspiracy by 31 Muslims to burn alive 59 kar sevaks returning home from Ayodhya on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra railway station on the morning of February 27, 2002. Yet it exonerated 63 others, including the two prime accused earlier, as the masterminds behind this dastardly crime. Those honourably discharged by the Court after nine years of detention may seek compensation for their ordeal and shattered lives.
The special court rejected the finding of Justice UC Bannerjee, earlier appointed by the UPA-I railway minister, who concluded that the fire in the Sabarmati Express was accidentally caused following commotion inside the train. That report remains unpublished on the orders of the Gujarat High Court, though Justice Bannerjee has repeated he stands “200 per cent” by his findings.
The matter will in all probability go to the High Court in appeal, as many holes have been picked in the trial court’s findings and the preceding investigations by the Special Investigation Team. So the agony will continue. Meanwhile, it is premature for the BJP to claim that Narendra Modi stands exonerated. Even assuming that the Sabarmati Express burning was part of a deliberate conspiracy, Modi’s role in fanning the retributory fires and masterly inaction while Gujarat burned and innocent Muslims were roasted and butchered on the basis of his Newtonian “action-reaction” theory, remains in question.
Modi was contemporaneously unable to defend any of a series of charges that amounted to criminal negligence and political culpability if not worse. Nor has there been any explanation or retraction of his extraordinary closing remark in one of his earliest broadcasts to the people of Gujarat over Doordarshan on those horrific events: “If you want peace, don’t ask for justice”. A more wicked line has not been spoken since Independence. In the midst of these events, Ajmal Kasab’s appeal against his death sentence has been rejected by the Bombay High Court as his murderous rampage in Mumbai has been adjudged among the “rarest of rare cases”. Few will disagree. In the event of his not preferring an appeal to the Supreme Court, or thereafter, any mercy petition should be swiftly disposed of and not allowed to become a bargaining counter with Pakistan. Justice is not negotiable.
Finally, at a time when Pakistan is facing its nemesis grappling with the assassination of Salman Taseer, former Punjab governor, by triumphalist Islamist and jihadi forces that have numbed the country with fear, it will be a pity if the modernist Maulana Vastanvi is removed as vice-chancellor of the Darul Uloom seminary at Deoband. What he may have said about Narendra Modi should not be torn out of context. At a time when the Arab world and some in Pakistan are struggling to assert liberal, democratic values, Indian Islam has a truly great opportunity and responsibility to lead world Islam out of the despair and inner turmoil in which much of it is trapped.
