Showing posts with label Thelka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thelka. Show all posts

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Bangaru Laxman was entrapped by Thelka and his conviction can be challenged

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books Bangaru Laxman, the Dalit face of the BJP, was trapped by a Congress friendly mediam outfit called Thelka accepting cash to the tune of Rs 100,000 for favouring an entity called Westland. It turns out that there was no such defence deal and that ther whole episode caught on camera was only play acting. Corruptiuon as defined by the law involves giving a bribe to a public servant for obtaining tangible gains. When there was no deal and the reporters were only pretending to be defence contractors then no publiic interest was affected in the whole fictitious transaction. In fact if Bangaru Laxman can be convicted then the 2 journalists involved must also be proscecuted for induling in bribery of a public funtionary. I think the whole episode reeks of entrapment and Bangaru Laxman, though not innocent certainly cannot be called the only guilty party. It appears that the quantum of punishment was set high so as to deny him bail. I feel such vicious political proscecution will undermine peoples faith in the judiciary which must be seen to be above board. Now contrast this to the Bofors case. In that case, it has been established above any reasonable doubt that bibes were givnen in the form of " winding up charges' to the tune of 64 crores. It is known from investigation from Sweden, India, Switzerland and other parts of the world that the money trail led to Quatrrochi, an Italian known to be close to the resident non-Indian first Dynasty of India, the Gandhis. Yet, the CBI being a piable politicasl tool did not conduct any reasonable and sustained investigation so much so that after 25 years not a single conviction has taken place. Furtehr even in the 1984 anti Sikh riots organised by the cngress party, the CBI has been able to file the charge sheet against Sajjan Kumar only last month. This shows that the CBI operates on the basis of political pressure. When there is a real and tangible case of corruption then the CBI and the Courts are unable to act. However when there is no case of corruption based on public interest as is the case with the bangaru Laxman episode the CBI and the coutrs are quick to convict. Bangaru Laxman incriminated himself and self incrimination is not admissible evidence. Furtehr, the Courts must be sure that public interest was affected by the act of bribe taking. In this case no public ionterest was affected as there was no defence deal. Henc there was no corruption. Entrapment is not a judicially permissible method of evidence gathering. Laxman at best was guilty of an indiscretion and I wonder why the Thelka "journalists" are not brought into the judicial priocess as "bribe givers". In this case we have judicial overreach. Thelka thinks that the Abhishek Manu Singvi CD is not evidence of misconduct as they want to protect the image of their paymasters, the Congress, while pioor Bangaru Laxman is found guilty. I venture to say that this judgement will be set aside during the appeal. Why is it that only dalit and tribal politicians are convicted. We have Raja, Madhu Koda, now Bangaru Laxman all of whom belong either to the SC or ST category. A Karunanidhi or Sonia Gandhi seem to be above the reach of law.