Why Silence is no more Golden?
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Posted By Hunardeep Singh Brar
On Feb 1, 2010
Categories:
Expose,
Tenacious RTI activist Satish Shetty who had unearthed land scams by prominent and influential persons worth more than Rs.4000 crore in and around Lonavala and brought into the public domain, several other issues
Read More..
Posted By Hunardeep Singh Brar
On Feb 1, 2010
Categories:
Expose,
Why Silence is no more Golden?
written by Vinita Deshmukh
Tenacious RTI activist Satish Shetty who had unearthed land scams by prominent and influential persons worth more than Rs.4000 crore in and around Lonavala and brought into the public domain, several other issues related to ration card frauds and building encroachments, was brutally murdered in broad daylight. There were enough witnesses to this murder which occurred around 7 am on January 13, but he lay bleeding for over half an hour, before he was rushed to hospital and declared dead before admission. Hardly anyone was ready to come forward to give clues to the cops, though some of them have finally done so to identify the culprits. Thus, an activist who tried to bring out truth against all odds for the benefit of a cleaner and better society did not have anyone to support him in grave crisis. An aspect we not only need to introspect on, but to immediately act and take corrective measures. What if it was your own son/husband/father?
The other aspect is of the shocking trend of contract killing that has become as common as a verbal brawl. For a few thousand rupees unemployed youngsters are hired to kill in cold blood. This has become the common way in which the local mafia and politicians take law into their hands. Sometimes, bigwig politicians are the main conspirators who give `supari' to petty persons and so they themselves get away with murder. In this case too, the land scam unearthed by Shetty was of enormous proportions and involved big wig outfits (read Cover Story on page 8 for further details). Hence eliminating him was the best proposition. These conspirators are well aware that the common man does not react or raise his or her voice in protest. All that they need to do is to buy time and everything is forgotten – they know that public memory is short and anyway it does not care of the grave consequences of such deaths. That, the axe is falling on their own feet as democracy and citizen rights are being hacked, each time such an incident takes place.
Another weapon commonly used by the law enforcing authority (probably pressurised by the politicians) is to delay investigations. Coupled with the judiciary which also takes its own sweet time, you have justice completely denied to martyrs and their families. They have to helplessly watch inaction even if their near and dear one is ruthlessly murdered. Or like Rathore, the rapist, justice will sprout its head 19 years later only to have the culprit ``smile'' and be given advantage of various sections in the IPC rules. Or like Vinita Kamte, wife of slain IPS officer Ashok Kamte – who tenaciously and bravely used the RTI Act to unearth the deliberate negligence in sending in reinforcement to her husband Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte, who was led by an equally dynamic officer, Hemant Karkare. The call log records which she procured also point to the fact that these two officers along with encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar, lay bleeding for over 40 minutes on the road and two police jeeps which passed by – one after three minutes of the incident and the second one after 33 minutes, did not stop to help. It is likely that Kamte and Salaskar would have been saved had help come in time. Despite these shocking facts revealed under RTI and published in the bestseller book `To the last bullet', Home Minister R R Patil and the Ram Pradhan committee report have protected officers who showed cowardice and criminally neglected their duties.
Also, lack of stringent punishment allows hardened criminals like contract killers, conspirators of contract killing and rapist to get away with light punishment. Advocate N P Bhog stated in the citizen meeting held last Sunday at the Patrakar Bhavan that, the interpretation of justice that in the rarest of rarest cases, death sentence should be given, has led to this leniency. He strongly advocates death penalty without any mercy to contract killers and rapists in order to deter such criminals from committing these heinous crimes. For this, it is important to dispose cases as early as possible to send a message that such cold-blooded crimes will not be tolerated. Some experts have advocated fast track courts.
Today, it is because of lack of unity amongst citizens, that we have a parallel system of governance, in other words, goondaism. The local mafia has a tremendous network – even If one of them barges into public/private offices/factories to take on the management for some frivolous reason or the other, he has to just send one sms and at least 100 of his supporters gather instantly. When any conscientious citizen like Shetty is killed, is there any visible support by citizens? Have they come out in hundreds to put pressure on the relevant authorities? State Information Commissioner Vijay Kuvlekar says that people have not reacted pro-actively and vocally enough to this brutal killing. This gives goondas an upper hand.
Citizen force is the biggest power that can move mountains and cut through the thick skin of powers-that-be. Take the recent example of the Good Luck subway – people instantly gathered when they came to know that a subway is being constructed without prior notice to the neighbourhood or proper homework by the Pune Muncipal Corporation. So, even if a resolution to construct the subway was passed by the General Body, citizens are rightly demanding the expenditure of four crore rupees. Such occasional instances of unity should be turned into regular examples.
(Contributed by Rajesh Darkar) This article was originally published in Intelligent Pune and appears on idishoom to encourage citizen action for social justice.
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Posted By Hunardeep Singh Brar
On Feb 1, 2010
Categories:
Expose,
Tenacious RTI activist Satish Shetty who had unearthed land scams by prominent and influential persons worth more than Rs.4000 crore in and around Lonavala and brought into the public domain, several other issues
Read More..
|
|
Posted By Hunardeep Singh Brar
On Feb 1, 2010
Categories:
Expose,
Why Silence is no more Golden?
written by Vinita Deshmukh
Tenacious RTI activist Satish Shetty who had unearthed land scams by prominent and influential persons worth more than Rs.4000 crore in and around Lonavala and brought into the public domain, several other issues related to ration card frauds and building encroachments, was brutally murdered in broad daylight. There were enough witnesses to this murder which occurred around 7 am on January 13, but he lay bleeding for over half an hour, before he was rushed to hospital and declared dead before admission. Hardly anyone was ready to come forward to give clues to the cops, though some of them have finally done so to identify the culprits. Thus, an activist who tried to bring out truth against all odds for the benefit of a cleaner and better society did not have anyone to support him in grave crisis. An aspect we not only need to introspect on, but to immediately act and take corrective measures. What if it was your own son/husband/father?
The other aspect is of the shocking trend of contract killing that has become as common as a verbal brawl. For a few thousand rupees unemployed youngsters are hired to kill in cold blood. This has become the common way in which the local mafia and politicians take law into their hands. Sometimes, bigwig politicians are the main conspirators who give `supari' to petty persons and so they themselves get away with murder. In this case too, the land scam unearthed by Shetty was of enormous proportions and involved big wig outfits (read Cover Story on page 8 for further details). Hence eliminating him was the best proposition. These conspirators are well aware that the common man does not react or raise his or her voice in protest. All that they need to do is to buy time and everything is forgotten – they know that public memory is short and anyway it does not care of the grave consequences of such deaths. That, the axe is falling on their own feet as democracy and citizen rights are being hacked, each time such an incident takes place.
Another weapon commonly used by the law enforcing authority (probably pressurised by the politicians) is to delay investigations. Coupled with the judiciary which also takes its own sweet time, you have justice completely denied to martyrs and their families. They have to helplessly watch inaction even if their near and dear one is ruthlessly murdered. Or like Rathore, the rapist, justice will sprout its head 19 years later only to have the culprit ``smile'' and be given advantage of various sections in the IPC rules. Or like Vinita Kamte, wife of slain IPS officer Ashok Kamte – who tenaciously and bravely used the RTI Act to unearth the deliberate negligence in sending in reinforcement to her husband Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte, who was led by an equally dynamic officer, Hemant Karkare. The call log records which she procured also point to the fact that these two officers along with encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar, lay bleeding for over 40 minutes on the road and two police jeeps which passed by – one after three minutes of the incident and the second one after 33 minutes, did not stop to help. It is likely that Kamte and Salaskar would have been saved had help come in time. Despite these shocking facts revealed under RTI and published in the bestseller book `To the last bullet', Home Minister R R Patil and the Ram Pradhan committee report have protected officers who showed cowardice and criminally neglected their duties.
Also, lack of stringent punishment allows hardened criminals like contract killers, conspirators of contract killing and rapist to get away with light punishment. Advocate N P Bhog stated in the citizen meeting held last Sunday at the Patrakar Bhavan that, the interpretation of justice that in the rarest of rarest cases, death sentence should be given, has led to this leniency. He strongly advocates death penalty without any mercy to contract killers and rapists in order to deter such criminals from committing these heinous crimes. For this, it is important to dispose cases as early as possible to send a message that such cold-blooded crimes will not be tolerated. Some experts have advocated fast track courts.
Today, it is because of lack of unity amongst citizens, that we have a parallel system of governance, in other words, goondaism. The local mafia has a tremendous network – even If one of them barges into public/private offices/factories to take on the management for some frivolous reason or the other, he has to just send one sms and at least 100 of his supporters gather instantly. When any conscientious citizen like Shetty is killed, is there any visible support by citizens? Have they come out in hundreds to put pressure on the relevant authorities? State Information Commissioner Vijay Kuvlekar says that people have not reacted pro-actively and vocally enough to this brutal killing. This gives goondas an upper hand.
Citizen force is the biggest power that can move mountains and cut through the thick skin of powers-that-be. Take the recent example of the Good Luck subway – people instantly gathered when they came to know that a subway is being constructed without prior notice to the neighbourhood or proper homework by the Pune Muncipal Corporation. So, even if a resolution to construct the subway was passed by the General Body, citizens are rightly demanding the expenditure of four crore rupees. Such occasional instances of unity should be turned into regular examples.
(Contributed by Rajesh Darkar) This article was originally published in Intelligent Pune and appears on idishoom to encourage citizen action for social justice.
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