Why cant we empower people to fight against the corrupt?
On the 23rd of May 2015, Ms Jayalalitha was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the fifth time, after being set free by the Karnataka High Court.
As can only be expected, the learned Judge has conveniently twisted facts and has deliberately pronounced a verdict of her known assets, the market value of which exceeds a cool Rupees five thousand crores. Any honest person will have to just peep into history and go back to some twenty years ago, when Ms Jayalalitha and those around her, looted the entire State of Tamil Nadu. Even whatever has been accounted as unaccounted assets and declared so by the lower court -- that is rupees fifty three crores -- is still way off the target.
Except for her fanatic party men, every educated person in Tamil Nadu knows that she still has unaccounted money that runs into hundreds of crores and this money goes into bribing voters, left, right and center. In every by election, her party has simply bribed voters to the tune of several hundred crores, All this is in the public domain.
The Karnataka Government, which is ruled by the Congress, is hesitating to go on appeal, as it really does not bother about a queen who does not belong to their State.
This brings us to another question: can't we have laws that are suitably amended, so that a group of individuals, such as an NGO, are empowered to go to the Supreme Court, on appeal, and ensure that Ms Jayalalitha and others of her ilk, are punished to the hilt? How can we turn a deaf ear to such corruption, particularly one that has made hugely rich, all by unethical means?
Apparently the present laws do not favor such action by individuals. Even if there is a provision in the law, which Indian citizen will ever risk his or her life, when it is a well known fact that goondas from the ruling party will simply descend on the house of the individual and kill him or her and perhaps the entire family?
Honest officials are always hounded, and those who speak up for injustice are those who are always targeted and killed. This being the situation, it is not possible for any individual to file an appeal in the Supreme Court, against a powerful politician such as Jayalalitha, in the instant case.
We need a new set of laws that will allow any NGO of highly concerned individuals to just wake up, file an appeal in the Supreme Court. In fact, the Supreme Court should itself encourage such a trend, till the laws are suitably amended.
In the instant case, every single fact, presented in such wonderful detail by the trail court Judge, has been either not considered, or has been conveniently ignored. Arguments to set Ms Jayalalitha and the looters are so weak. For example, every single Indian knows that the mother of all weddings happened some twenty years ago, when Ms Jayalalitha celebrated the wedding of her foster son. Every single Government facility was misused and an estimated sixty crore rupees was spent on the wedding. In fact, there were stories of how each Minister in her Cabinet, then, had been given "targets" in the form of bribes, to be given to the great lady.
Every single newspaper of the day, including the prestigious The Hindu, of Chennai, had given an accurate account of the approximate money spent, even in those details. The trail court judge had considered huge evidences given by so many people, and documented it beautifully. Yet, the High Court Judge, over looked all this and accepted that Ms Jayalalitha spent just twenty eight lakhs, for the wedding. Her monthly salary was just one rupee at that time.
It is ridiculous to argue that she had other sources of income. She and her companions conveniently opened a huge number of bank accounts and parked all amounts obtained through illegal means.
So, the present case and others similar to it, need to be viewed from a new perspective. We need to empower small groups of concerned individuals, who should file an appeal. The police should give sufficient protection to such persons, and the State should also give legal aid, free, for such causes. Only then can we do something against massive corruption, of a very tall order.
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