‘The tapes should be for the purpose of the department concerned. They cannot be put in the public domain’ - Thus spoke our esteemed Law Minister, Mr.Veerappa Moily
I am not a legal luminary like the Minister. But even to a common man like me, this statement sounds absurd. The Radia Tapes have brought out pathetic lobbying by the industrial houses to get their man as Minister, collusion by the Media, Politicians, Industrialists and Lobbyist in the process of something as sanctimonious as ministry making, and some of the ministers who were thus sworn in has indulged in massive corruption - to the tune of a % of GDP. And the Government had these tapes all these while and didnt do a damn about it. Has our law minister ever heard of the term 'suppression of evidence', which is a grave crime in any decent judicial system?
And rather than going after those who indulged in corruption based on the leaked tapes, he has the gumption to say that 'an investigation is needed to see how the tapes were leaked', as if that is the most important crime in the whole sordid saga. That is what his party is good at - shooting the messenger.
Also, the law minister blatantly lies. He claims that "In our country, the last hanging took place about 15-20 years ago". He is wrong. The last man hanged in India was Dhananjay Chatterjee in 2004 for raping and murdering a 14 year old girl. His mercy petition was rejected by the then President A P J Abdul Kalam, though the then President was known for his anti-death penalty sentiments. He felt, any person who raped a young 14 year old kid and murdered her rightly deserves to die, and he is correct. The misrepresentation by Moily is deliberate. It was to justify the non implementation of the death penalty against Afzal Guru and in due coure Ajmal Kasab. (On this matter, it is interesting to note that Kasab is the 309th convict waiting for death sentence to be enforced. Going by the Government stand of him having to stand the queue to get the privilege of having a rope around his head, and taking into consideration that we hang a person once about 10 years, it will take 3000 years for Kasab to be hung!!!! )
