Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: May 23, 2008
Patil is a disgrace. He must resign
Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil has the
unique knack of putting both his feet into his mouth every time he chooses
to speak on matters of state. In the best of times, he comes across as a Home
Minister who is totally clueless about issues that pertain to his portfolio;
he either waffles or ends up inviting ridicule both inside and outside Parliament.
In the worst of times, which is more often, his utterances are shocking, to
say the least. This is best exemplified by Tuesday's manifestation of the
foot-in-mouth disease from which Mr Patil so acutely suffers: He believes,
and would want people to believe, that it is unfair to seek clemency for Sarabjit
Singh, sentenced to death in Pakistan, while demanding that Mohammed Afzal,
sentenced to death for his role in the terrorist attack on Parliament House,
be hanged. Mr Patil, as Home Minister of the country, should be aware that
the Government of India's case seeking clemency for Sarabjit Singh is based
on the premise that he has been wrongly tried for a crime he never committed
on account of mistaken identity. On the other hand, Mohammed Afzal, to quote
the Supreme Court's judgement sentencing him to death, "was party to
the conspiracy and had a nexus with the terrorists" who attacked Parliament
House on December 13, 2001. To equate the two cases amounts to suggesting
that Sarabjit Singh, an innocent victim of a flawed trial, is guilty of the
charges framed against him, thus making it all the more difficult for the
Government of India to save him from the gallows. Whom is Mr Patil batting
for? He is definitely not batting for either the Government of which he is
a senior member or the country of which, and unfortunately so, he is the Home
Minister.
Earlier, when asked to explain the delay in
executing Mohammed Afzal, Mr Patil had told Parliament, and brazenly so, that
it takes years to process mercy petitions and the Government cannot be made
to take an early decision. On that occasion he was clearly bluffing -- it
may well have been a command performance at the behest of the Congress which
is only too eager to indulge in crass politics of appeasement. Are his latest
comments on the same issue an amplification of his party's perverse thinking?
Are we then witnessing a new chapter in the Congress's policy of pandering
to the lowest common denominator of India's Muslims by signalling to them
Mohammed Afzal will not be executed? Or was it a solo performance by Mr Patil
who appears to have suddenly discovered that there are "humanitarian
issues" involved? Either way, he has knowingly insulted the memory of
the nine persons who died in the attack on Parliament House; he has made a
mockery of India's justice system; and, he has let it be known that those
who massacre innocent people in the name of Islam will not be punished, at
least till such time the Congress is in power. Mr Patil does not deserve the
office he holds; the nation does not deserve him as its Home Minister. Rather
than get his office to defend the indefensible by claiming that his comments
have been "misinterpreted", if he has any sense of honour and integrity,
Mr Patil should resign. If he fails to do so, he should be sacked. Provided,
of course, the Prime Minister has the guts to do the right thing by standing
up for India instead of standing by a man who has shamed India.
