The way, the courage of the new generation was sought to be broken by lathicharge and tear gas shelling, must be forcefully condemned. It is very sad state of affairs. This action has terrified the whole country. The seething anger among the youth of the country over the gang rape could not be pacified with the lathicharge, tear gas and water cannons. This is for the first time that such a huge crowd has gathered at the Vijay Chowk to demand justice and security. This crowd did not belong to any political party or any particular caste or any particular place. This was not only the repression of those youth, but it was also about silencing all the voices being raised for the dignity of women. When whole of the country was patiently waiting for legal amendments providing death sentence to heinous criminals, suddenly the injustice to constitute a Judicial Commission came to the fore in the night. The Home Minister, who had been taking credit about the execution of death sentence to Ajmal Kasab, was under such a pressure that he failed to deliver. He even avoided the mention of the word ‘death sentence’. In fact, the Manmohan Government, itself is frightened. It lacks the courage to take any hard decision. That is why no woman has faith in the weak government about its ability to provide them safety. Dignity of woman must not be destroyed as was done with a girl student on Sunday and we consider it as the rarest of rare crime. On the contrary, the government is trying to categorize such heinous crimes into different categories. There is already a provision of death penalty on murder. Moreover, it is not in the jurisdiction of the Government to pronounce death sentence to anybody, this depends on the Judiciary. You have just to make provision in the law to this effect. Why there is hesitation in bringing such a provision? Is the Government more worried about such criminals? The Government is even trying to evade discussion on the subject. The Parliamentary Committee will meet after a week. The hands of court are tied. The Court cannot pronounce such a sentence for which there is no provision in the law. In gang rape cases, there is a provision for an imprisonment for ten years and at the most life imprisonment. Even the judges agree that in cases, where the life of the rape victim has become worse than the death, as is being witnessed in the present case, the culprits must be sentenced to death. And, for this there must be suitable amendments in the laws. Holding up the death sentence to Dhananjaya Chatterjee for rape and murder in 1994, the Supreme Court had said that there was no unanimity on sentencing in cases of increasing violent crimes against women. Most of such criminals escape sentencing. The Supreme Court again said while delivering death sentence to a teacher from Maharashtra, Shivaji for rape and murder, that by rightly sentencing the culprit, the Society’s call for justice must be answered. The objective of the law is to provide security to the society, on one hand and stopping crimes by creating fears among the criminals, on the other. We think, the President has also made a slight error. Had he met the youth publicly, he would have become people’s President. Even the Congress President had a great opportunity. Had Sonia Gandhi desired, she could have taken a historical decision that would have glorified India. Did the members of Gandhi family forget that Rajiv Gandhi himself had reached the spot in Paharganj, where fearsome fire had broken out and he had started helping people? He had even terminated a foreign Secretary and a Chief Minister for other scandals. We feel that Bureaucracy is ruling these days instead of political leadership. Lakhs of youth are on the street for last five days. Instead of pacifying them, they are being subjected to lathicharge, tear gas shell and water cannons. Delhi Police, Delhi Government, Administration and Union Ministry of Home Affairs cannot be absolved of the blames by just apprehending the culprits of this crime and by suspending five Police personnel. Why the political parties, instead of making the common man to sacrifice, are not taking effective initiatives to effect immediate change to changing the prevalent disorder and the laws? Are the worsened situations in the Capital not a disgrace for whole of the political system? Such a helpless leadership has never been witnessed in the history of independent India.
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