M D Nalapat: Civil Society Awakes
Former director-general of police S P S Rathore's encounter with the unfortunate Ruchika Girhotra may translate into years in prison. However, neither the law nor its enforcers are responsible for Rathore's fall. Both administered only the most feeble of wrist-slaps on the ex-DGP. The law ambled on for nearly two decades before finally delivering [...]
Leave the Law to the Law
Justice, essentially, is a system by which the law is kept according to a consensual set of norms. In plainspeak that means some things are considered illegal and with an agreed-upon system in place law-breakers are doled out punishment according to the nature of their crimes. When the law fails in the eyes of the beholder, the vigilante is born. [...]
The Rathore smile
One wonders whether former Haryana DGP S P S Rathore, currently being interrogated by the CBI, is living up to the statement he recently made to the media that he would continue smiling even if things got worse. Rathore, of course, maintains that it was India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who had inspired him to keep smiling. The [...]
Praveen Swami: Our crimes against our children
In December last, Indians watched in outrage as S.P.S. Rathore, former Haryana Director-General of Police, smirked at the end of court proceedings which saw him receive a six-month prison sentence for sexually abusing a teenager 19 years ago. Not far from the Chandigarh courtroom where Rathore was convicted, a panchayat in Rohtak gathered to [...]
Same yardstick for all
Ex-IAS officer Rupan Deol Bajaj's demand that decorated cop K P S Gill, who was convicted of a molestation charge, be stripped of his Padma Shri will no doubt raise the hackles of those who believe that Gill's crime in no way endangers his status as a top cop. But there is hypocrisy inherent in arguing for the withdrawal of former Haryana DGP S P [...]
Don't Rake Up the Past
The S P S Rathore-Ruchika case has raised passions. Sadly, it's in the heat of passion that one risks sacrificing lucidity. It's being demanded that former Punjab DGP K P S Gill be stripped of his Padma Shri. Recall that ex-IAS officer Rupan Deol Bajaj slapped a sexual harassment case against Gill for misbehaving with her at a party in 1988. She [...]
Hey Ram (Jethmalani)!
For someone who keeps maintaining that he is against media trials of all criminal cases, old, new or pending, one wonders why the veteran lawyer Ram Jethmalani is doing the rounds of TV news channels just to make the point that the judiciary should have the final word and not the Fourth Estate. Surely, it would be simpler for one of India’s most [...]
Ruchika Girhotra case: Cool Down
A special court might have found S P S Rathore guilty of molesting Ruchika Girhotra 19 years ago, but the media seems to be going overboard in vilifying the former Haryana director-general of police. There is little doubt that without the media's investigations, the way Rathore used his power and influence to apparently bend rules and subvert [...]
The Ills of Indian Science
Inaugurating the 97th edition of the Indian Science Congress, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did some plain speaking: the organisation of Indian science is fossilised and bureaucratic, it smothers innovation, lacks relevance to India’s development needs, has poor links to industry and the blame for all this lies with those at the helm of affairs [...]
Rathore case, public anger and media coverage
What significantly differentiates the S.P.S. Rathore case from comparable atrocities of the past is the progressive and healthy shift it has caused in the attitude of the mainstream news media and people, particularly those drawn from the middle classes, to sex-related crimes against women and children. Unlike in the past, this activist concern [...]