As expected Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar got his way and has ensured that Tarun Tejpal was lodged in jail. Under the obvious directions of the Chief Minister, the Goa Police have gone overboard in this case. It was Vijay Jolly in Delhi and Manohar Parrikar in Goa gunning that the BJP’s thirst for Tejpal’s blood was ensured.
If our police had to show such policing enthusiasm in every other case, Goa would have been India’s only crime free state. In enforcing the law there should not be any preference or leniency in any case. On Jan 14th this year, a 7 year old little Vasco girl was brutally raped in broad daylight in the toilet of her own school. Apparently, the Government allowed that evidence loaded case to be hushed up to ensure that the politically well connected rapist was above the law. It is almost a year and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has to date not cared to even visit that 7 year old little angel and her family which is still grieving over that heinous crime. It is this same Chief Minister who now has burnt the midnight oil in the Tarun Tejpal case. The Tarun Tejpal case like the Aarushi* Talwar *episode is destined to generate more questions than answers. What Tarun Tejpal does will just be headlines now. But what is important is that the truth of the matter at all cost must be unraveled. The investigation of this case surprisingly commenced on a suo motu F.I.R by the Goa government. This is unheard of in 53 years of Goa’s liberation. In the interest of justice and fair play the investigation of this politically guided case should now have been monitored by an authority which is not under the remote control of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. >From the Goa Police, the Aam Aadmi of Goa are now within their rights to demand in every other case the same promptness and investigating zeal that they have astonishingly shown now as a benchmark in the Tarun Tejpal case. But in a State where the police stations are virtually manned by Ministers and ruling party MLAs with the tacit blessings and on directions of the Chief Minister, the rule of the jungle is here to continue. And there could be no better words than those of the Supreme Court recently making the following strong observations on the conduct of the Goa Government in these words: ….it is further sad as the State of Goa and its functionaries have allowed ingress of systemic anarchy throwing propriety to the winds possibly harbouring the attitude of utter indifference and nurturing an incurable propensity to pave the path of deviancy. ….This wise act of the State Government can irrefragably be compared with "absence of common sense in an uncommon degree". ….The authorities in the Government are required to understand that the basic governance consists in the act of taking considered, well vigilant, appropriate and legal decisions. It is the sacrosanct duty of the Government to follow the law and the pronouncements of the court and not to take recourse to such subterfuges. The Government should have reminded itself the saying of Benjamin Disraeli: I repeat - that all power is a trust - that we are accountable for its exercise - that, from the people and for the people, all springs, and all must exist. ….It may not be out of place to state here that every public authority has a duty coupled with power. Before exercising the power one is required to understand the object of such power and the conditions in which the same is to be exercised. Similarly, when one performs public duty he has to remain alive to the legal position and not be oblivious of it. If Tarun Tejpal is found guilty he should face the music but if he was framed by this young journalist at the behest of vested interests that lady should not be spared but also punished in public glare. In the last two weeks the nation’s attention has been on Tarun Tejpal. The focus may now shift on to the recently tainted retired Supreme Court Judge A.K.Ganguly who faces ever so severe charges more so in view of the fact that he was presiding over the country’s highest temple of Justice. After Tejpal and Ganguly who will be next. Your guess is as good as mine. Let’s stay tuned. Aires Rodrigues T1 - B30, Ribandar Retreat Ribandar - Goa - 403006 Mobile: 9822684372
