After acquittal of Raja in 2G scam, question mark on agencies concerned?

The acquittal of those named as accused and imprisoned politicians, rather former union ministers in the scams of 2G, 4G, whatever, by the honourable court after being reportedly made suspicious and dubious by CAG, makes one thing absolutely unambiguous that whatever charges were levelled against them by one of the trusted and reliable investigation agency of the country were fake and biased and defnitely poses a question mark on the powers that be. Sounds shocking, though I have the fullest faith on our respected honourable judiciary and the investigating agencies that how come, not a single iota of evidence was produced against them.

The same was the fate with the much hyped Bofors case in which late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was aquitted hands down. The point is, if these once named accused had to go scot free then who and how come that the issue was raised during the national elections of 2014 and the then ruling party had to suffer and lose the power. We are not for or against those involved in this biggest scam of the century but then if they had to go scot free then who is ultimately to be blamed for their so called involvement in these scams and why has the people of the country made to feel and develop opinion for so long that this scam was the handiwork of the previous government which lost the general election as a symbol of corruption allegedly putting the blame on the then prime minister of the country Dr. Manmohan Singh as well.

I fondly remember that similarly the then late Vishwanath Pratap Singh, ex prime minister came to power at the centre on Bofors issue and the matter was hyped beyond proportion but after the sad and brutal assasination of Rajiv Gandhi, he was outrightly acquitted of all charges. Just imagine how much of the tension, trauma, psychlogical and mental pressures these politicians or any one involved , were constrained to face or confront in extremely odd and challenging situations thus clarifying their positions or presenting logics in front of the people of the country and media, finally losing at the hustings and now scot free as one of the most impeccably honest persons. Question here is not of who had lost and who has won, but the moot point is, the huge amount of tragic situations, trauma, psychological pressures, mental disturbances and the degradation of respect and reverence one faces or confronts by being called an accused publicly, can it ever be resurrected or given back after the acquittal.

I think this is something unforgettable and unanswerable. This is the story about high profile politicians who get let off due to their high political influence or money power to hire the best of the advocates or resources but what about those accused hailing from the lower middle classes or the lowest ebb of the society who get entangled in serious charges for the crime they have not committed and are languishing in jails for no reason or fault of theirs. Such examples are enough pointers about our faulty system under which justice is actually not delievered to those who actually deserve to be freed and those go scot free who really deserve to be behind bars.

I leave the question to the honourable wise readers and opinion makers. Please do analyse and respond accordingly.

SUNIL NEGI, President, Uttarakhand Journalists Forum