By
Md. Zeyaul Haque, Special to IslamOnline
NEW
DELHI, Aug 16 (IslamOnline) - The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) leading the ruling coalition at Center, has lately been
caught in an avalanche of scandals.
Some
of the sensational scams are illegal money transactions, corruption in
defense deals exposed by news portal, a land grab scam and petrol pump
scam. All that amounts to billions of rupees of public assets.
The
latest is a charge of murder by a police officer's wife against a senior
central minister.
The
wife of a high police official allegedly involved in the murder of a
female journalist three years ago has accused India’s parliamentary
affairs minister Pramod Mahajan as having been involved in the case.
The
journalist, Shivani Bhatnagar, used to work for the premier daily Indian
Express. She specialized in doing investigative stories. One of the
clues to an intimate relationship between the journalist and Inspector
General RK Sharma of Haryana state police are long telephone
conversations between the two taped by the police.
The
accused police officer’s wife, Madhu Sharma, said Thursday, August 15,
that Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan was also involved in
the case and that the government is shielding him. She said that the
journalist and the minister had a close relationship.
“Ask
him (Pramod Mahajan). Did he not have a 45-minute conversation with her
on the day of her murder?”, Madhu Sharma told journalists.
The
murderers also ransacked the journalist’s house, which made police
suspect that they had been looking for some documents related to some
newspaper story she was doing on influential people.
Mahajan
has denied involvement in the murder but accepted knowing her “as a
politician knows a journalist.” He has also offered to present himself
before an enquiry.
Meanwhile,
Congress Party leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi demanded Mahajan’s
resignation to facilitate an impartial enquiry. Deputy Prime Minister LK
Advani, to whose party BJP Mahajan belongs, turned down the plea.
Advani,
who is in-charge of the Home Ministry, has dismissed the allegation as a
move by vested interests to derail the investigations. However, Advani
does not enjoy a great reputation as an impartial person.
While
the whole world was condemning Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as
the architect of one of the greatest anti-Muslim pogroms and demanding
his resignation, Advani was busy clearing him on one charge after
another.
Advani
also defended the most indefensible criminal, Dara Singh of Orissa
state. Dara Singh was accused of burning a Christian missionary Graham
Staines and his two young sons to death. He was also accused of
attacking and murdering a Muslim. This perpetrator of hate crimes was
also cleared by Advani, who said he was “not of that type.” He also
cleared the Hindu nationalist sharp troopers, VHP and Bajrang Dal who
are in the forefront of attacks on minorities.
Ironically,
Advani, who is responsible for law and order, stands accused of breaking
law by inciting frenzied mobs to demolish Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in
Uttar Pradesh state on December 6, 1992.
The
last few years have witnessed concerted attacks on media outfits and
persons. Shivani Bhatnagar was among half a dozen journalists killed
over the last few years
