MONTH-IN-PERSPECTIVE

KERALA: Media savvy readers are in the know of the obnoxious incident where a mother of a minor girl sitting next to a 60 year old accused Kankunnath Moideen Kutty of Thrithala, while 10 year old minor girl was being sexually abused by this Kutty.

The incident, reportedly took place on 18^th April in a theatre in Edappal. The theatre owner gave the recording of the sexual abuse to the Local CHILDLINE who referred the matter to the police.

Reportedly sub-inspector K.G. Baby of Changaramkulam police station delayed taking action despite the matter being reported to him on 26^th April. But strangely, to help the accused and to make life difficult for the whistle blower, police arrested the theatre owner, one Sathish, for allegedly not reporting the matter in time and for reporting the matter to a third party, in this case CHILDLINE.

Unfortunately, for police this trick by the police blew on their face. Not only SI K.G Baby was suspended and arrested subsequently even Dy SP Shaji Varghese, who arrested the theatre owner, too was removed from the case as the investigating officer. Opposition in the state is demanding the arrest of Dy SP.

Action against the police apparently came after opposition put pressure on the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who too was with the police for whatever his political compulsions in the matter.

Truly speaking, owner of Sharada theatre Sathish, should have been commended, firstly for installing the CCTV, which many theatre owners are reluctant for the cost involved. It is only because of CCTV recording that this culprit Kutty and the mother of the child, who acted as a broker, could have been acted against. Another reason to commend is the reporting of the incident by the theatre owner to the CHILDLINE, who are statutorily authorized to intervene in all issues involving child exploitations. State Women’s Commission Chairperson M C Josephine lauded the theatre owner bringing out the issue into the public domain.

Clearly, the entire administration appeared to be helping the moneyed and powerful against victims of circumstances. And to think that, such a thing has happened in a Communist ruled state of Kerala, the most literate state of India, is a matter of deep disappointment.

Indians are in the know that governments of both Congress & the BJP do support powerful criminals, besides whole lot of opposition parties as well. To think even Communists, who are supposed to be more aam aadmi oriented too are no better, is indeed a matter of deep sadness. Oh Poor Mother India!

MAHARASHTRA: Pranab daa, as he is called in some circles, is not a saint or a statesman, as some tried to elevate him. He is a politician in the classical mould. He has a history of over 50 years of high profile political life. He is a seasoned politician, as he grew inspite of his differences and adjusted to live for another day. That has catapulted him to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan. That opportunity, truly gave him a chance to be on his own. Recognizing that, Congress party did not give him the opportunity to be the “Best Prime Minister India never had”. Narendra Modi called on him with probably some calculation in his mind, elevating him as elder politician who could probably give some ‘matured advice’ to someone who is in the portals of power in New Delhi for the first time. The chemistry between Modi and Pranab Mukherjee appeared to have worked. Thus 3.5 years that Pranab Mukherjee had as President was very smooth, between the de facto head of the country, a Congress man of 50 years and the de jure CEO, the Prime Minister, an RSS worker of close to 50 years.

So when he decided to accept the invite to RSS head quarters in Nagpur, he had his own way of looking at it. There have been many who pleaded with him to cancel his visit to Nagpur. It was almost churlish, that even likes of Jairam Ramesh could be his bête noire. But Mr. Mukherjee stood his ground. Two messages that could be picked up from this visit were, one the former first citizen of India is man on his own with his own idea of what is right and what is wrong. The second was, RSS, despite all despise loaded against it, rightly or wrongly, need not be an untouchable. Indeed, in the event, it turned out to be a pleasant outing for the former President, and RSS had no complaint on what he said. It was a CONVERSATION WITHOUT CONFRONTATION. That’s how one debates in a democracy! When all those who were anti-RSS were aghast, RSS functionaries were smiling.

MAHARASHTRA: Strange are the ways of corporate strategies and managements. Mumbai based Videocon Industries Group has blamed Prime Minister Modi, Supreme Court of India and the government in Brazil, for their bad debts to go hay-wire.

According to the print media report datelined Mumbai, National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has admitted an insolvency petition submitted by SBI led consortium of creditors against Videocon group of Venugopal Dhoot. NCLT has ordered debt reorganizers to take over the company’s management.

There is around Rs.3900 crores of dues of debt, the company has failed to repay, informs the report. Not wanting to give up the Kaamadenu, the company has filed an appeal to take back the control of the company. Reportedly appeal mentions Narendra Modi imposed demonetization, that led to the clampdown on cash, hampered supplies for making cathode ray tube TVs and forced the company to shut the business. We have heard of small traders, depending largely on cash has suffered due to demonetization but not large corporations with multiple activities.  Then, it was the Supreme Court which was blamed for cancellation of 156 licensees of different telecom operators. We are all aware that telecom sector was the most opaque in its wheeling dealings. If its dealings were above board such an issue probably wouldn’t have cropped. And then comes Brazilian government that did not give approval for its venture with Brazil Petroleum, as another reason for the company’s failure to manage its finances.

These stories are not new. All those who have piled-up their debt with financial institutions and public sector banks, will surely have some stories, most of them generally due to over-trading, promoters’ profligacy wayward living style and downright cheating by siphoning company funds into private accounts of directors. Genuine business failures are generally few and far between.

The government action in speeding up insolvency proceedings should hopefully introduce certain degree of honesty into the corporate governance and probably help cleanse the Augean stables of these public sector banks where in the name of NPA, lakhs of crores of public money have been written off. This loot of the exchequer should stop. It has gone on interminably. Hope some financial discipline into the public sector banks vis-à-vis corporate funding shall come about.    

WEST BENGAL: There was this Kolkata date lined report in the print media, “18 lakh apply: only 5400 get through in Group D exam”.

West Bengal government had advertised for some 6000 jobs in D group recently. The educational requirement for the post was 8^th class pass. This is basically an unskilled attender’s or helper’s job. However, according to the report, there were some 3.5 lakh applications from post graduates. Of course there were no details about the stream of these post graduates. For all you know it may be mixed. If there were post graduates applying for ‘D’ group job in the government, there could also be graduates, 12^th pass and 10^th pass. All these may have added to the 3.5 lakh figure that report mentioned as post graduates. Be that as it may, the fact is there are so many looking for government jobs.

Of course, 18 lakh applicants looking for 6000 jobs that too in ‘D’ category, is a sad reflection on the state of employment opportunities in the state. But what is rather intriguing is that the government couldn’t get all its requirement of 6000 candidates eligible for appointment. What could be the reason that there were 3.5 lakh post graduates who did not even measure up to the D group job requirement?

Was the test very difficult, or these post graduates were not good enough even for ‘D’ group attender/helper job!? And then you have graduates, under graduates, 12^th pass and 10^th pass, who could not answer these questions to be qualified for appointment to ‘D’ category job in West Bengal government.

Reportedly, the written test had 85 questions (with one mark) taken from 8^th standard Maths, Science, History, Geography and General Knowledge. If a post graduate couldn’t answer 8^th standard test questions, what could be the level of intellectual caliber of these candidates?

It is a sad reflection of our education system that 3.5 lakh post graduates couldn’t clear 8^th standard question papers. Indeed our education does not seem to produce employable men and women, even to the level of ‘D’ category! Oh! Poor Mother India!      

WORLD: The first ever, as claimed, report by the United Nations on the situation of human rights in Kashmir is, as expected, not good at all. Reportedly it is a damning indictment of Indian security forces for the alleged killings of civilians in the strife torn state. Prima facie, it is a one sided view, nay, a jaundiced view. It doesn’t look or rather blind at the problem in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, while admonishing on human rights failures in the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir.

Observers, if any, with their limited vision, and agenda driven programme have no time to look into Pakistan sponsored terror unleashed in Kashmir, by employing some local youth, because of which Indian security forces had to act.

What the world body has failed to see is that, local, especially young school/college boys, are paid money for stone pelting at Indian security forces. In Kashmir stone pelting is an industry funded by Pakistan’s ISI.

Government of India has rightly dismissed the UNHRC report with absolute disdain. This view was shared by even the opposition Congress. “We reject the UN report as a prejudiced attempt by vested interest to hurt India’s sovereignty and national interest”, said Congress spokesman, while adding “Congress supports the government’s stand in dismissing the report. The UNHRC prepared this report with zero understanding of the situation in Kashmir. How does the report justify terrorism by self styled militants of Jaish & Hizbul? Should the UN over look the state sponsored terror being exported by Pakistan?”

Besides, what is shocking is the silence of UNHRC or the United Nations Organization itself, at the atrocities in Syria by all kinds of alien forces and in Yemen by Saudi Arabia or by Israelis against Palestinian and vice versa?

It is indeed strange how the so-called global policeman be selectively blind to some and open eyed to only to what is ‘happening’ in Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir?!

WORLD: All are equal among faithfuls is a basic tenet of Islam. At least that is what non-Muslims think and that is the apparent strength of Islam. But the Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, do not seem to think so. He may be preaching equality, but in practice he is certainly otherwise. He seems to practice the communist principle of ‘all are equal but some are more equal than others’. That is how in his newly floated political outfit Milli Muslim League (MML) his son Hafiz Talah Saeed and son-in-law Hafiz Khalid Walid are contesting the election to the national assembly among 265 others.

So clearly Hafiz Saeed and his family are more equal than others. This Hafiz Saeed is fighting for Muslims of Pakistan. He should be necessarily better than others. He collects donations, spends on charities and now he wants to enter politics for better or worse. Strangely in his love for Pakistan, Pakistanis and Muslims, he wants to protect and perpetuate his hold on the organization that he has floated by hoisting his son and son-in-law ostensibly for the good of Pakistanis. So he is as selfish as any ordinary Pakistani or sub-continental politician.

It is another matter that there is strong opposition from the political and military authorities for the entry of this Hafiz Saeed, whose head carries a bounty of $10 million. This MML is an off-shoot of J.u.D which is a front for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba terror outfit, which carried out the deadly Mumbai attack of November 2008, where close to 200 died. The name of the political party of this J.u.D is Milli Muslim League (MML). Election Commission of Pakistan has refused to register this MML, since Pakistan’s Interior Ministry argued that MML is an offshoot of J.u.D, which is banned by UNO.

But being in touch with different political parties, MML managed to file their nominations through another recognized political party, which was more than happy to accommodate all 265 nominations of MML as their own.

This development does not bode well for Pakistan’s socio-political life. It can only increase the socio-political tension in Pakistani society. Hope electorates in Pak are matured enough to reject these MML candidates in the ensuing election, for the good of Pakistan in particular.    

KARNATAKA: In Queen’s English you may call these Mangaloorkars as the worst when it comes to treatment of elders, informs the latest report of Help Age India.

According to Help Age India 23 cities were covered to assess the level of treatment of elders in these cities. At 47% Mangalooru is the city with maximum abuse informs the report. It’s a shame, with its best Human Development Index comparable to Kerala and Goa, with almost 100% literacy, to think that sons of Mangalooru are the badest of the lot at 52% as compared to 34% for daughters-in-law, is a very serious issue of concern.

In the race for the top in this bizarre competition, Mangalooru is followed by Ahmadabad at 46% and then Bhopal at 39%. Amritsar was 4^th at 35% with capital New Delhi being in 5^th position at 33%.

While there should be zero abuse of elders in any civilized society, it is a deeply disturbing matter that Mangalooru, a centre of education, has failed to make its sons and daughters sensitive enough to understand the human side of their relationship with the parents in their twilight years.

It is another matter that Mangalooru is not the only city which is insensitive to the lot of elders in the family. The fact that there are 23 cities all over India, does make a sad statement that demands of modern day life has killed the human within us, that we have failed to visualize a picture which, eventually, would fall on all of us. We all have to pass through this twilight zone at some point in life, that awareness at least should makes us realize our responsibility and duty towards our vulnerable elders in the family. It is incumbent on all of us to ensure that bad days do not fall on any of our growing elders as they inch towards their eventual sun-set. Hope all of us, not just Mangaloorkars, wake up to this sad reality among us Indians where our elders are made to feel helpless and unwanted.

KARNATAKA: ‘THE HINDU’, India’s National Newspaper since 1878, as it claims, exposes many a times its discreet agenda. It may be wrong to think this way. But such reportage, comments, writings happen within its pages, too often to ignore. It is a considered view that media, especially print, has kept the society divided by its irresponsible behavior.

Cow vigilante is an unfortunate dimension of our national life. There are whole lot of people, who are pained to see the physical violence involved, especially against Muslims, who are in the business of cattle trade for milk or meat. Cow as a subject of economic activity has not been properly debated. Unfortunately media mostly took a one sided view. In Europe, state is reported to be funding cow rearing. As a provider of milk and the usage of cow dung and its socio/commercial application, cow is reportedly earning more money this way than meat. How far this is true, is unknown to this writer. But media, per se, can make an effort to go deeper into the economics of cow for a larger socio/political picture.

But that has not happened, except keeping the divide between the cow loving Hindus and cattle trading Muslims. There should be an even handed writings in the public space with more honorable purpose. But that’s not happening. Instead, THE HINDU of 25^th June, carried this completely avoidable article, “A New Vulnerability” by one Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, where he tries to highlight, “the objective of cow vigilante groups is clearly to target particular communities”. While it is true, that such an aberration in a complex country of 1350 million people is a fact of life, it is certainly under rein and not allowed to have a free run. Hence, it is the responsibility of both writers and its publishers like THE HINDU to control their anxiety to fish in ruffled waters. As a member of the fourth estate, the role of THE HINDU is cutout. Wish and hope it recognizes this dimension of journalism, not to keep the amber of social divide alive.   

JHARKHAND: It has not happened a day too early. A Ranchi datelined report informed that government in Jharkhand has decided to name and shame all those ‘ladies and gentlemen’ who are using BPL card, despite being very comfortable at home with sufficient resources in their command.

It is an open secret that there are families, may be even in millions, who own automobiles and live in comfortable RCC homes and yet claim benefits meant for poor and vulnerable sections of our society.

We are given to understand that same crowd of these leaches neither pay income tax, nor they have PAN cards. Reportedly they also enjoy unauthorized electricity and water connections, thus denying the state of its legitimate revenue. They have to be comprehensively exposed and publicly shamed and imposed punitive measures.

Only then the message will go across that honesty pays. It is time that honesty is publicly recognized for those who are regular income tax payers, by giving some incentives, so that loyalty to the law is rewarded. Such proactive measures by the government both at centre and state will go a long way in encouraging honest citizenship among Indians. Hope some such things happen.

NEW DELHI: The news, that Arvind Kejriwal led AAP dharna, in the residence of Lt. Governor of Delhi, is off, is not really surprising.

The support of 4 Chief Ministers is only symbolic to show their opposition to Modi and therefore against the Lt. Governor, not necessarily in agreement with AAP gimmicks.

AK is an activist and will live only as an activist; he will never hold the responsible position of Chief Minister because he cannot be committed to work as a CM. He is the CM and the convener of AAP, so that he wants to have the cake and eat it without the burden of managing Chief Minister’s office. All the donkey work is done by his deputy Sisodia. AK can only live a busy life of an activist. Now that luck favored him with 67 seats in the 70 seats Delhi assembly, he arrogantly dismissed Prashanth Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, the original pillars of AAP. There is support to AAP because AAP is in power in Delhi and he has managed to be in limelight only because of his activism. That AAP government is doing good job on schools is accepted. That is the job of all elected governments. Kerala government too is doing great job with their government run schools, but no media hype. And no theatrics like Arvind Kejriwal. Delhi government works in spite of AK and not because of AK. After his apologies spree he had kept quiet for a while. He is back on his usual game of blaming Modi on every problem of Delhi. That’s the only way he can be in the limelight.

Dharna drama has been called up only because “Who authorized your Dharna”, asked Delhi High Court and not because, IAS functionaries started to meet their ministers as claimed by AAP. AK knows IAS association will not call a press conference to call his bluff hence gone to the market with the story. In any case, hope the aam aadmi gets a functioning government to deliver in Delhi, without the endurance of drama & theatrics of Arvind Kejriwal & company.

NEW DELHI: In our March 2018- Month-in-Perspective, while commenting on the Nirav Modi-PNB scam, holding the CMD of PNB responsible for the mess, we had observed “My dear Sir, where were you and your members of the board all these years? It is apparent, CMD and his board have abdicated their role and therefore RBI, if it is within its power, should recommend the dismissal of the board. Probably this and only this can send right signal to all wrong and irresponsible functionaries in the banking sector”.

Reading the above comment a bank manager had expressed shock, saying you are very harsh on the bank management.

Commenting on the then newspaper headline “FM blames auditors and bank officials”, I&C had commented “Since it is banks’ officers who sanction loans and advances and auditors are the watchmen on the receipts and payments, to & from bank, FM is not wrong after all. But there are those who have the responsibility of overseeing what these functionaries are doing. Are they (officers & auditors) acting in accordance with the norms set by the board of directors and operating within the set limits of discretion in acting independently? In the given case, clearly the senior management was found sleeping, since reported wrong-doings dates back to 2011 and we are in early 2018, almost 7 years late”.

Not surprisingly replying to the Parliamentary standing committee on Finance, RBI governor, Urjit Patel had squarely blamed the board for the fraud. RBI governor demanded powers from parliament, while monitoring Public Sector Banks, for the removal and appointment of CMD, and supersede Board of Director. He also demanded the power to approve appointment and termination of appointment of a chairman, managing director, whole time director & CEO.

While giving a reply in writing to the committee, RBI governor had stated that the ‘three lines of defence’ built in the banking system had failed in this PNB case. “First the officer sanctioning the loan, second at the managerial level, and third the internal audit”. Referring to Letter of Undertaking (LoUs), the primary tool of embezzlement by Nirav Modi Governor said “it was the primary responsibility of the PNB Board to understand the risks in issuing LoUs without collateral and to manage them through control”. Clearly board had failed leading to vertical abdication of responsibility and PNB paid for it dearly.

UTTAR PRADESH: Electronic channels in their anxiety for breaking news had informed about a passport official in Lucknow being ‘communal’ with a Muslim couple applicant. It had naturally, the expected reaction on the boorish behavior of the passport official Vikas Mishra.

But as usual, electronic channels like so many in the social media are mostly hit-and-run types. They do not give you the full story.

The story was, one Tanvi Seth, a Hindu, married to one Muhammad Anas Siddiqui, a Muslim, but had not changed her name. They were married for 12 years. And for all 12 years, she had kept her maiden name for all practical purposes. Prima facie there should have been no issue for this Vikas Mishra, the passport official, to issue the necessary passport, subject to all appropriate documentation needed being in place.

However, this official Vikas Mishra, was downright stupid to ask Muhammad Siddiqui, the husband of Tanvi Seth, to become a Hindu and have ‘pheras’ around the fire. Naturally Tanvi went ballistic to register her complaint to MEA Sushma Swaraj. As usual MEA under Sushma Swaraj, responded quickly and both were given the passports. The story ended happily for the couple.

Strangely, there was another dimension, which neither the electronic media nor their friends in social platforms cared to mention and that was the crux which media hide.

Documentation in the passport application had the ‘nikahnama’ which showed the name of Tanvi Seth as Shazia Anas. This clearly means that she had become Muslim before marriage to Muhammad Anas Siddiqui. That is what made this official get worked up to react, which is clearly none of his business. Of course the MEA has acted on the unbecoming behavior of this official Vikas Mishra.

But, what is of relevance and therefore has to be mentioned is, while this official Vikas Mishra was dubbed communal why the whole system that insists on the spouse to change his or her religion to the religion of the pressure group, in this case Islam, not dubbed and called communal since a Hindu, Tanvi Seth had to become Shazia Anas, a Muslim to get married to Muhammad Siddiqui. This is double standard of the worst kind and they call themselves secular. Wah re bhai wah?

ANDHRA PRADESH: For the sake of electoral gains, to what extent a politician would go? Ask Chandrababu naidu. He has answers. After breaking away from NDA alliance, more specifically BJP ruled NDA, Andhra CM, Chandrababu Naidu of Telugu Desam Party left no time in announcing a package to please the minorities.

Of course the government is there to serve the people without any discrimination of caste, creed, language or religion. But that is exactly the issue. Why it is difficult for political parties and politicians to be non-discriminatory in giving state largesse?!

Speaking after participating in Ramzan prayers in Municipal Corporation Stadium in Vijayawada the other day, he was in his charitable best. He announced that state has allocated Rs.1100 crores in 2018-19 budget for minority welfare, and that this is more than what original Andhra Pradesh had allocated. He also announced that 25 residential schools will be started soon for minorities. Construction of Haj House in Vijayawada at cost of Rs.80 crores was another gift. These are over and above pre and post matric scholarship to Muslim children, so also Rs.50000/- to every Muslim girl for marriage under Dulhan scheme. These benefits are not available for Hindus, Christian or others.

He was addressing the congregation of Muslim men. In his anxiety to please his audience he even declared “We (that is TDP) will never allow the passage of Triple Talaq Bill. We will stop passage of triple talaq bill”.

In his enthusiasm to play to the gallery he failed to understand that he did not mind that Muslim women should suffer interminably in the hands of wayward Muslim men. He forgot that it was not NDA government that wanted the bill; it was the Supreme Court which asked for a legislation to cover the issue raised by Muslim Mahila Andolan members in the apex court. Apex Court was only responding to the plea of this group of Muslim women who have suffered at the hands of Muslim men since time immemorial. This was the stark display of opportunism by the Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. What a fall?

BIHAR: Nowhere in India, police could be as bad as it is in Bihar. A Patna datelined print media had titled a report “Bihar boy jailed after refusing to give free vegetables to cops”.

Come to think of it, that the boy is just 14, helping his father to sell vegetable in their vegetable cart in Mahatma Gandhi Nagar area of Patna, police jailed him as an adult on false charges of a bike theft. He was reportedly lodged with other 4 adult accused in the Beur Central Jail in Patna. This happened on 19^th March, and it is already more than three months and this minor boy is languishing is the jail for no fault of his.

According to Sukhal Paswan, the father of the boy, on 19^th March, he left the boy alone to go for some other job, four policemen on the beat asked the minor to give them vegetables. These cops were known to be daily taking their market needs from these road side vendors for free. That fateful day the minor son of Sukhal Paswan refused to part with the vegetable for free. The next day police jeep came and picked him up and sent him to jail. Paswan produced documents to media persons to show that his ‘son is only 14 and he is innocent and was at the cart on the day the alleged theft of bike took place’. After getting no help from the police for months, the father managed to reach the CM’s attention. Reportedly CM Nitish Kumar has ordered a probe, that is after 3 months of completely illegal and unjust incarceration of this minor boy. 

Playing safe, IGP (Patna Range) Nayyar Hussain Khan told the media, “We have started a probe into the allegations. At this point it is not clear if police acted illegally. Strict actions will follow for the high handed behavior if police have broken the law”.

From the details available in the public space, it was clearly an inhuman and bizarre act on the part of those policemen, who have fattened on freebies from these vulnerable road side vendors, who struggle every day for making a living. How can policemen, who are certainly looked after better by the state government, could ask for free vegetable from petty street vendors, which by itself is a crime. And then to arrest a minor boy on false charges of bike theft and jail him as adult is absolutely macabre and needs stringent actions of not only dismissing these policemen but also imprison them for their brazen act.

Only then some sense of fairness of law and order may come about on these uncontrolled unaccountable policemen. Do you hearken Mr. Nitish Kumar!

Latest on the issue is, acting on the instruction of CM, the Patna police chief has acted and reportedly suspended some 11 police men and issued a show cause notice to a D.S.P and got the boy shifted from central jail to Juvenile Home. Hopefully when the investigation is complete, the boy shall be released, IGP informed.

This is a positive development in a state, where law and order remained questionable for most part. Hope the ends of justice meets with the active involvement of IGP goaded by the instruction of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar!  

JAMMU & KASHMIR: What is wrong with some of the BJP MLAs? They routinely get into completely avoidable controversies, sometime even obnoxious utterances.

This MLA from J&K, Chaudhary Lal Singh made an eminently provocative comment on the killing of J&K journalist and editor of Rising Kashmir, Shujaat Bukhari.

He is reported to have remarked that journalist should draw a line and not to cross this line, or else they will face the same fate as that of Shujaat Bukhari.

Now this is a completely reprehensible statement from a law maker. While journalist associations have taken strong exception to the remark saying it is a threatening statement from the BJP MLA, even Congress and CPI (M) too have endorsed similar thoughts. But, like Congress spokesman wondered if BJP MLA Lal Singh is in the know of some special details about the killing?

It is a very valid question. Only for this, the MLA must be hauled up by the police to spill the bean, if any. This is important that it is followed up. However, besides these two aspects of the irresponsible remark of this MLA Lal Singh, another dimension which is very disturbing is, this Chaudhary Lal Singh is justifying the killing of journalist who do not ‘draw the line’. This amounts to instigation and taking side of the killers. This is completely unthinkable. He should be publicly reprimanded by the party leadership, besides a public explanation and apology for his reckless barb.

J. Shriyan