The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to Congress generalsecretary Rahul Gandhi, the U.P. government and four others on a petition filed by a former MLA challenging Rs. 50 lakh fine slapped on him by the Allahabad High Court in an alleged case of illegal detention.
A bench of justices V.S. Sirpurkar and T.S. Thakur while staying the High Court order, which had also directed a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation against the former legislator, asked the respondents to file their replies within four weeks.
Former Samajwadi Party MLA from Madhya Pradesh Kishore Samrite had challenged the High Court order, saying it was illegal and arbitrary and issued without application of mind.
The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court had last month slapped a penalty of Rs. 50 lakh on Mr. Samrite who had moved a habeas corpus petition against Mr. Rahul Gandhi alleging he had kept in captivity a girl and her parents, which later turned out to be false
“Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is achieved.” – Swami Vivekananda
Today, Anna Hazare has started fast unto death demanding enactment of a strong Anti Corruption Law called “Jan Lokpal Bill”. Baba ramdev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Top cop Kiran Bedi, Justice Santosh Hegde, Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan, RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal and many other have pledged their support to Hazare.
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The party's counter-offensive hinged on the shocking claim that persons like Hazare were acting like agents of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
Liberally loading its smear brush with saffron, a senior party leader fumed, "He is not a Gandhian, but an RSS agent." The insinuation, however, doesn't seem to be registering with the thousands of ordinary citizens who joined Hazare in a protest sit-in at Jantar Mantar, even as spontaneous demonstrations of support erupted across the nation.
But the Congress is seeing darker designs behind the movement. Senior party leaders, while refusing to go on record, said similar campaigns had been launched in 1972 in the form of the "JP movement" to destabilise Indira Gandhi in the aftermath of the Bangladesh War. Later, the same was done to the Rajiv Gandhi, when the spectre of the Bofors scam was raised, they said. "The same forces in different form have now infiltrated Hazare's campaign, while some civil society activists have been co-opted," a Congress leader said.
"And in between there is enough scope that if any constructive suggestion comes, amendments can be moved," he said requesting Hazare to engage in "constructive discussion." He downplayed questions on National Advisory Council's reported rejection of the draft Lokpal Bill saying that in a democracy, differences always exist and a harmonious consensus is arrived at through healthy discussions.
The party says it has no problem with the Bill hanging fire for over four decades, but the course adopted by Hazare which is fraught with dangers. "The entire democratic process can be held to ransom if some maverick sits on a dharna demanding this or that," a senior Congresman said.
While the party was officially restrained, senior party leaders came down heavily on Hazare saying that his so called movement against corruption was supported by characters like yoga guru Ram Dev, and "RSS backers" like Gurumurthy.
HISTORY OF THE BILL