K.N. Bhat

Apr 15, 2011
knbhatt.jpg

Friendly advice

As of 2008, nine cases arising out of the 2002 Gujarat riots were being monitored by the Supreme Court of India — all involving serious crimes of murder, arson and the like.

Why this show of fairness to Kasab?

A Pakistani judicial commission was in India, ostensibly to gather information about the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. At no time was there any doubt that the heinous plot, which left 166 innocent people dead, was conceived, scripted, directed and executed from Pakistani soil. The whole world knew it, and Pakistani administration ought to have known it well. However, Pakistan kept on denying any knowledge — leave aside involvement — and even shed some crocodile tears. Pakistan, in fact, refused to bury the bodies of its citizens — the dead terrorists — and denied outright that the sole surviving terrorist, Ajmal Kasab, was its citizen. Yet it did not take long for the lies to get exposed.

NCTC fears unfounded

Most of the chief ministers who have raised a chorus of alarm about the UPA government’s deliberate dilution of federalism since home minister P. Chidambaram introduced the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), perhaps, do realise that the cause that has united them is at best nebulous and imaginary at worst. But charging the Centre with being “anti-federal” does get attention, including that of the Prime Minister.

Too sensitive to handle

Vayalar Ravi, the Union minister for overseas Indian affairs, could have taken a little more time to understand how in the United States the freedom of speech and that of the press, guaranteed by the

Immoral qualms

Can the Union law minister come to the rescue where health ministers have failed? I am referring to the unending chain of deaths of infants in hospitals in West Bengal during the last few days that was followed by an acid bath to a lady still to recover from post-natal trauma. Early this year, over 16 expectant

Want to grant bail? Conditions apply

Why should arguments on bail applications consume days together? Thereafter, why can’t the judge pronounce orders forthwith? And why should the judge keep adjourning such matters?

Lokpal and the game of heads or tails

Nature, it is said, abhors a vacuum. Jayaprakash Narayan filled the vacuum in 1974-75.

Lokpal and the game of heads or tails

N ature, it is said, abhors a vacuum. Jayaprakash Narayan filled the vacuum in 1974-75. And in 2011, when Delhi got engulfed by scams — CWG, 2G spectrum, people wre fed up, but had no shoulder to cry on. Then, Anna

You’ve been served

The report of Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde is finally out. It is now clear that, like the proverbial bikini, what the leaked report revealed was suggestive, but what it concealed was vital. The most vital part of the report presented today to the state chief secretary is that Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa committed
offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Get on with Lokpal, without PM

Corruption in public offices is an ancient and chronic evil recognised as such by repeated legislative measures.
(1) The Indian Penal Code, enacted in 1860, had an entire chapter on bribery.

(2) The Special Police Force of 1943, set up under the War Department for the purpose of investigating offences of bribery and corruption, was continued as the Delhi Special Police Establishment, and thus the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) came into existence, to probe corruption cases.

As a self-confessed hardliner, I must admit that being a part of the team engaged in Indo-Pak Track 2 dialogue has been very interesting.

In June 2012, world leaders along with thousands of participants from governments, NGOs and environmental groups as well as the private sector will come together in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for Rio+20

Horoscope