The tears of the mother, Asha Devi, were not only the tears of a mother but a comment on our legal and justice system, particularly in view of the fact that the juvenile involved was said to be the most sadistic. (Illustration by: C R Sasikumar)
The daily Inquilab, in its December 19 editorial, writes, “It was thought that since the brutal rape of Nirbhaya, in December 2012, had severely hurt the conscience of the nation, there could not be similar incidents in future. But they continued and there was an increase in such incidents. It means our country has not learnt anything from these tragedies. The tears of the mother, Asha Devi, were not only the tears of a mother but a comment on our legal and justice system, particularly in view of the fact that the juvenile involved was said to be the most sadistic.” The paper adds, “these days there is not much difference between those nearing adulthood and those having attained it and, therefore, one cannot deny the importance of the new bill passed by Parliament.”
Roznama Khabrain, on December 21, writes, “an important question has been raised following the release of the culprit, who was a juvenile at the time of the horrendous act. Should he be punished according to his age or according to the severity of the crime? … Society, too, is criminal, he was a juvenile and has been punished accordingly. This was one case. This does not mean that violating the conscience and being unmindful of the consequences, a law should be made that could be more harmful than beneficial…”
Rashtriya Sahara , in its December 22 editorial, refers to the Supreme Court’s observation that “it is a curious plea that a juvenile should not be released as he is not reformed. Reformation may take 10 years. In such a situation, would it not be a violation of the fundamental rights of the criminal?”
Revenge Politics
Commenting on the National Herald case, Rashtriya Sahara (December 20) writes, “only time will tell how much irregularity there has been in the National Herald matter. But it’s a fact that during the last one and a half years, there have been many developments that smack of revenge. It should be remembered that like the present-day BJP,
the Janata Party, too, had adopted a path of revenge against Indira Gandhi that resulted in the latter reaching the peak of popularity. Now is the time of the electronic media and… Sonia and Rahul Gandhi have been dominating the screens. As far as Subramanian Swamy is concerned, being in the headlines thanks to similar acts has been his hobby. He was close to Rajiv Gandhi, he brought Sonia and Jayalalithaa on the same platform, and worked to keep the BJP away from power in the 1990s. Now Sonia and Rahul are his targets… Everyone understands that Swamy has always acted in a spirit of revenge…”
Hamara Samaj (December 14) writes, “The Central government is not missing any opportunity to humiliate opposition leaders. Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh was humiliated before his family members with a CBI raid on his home on the day of his daughter’s wedding. Justice Abhilasha had sent BJP chief Amit Shah to jail in Gujarat. This was avenged by Shah after coming to power… People know well who’s behind the campaign in the case against leaders in the National Herald affair. This will not send a good message about the government. The message has already gone out that no one is free under the present government.”
Saudi Alliance
Siasat, on December 17, writes in an editorial, “the 34-member alliance of Islamic countries against terrorism under the leadership of Saudi Arabia would definitely send a message to the world that those who are associating terrorism with Islam are wrong. Islam is in no way associated with terror. Islamic countries have developed expectations from this united force that it would come to the help of those Islamic countries who are faced with the curse of terrorism… But the target of this force should not only be Daesh.”
Source: New feed
