Krishan Lal Sharma is a senior leader of the Bhartiya Janata Party. He has put up a strong defence of Krishan Lal Advani against charges ‘of the latter’s involvement in the “hawala” scandal, Sharma has called Indian prime minister Narasimha Rao a politician who not ‘only has a perverse mind but also a criminal bent of mind, Rao has been further accused of misusing the C.B.1. For his own selfish political ends, the government’s handling of the hawala issue; the Uttarakhand agitation as well as the Ayodhya controversy has all been motivated by dishonesty, Sharman.

Rao, indeed, has a criminal bent of mind. but the instances cited by the BJP leader are all wrong, There is no doubt that the famous Jain diary mentions Advani as one of the 114 recipients of a share of the Rs 65 crore he distributed among politicians and bureaucrats in the 198891 period. None of the politicians mentioned in the diary ha seriously questioned the facts although they have tried to explain the ‘endues of the money received by them, Even the BJP spokes have not denied the receipt of the money. Advani himself has been Ambiguous about the whole matter. He has furnished a list of b property to suggest that the money received by him has not gone into any of his family’s investments. The media has interpreted Advani’s belated statement about his assets as a clever move to ward off registration of another criminal case against him by the C.B, Advani or his supporters cannot parse raise any objection against the CBI action. Their main grievance is a policy of pick and choose has been followed, the objection appears valid but it does not absolve the BJP chief of the charges.

It is beyond one’s comprehension as to how the mere registration of 4 criminal case against Advani as well as those involved in the destruction of Ayodhya shrine, a few years ago, could be called criminal acts of the prime minister. Yes, Sharma should have cited certain other charges such as Rao’s proven involvement in St Kitt’s forgery case, receipt of money by Rao from Jain, the prime minister’s ‘involvement in the Rs 1 crore Harshad Mehta suitcase bribery case. Much more than these acts of misconduct, Rao as prime minister misused the armed forces in Punjab and Kashmir to kill molest and main Sikhs and Kashmiris by the thousands. Rao’s orders to the rented police officers like K.P.S. Gill to massacre Sikhs certainly make him a first rate criminal. But the BJP leader would not call these orders as criminal howsoever illegal and extra constitutional these may be, Merely because the use of mindless force against Sikh ‘youths and their family members as well as advocates representing them in courts has been done in the interest of unity and integrity of India does not mitigate the gravity of the criminality. No one in the world is ready to accept the argument that the maintenance of India in one piece required the massacre of Sikhs. Even India’s own Supreme Court does not subscribe to this Hitlerite theory. What makes Rao a criminal is his active involvement in giving oral or written orders to men like K.P.S, Gill to root out Sikh dissidents irrespective of the means to be employed. Even today Advani’s party men along with members of other parties are giving farewell parties in honor of K.P.S. Gill on his retirement to show that India’s political leaders and parties see criminality differently farm how the world views it. The Jain diary shows up the entire Indian ‘’system hopelessly corrupt the events in Punjab. Kashmir and other states reveal that the Indian polity is not only corrupt but also fascist and antihuman rights. Yes, Mr. Sharma, Rao ‘as well as other members of India’s political tribe crowing for unity and integrity are criminal. Illustrations of this criminality cited by you make you and your party equally reverses in thinking as Mr. Rao is for different reasons.

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Article extracted from this publication >>  February 14, 1996