By: Amar Yumnam
Some news are catching the headlines for wrong reasons. The recent cases of allegation of sexual harassment by the judges of law interns under their supervision are one such item. The issue of whether these are proven genuine or not is not my concern here; the law would take its own course and the guilty would be accounted for. But what amazes me is the interest and speed with which the ministers of the Congress Party in the Union Government jump to conclusions and utter judgemental statements in such cases. It is a party whose government sees to it that Indian sportspersons are sent off for their foreign engagements by a person already accused in connection with the Commonwealth Games. It is party which is going out of their mind on how to reach the Indian populace in the forthcoming elections for the parliament. The party has not uttered anything which they might like the people of the country to judge them, and has not hinted at any issue which would occupy the pages of their Election Manifesto. The only clear-cut and emphatic announcement from this party on the built-up for the forthcoming parliamentary elections is the decision to spend Rupees 500 crores (Rupees 5,000 millions) to refurbish the image of the party’s Vice president. All these are in the background of the series of scams and scandals the party’s government at the helm of affairs of the country has presented to the nation during the last few years.
M. Verappa Moily, a Congress-man and minister in the union cabinet has just commented that the latest allegation of sexual harassment is a “serious” one. This comment has been reported widely by the Indian news media of all types. Hearing this comment and the recent track-record of the party in power make the observations of Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen in their latest book The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Futures of People, Nations and Business worth quoting verbatim: “As part of their containment