Matter of shame

It does not augur well that the accused in the Delhi riots, Tahir Hussain has been let off by the supreme Court from jail on a six-day conditional parole for election campaigning. He will campaign as an AIMIM candidate and it is but natural that he would try to prove himself innocent of the charges against him. This tantamounts to nothing but a slap on the faces of the victims of the Delhi riots. This is unfortunate because the prevailing People’s Representatives Act allows prisoners under trial to fight elections. It is indeed ironic that according to the current practice, a prisoner is not allowed to vote but can contest elections. This slip in the legal procedure has witnessed prisoners accused of serious crimes taking benefit of this lapse. It has been witnessed that Khalistani supporter Amritpal Singh and terrorist funding accused engineer Rashid have won the Lok Sabha elections while serving time in jail. Accused prisoners like Tahir Hussain could have been prevented from contesting elections if political parties had acceded to the Election Commission’s proposal of not allowing prisoners charged with serious crimes and against whom chargesheet had been filed. Political parties negated the Election Commission’s proposal on the ground that until one is proved guilty of charges that person cannot be considered a criminal. This opened the door to criminalization of politics. Time and again it has been observed that such people are being elected who are facing charges of serious offences.

Tahir Hussain, one time AAP councillor is facing serious criminal charges. Several chargesheets have been filed against him. According to the chargesheets, Tahir Hussain had tried to eliminate IB officer Ankit Sharma while leading the Delhi riots where rioters were pelting bombs from his rooftop. During filing of the chargesheet the related court had observed that Tahir Hussain was constantly monitoring the crowd and giving instructions. Even after such serious charges, it is a matter of shame and disappointment that an accused like Tahir Hussain has been allowed parole to campaign for the elections. It is also disappointing to note that even after five years of the incidence of the Delhi riots Tahir Hussain has not been awarded any punishment in any of the charges. It would have been better for the Supreme Court that before granting bail to Tahir Hussain, it should have looked in to the nature and seriousness of the charges levelled against him. The sanctioned six-day parole to Tahir Hussain for election campaigning certainly sends a wrong message to society. When fighting elections is not a fundamental right, then why is an accused like Tahir Hussain granted bail to campaign for the election? Is this not a matter of shame?

From the Editorial desk