उत्तर प्रदेशातील पत्रकार गजेंद्रसिंहला जिवंत जाळले गेले त्या घटनेला आठ दिवस उलटून गेले आहेत.तेथील एका मंत्र्यावर गुन्हाही दाखल झाला आहे मात्र त्याला अध्याप अटक झालेली नाही अथवा त्याची मंत्रिमंडळातूनही हकालपट्टी केली जात नाही.या विरोधात आज इकाॅनाॅमिक्स टाइम्सनं संपादकीय लिहून व्यवस्थेची कानउघाडणी केली आहे.जगद्रंसिह यांना जिवंत जाळण्यात आले मात्र त्याची ज्या तीव्रतेनं देशभर प्रति्रकिया उमटायला हवी तशी ती उमटली नाही.त्याची फारशी दखलहो कोणी घेतली नाही.एबीपी माझानं त्यावर चचार् घडवून आणली,महाराष्ट्र टाइम्सनं आज स्फुट लिहिलं.या पलिकडं फारशी नोंद माध्यमांनी घेतली नाही.त्यामुळं राजकीय मंडळी देखील यामुद्यावर मुग गिळून आहेत.खरं तर हा विषय एका पत्रकाराला जाळले एवढ्यापुरताच नाही.देशात लोकशाहीच्या चौथ्या स्तभाची ज्या पध्दतीनं मुस्कटदाबी सुरू आहे त्याच्याशी निगडीत आहे.अशा घटनांकडं माध्यमंच दुलर्क्ष करू लागले तर येत्या काळात याची जबर किंमत माध्यमांना मोजावी लागेल हे नक्की..
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Stop This Subversion of Democracy in UP
Reportedly, a minister gets cops to kill a journalis
Close on the heels of the Union home ministry withholding permission to prosecute officials of the Intelligence Bureau for conspiring with some Gujarat policemen to stage the `encounter killing’ of Ishrat Jehan and three others, thus effectively scuttling the case altogether, comes a report of an atrocity by the politician-police nexus in Uttar Pradesh. Reportedly , a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government, Ram Murti Verma, and five policemen allegedly set on fire journalist Jagendra Singh in Shahjahanpur. Singh had invited the minister’s wrath by writing about his alleged role in land-grabbing and illegal mining. After the journalist died of his injuries in the hospital, a case has been registered against the minister and his henchmen, but chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is yet to sack the minister.
A civilised citizenry cedes the right to use force to a specialised agency entrusted with the task of maintaining order without showing fear or favour towards anyone.
When this agency , the police, conducts itself as a corrupt, oppressive burden on the people, democracy gets subver ted. It is bad enough when the govern ment formed by elected representati ves fails to hold the police to account.
When the police force acts as the henchmen of ruling party politicians, democracy becomes a complete sham. When the political executive uses the coercive arm of the state machinery to finish off an unwelcome member of the so-called fourth estate of democracy , things have indeed reached the breaking point.
Akhilesh Yadav must sack the minister and ensure a speedy and thorough investigation of this crime. If he does not act, the Union government must advise the President to issue him a directive to that effect, failure to comply with which would, under Article 365, lead the President to conclude that the state cannot be run as per the Constitution. These are but formal procedure. The content of democracy derives from politics and that must change to make it impossible for any minister to take the law into his hands as seems to have happened in UP.
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महाराष्ट्र टाइम्सनं आज युपीतील घटनेवर एक स्फुट लिहिले आहे.
