Minority Report ?

Yesterday , in his letter to the Chief Ministers of States , Union Home Minister , Shushil Kumar Shinde wrote ,

“  I request you that no innocent person of the Minority community is unduly detained… Government has to ensure that no innocent person is subjected to undue harassment “

Did he mean  ,

“  You may continue to unduly detain an innocent person , if he belongs to the Majority community “  ?

Or that ,

“ It is alright to ‘duly‘ harass , a guilty person – whatever his community “ ?

Of course , not !

And please , do not confuse “ Minority “ with “ Muslims “ !

That would offend , Christians , Sikhs , Buddhists and Jains . Even they don’t  like to be detained “ unduly “ , if innocent .

 (  But go ahead and detain them duly – even if innocent !  )

Now remember , Shindeji has no problem with States unduly detaining “ Guilty “ persons – whether belonging to Minority or to the Majority !

But the States are saying ,

“ Shindeji , when we detain a person , we don’t know whether he is guilty or innocent . We only suspect and collect evidence . Then it is the court which decides whether a person is guilty or innocent . Now , what can we do if courts take 20 / 30 years to decide ? “

Considering that it will take 300 years for the Indian Courts to dispose off all the pending cases , it would have been better if Shindeji has announced setting-up of 10 ,000 new , fast-track courts. Of course , before 2014 elections !

Then , Chief Ministers would not write back , demanding definitions of

Ø  Majority or Minority ( can CM decide ? )

Ø  Duly or Unduly harassed ( Can Police Chief decide ? )

Ø  Guilty or Innocent ( Can arresting officer decide ? )

·          hemen  parekh  (  01, Oct  2013  )