Indian Parliament House in New Delhi

Guards remained successful to foil the attempt of hired persons who made an armed attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001 & didn't let the culpable natured persons to succeed in their ill will. But, is the parliament that is a temple of Indian democracy, is sanctum in true sense and clear from unsocial elements? Has the guilty persons or persons with guilty conscious not entered it as an 'honourable' member? In the last days, the decisions pronounced by the courts in Delhi and Chandigarh proved that the Indian parliament is not yet free from the persons with guilty conscious. Undoubtedly it is a matter of shame for all the Indians and needs some thinking over it.

Two years ago, one of my articles, 'Are they Parliamentarians or Dacoits of Chambal' published in an Indian news paper created a great uproar in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly in India. Undoubtedly this title was painful for honest and for politicians of clean conscious. Any honest politician will really feel pain on such titles and articles. But who can deny the truth. Just have a look on the political life of Shibu Soren alias Guruji, former coal minister Govt. of India. He had been an accused of raiding village Chirari, a Muslim majority village in district Jamtara on January 23, 1975. In this incident ten persons were killed at the spot and many houses were looted. Even today this case is under consideration of the court and Soren is on bail in this case. After that, in July 1993, Guruji played an important role to save the then Prime Minister P.V. Narsimha Rao's minority government by winning four members of Parliament of a regional political party, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha with crores of rupees, and thus saved the then government from No-Confidence Motion. In this issue Soren himself got bribe of one crore and 60 lakhs. It was the second shameful face of Soren alias 'Guruji.'

As Shashinath Jha, a personal secretary of Soren knew this deal thoroughly so Guruji gave him fifteen lakhs of rupees to keep his mouth shut & got him in the export of readymade garments.

Obviously this trade, started with the bribery amount could not succeed & Shashinath Jha was under a loss. When Jha failed in this trade & demanded more money from Soren, 'Guruji' didn't like it. He felt that now Shashinath Jha was blackmailing it. After that on May 22 1994, Shashinath Jha was kidnapped at Dhola Kuan, a busy place of capital New Delhi. This was the time when the issue of bribed four members of parliament of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha voted for Narsimha Rao government & it was as current topic in the media. After kidnapping, his kidnappers took him to Ranchi from Delhi, where on November 28 1994, Shashinath Jha was killed mercilessly. His skeleton was found after a lot of time. On last November 28, the session court in Delhi found Shibu Soren, 'Hon'ble' Coal Minister, government of India & four others as culprit in kidnapping & killing Shashinath Jha. It was the first time in the history of Indian Parliament that a minister from central government was found a convict of kidnapping & killing & so he had to submit his resignation.

When the news about Shibu Soren were headlines in the media, next day another Member of Parliament Navjot Singh Sidhu was convicted for culpable homicide not amounting to murder by the Punjab & Haryana High Court under I.P.C. article 304. As a result of it, Sidhu had to resign from the membership of Lok Sabha. An altercation followed by a car accident in 1988 took so high a swing that Sidhu & his companions beat Gurnam Singh to the extent that he was declared brought dead in a hospital. At that time Navjot Singh Sidhu was very popular as an aggressive opener batsman in Indian Cricket Team. Obviously, it doesn't behave a responsible member of the Cricket Team of India to be involved in such behaviour and that to the extent that the beaten person lost his life. Although the Session Court in Patiala, on September 22, 1999 acquitted him. But the relatives of the deceased appealed to the Punjab & Haryana High Court against this decision. On this petition, the Punjab & Haryana High Court gave its verdict & Sidhu was convicted for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

It is not that blot of culprits being in Indian Parliament has been washed away by the resigns of Soren & Sidhu. Even today many unsocial elements, historysheeters, professional criminals, gangsters etc. can be seen in the Parliament of the country, who are making unholy to this holy temple of democracy. These criminals have well understood the fact that it is better to become a Member of Parliament or assembly through election than to help other politician with their muscle power & money. By fighting election when they win the election & become a member, they come, play with the law & instead of seeking protection from the leaders and they are able to protect themselves. This thinking has encouraged the criminals. Indian constitution & laws & rules in the country have easily given them a chance for it. If a clever criminal is made a candidate of a political party that adds a feather to his cap otherwise that candidate can dare to challenge the candidates of the big parties as an independent candidate. We can see such criminals in Indian Parliament & in many state assemblies.