The home minister by expressing his displeasure over the Somashekhar Commission that has submitted its interim report to the government on the church attacks, has only questioned the very prudence of the judiciary. Acharya’s complaint is that the Commission ought to have submitted the report to the government in a sealed cover and that it was wrong to divulge the Commission’s findings to the Press.
In a democratic nation nothing is a secret. It is objectionable to rule any state by hiding facts from the public. The government was not happy with the report made public, as the Commission, in its report has ascertained the role of the police as well as the parivar organizations in the attacks. But would the Home Minister have objected had the report praised the home minister as well as the ruling party and blamed the Christians themselves for the church attacks ?
In a democracy the citizens have the right to know everything. The government has no authority to hide facts. What does the government have to lose by the Commission’s handing over the report to the Chief Secretary of the Home Ministry and then releasing its summary to the Press ?
Already there had been objections to the delay in the Commission filing its report despite the hearing underway since the past two years. The Commission was also facing the inevitability of filing its interim report at the earliest. Had the report been forwarded to the government in a sealed cover, then it would have been tabled in the House for debate at a much later date and it would be a wait too long for the public to know about the report.
The Commission in fact is accountable to the civil society and not to the government or any minister. As alleged by the Home Minister, the Justice Somashekhar Commission has not committed any grave error. In reality the government has only landed in a soup as the report has named the parivar organizations themselves as the accused. In a way it would be better for the government to quit as it is to be blamed for creating an atmosphere that was conducive for more such attacks. At least the home minister should resign and thereby set a good trend. But, the government by passing the buck on the Somashekhar Commission itself is only shunning from it’s responsibilities.
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