'Privileged' Shinde may escape action on rape gaffe

The parliamentary privilege has saved home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde from legal action for naming the three victims of Bhandara rape-cum-murder case in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

Updated on: Mar 1, 2013, 23:59:44 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The parliamentary privilege has saved home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde from legal action for naming the three victims of Bhandara rape-cum-murder case in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

But, his act shows his insensitivity of the ministry mandated to manage internal security of the country and firm laws to secure people of India.

"It shows how our bureaucrats and politicans are not bothered about rising crime against women and children in our country," said an activist.

Shinde could have been booked under relevant sections of the IPC for dislosing name of the victims in a rape case.

The law provides the name of the victim or the victims can be disclosed only if victim's family agrees and the relevant court gives permission. In this case, nothing like that has happened.

The procedure prescribed by law to disclose names of the victims in a rape case was also not followed when local police officials briefed the media about the case.

Media reports from Bhandara had quoted police to name the victims.

"The poor mother of the victims would not have been aware that rights of her dead daughters had been violated," the activist said.

When it was repeated by country's home minister at highest law making institution -Parliament - the child rights activists were furious.

But, for Shinde the protection provided in the Constitution to MP for free and frank discussion on issues came as blessing in disguise.

The members can't be booked for any offence or defamatory statement in the house without permission of the chair.

As Rajya Sabha deputy chairman PJ Kurien expunged the names from the record two hours later Shinde was spared. By then, TV had broadcast Shinde's statement.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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