Where there is no rule of law and lacunae in laws, Adhivakta Parishad reacts

Salam Rupachandra Singh
A platform for like minded advocates all over the country is in the name and style of Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad (ABAP), headquartering at New Delhi. The man who founded it Dattopant Thengadi, an RSS Pracharakborn in Maharastra, dedicated whole of his life for man and society. He was an MP of Rajya Sabha from 1964 to 1976. Once he was declared to have been honoured with the civilian award Padmabushan, however, he declined the same on the count that the founder of RSS-Dr Hedgewar & his prime associate- Guruji deserve to be conferred Bharat Ratna first. Dattopant Thengadi founded a dozen of other non Governmental voluntary organisations too.
Advocates who are termed as holding a noble profession generally confine to their own profession and family matters. To engage them in social work and Nationalist activities, he had a dream to meet and mingle the minds of advocates from the length and breadth of the country, exchange their thoughts and expertise for such cause. In line with his dream the forum has branched out from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Arunachal Pradesh to Gujarat as of today.
The National Executive meeting and National Council Conference are two events to be held in any part of the country annually to be hosted by a State having capacity and commitment to do the same. In such events discussions and deliberations on the topics of importance are made and resolutions are adopted for submission to the authority concerned i.e., Central Government, Ministry of Law, Supreme Court etc. For two consecutive years being handicapped by Covid-19 pandemic, such events have been organized through webinars.
The National Executive meeting held recently took the role of a watch dog against the lack of rule of law and flaws in laws and demanded from the Central and State Governments for initiating a fair and proper investigation under a Central Agency about the violence that erupted after May 02, 2021 in West Bengal and also for sufficient compensation to the victims of violence and maximum punishment to the culprits. Further, it has been appealed to all stakeholders to create a peaceful atmosphere in Bengal for the people to go back to normal life. The demand is founded on the reasons that the legendary land of Sree Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and Bankimchandra Chatterjee is now mourning due to the political goons and anti-National elements. This NEC meeting is of the opinion that if the prevailing situation is allowed to continue in Bengal, within no time Bengal will become another Kashmir. The pattern of violence which took place simultaneously at different parts of Bengal shows that it was premeditated and predetermined.
Several persons were killed, women were subjected to gang rape, houses and shops were looted, several hundreds injured and thousands migrated to other places and even to neighboring States. Offices of political parties and student organizations were attacked. Even the Constitutional Head of the State was not spared. Nobody was there to protect the innocent victims from the attack of trained anti-socials. Nobody was there to pay heed to the cries of innocent mothers and sisters. The police and district administration stood as silent spectators. A kind of anarchy prevailed in a civilized society under a so called democratic ruler. There were 15000 incidents of violence in which 25 people were killed, 7000 women were molested according to a fact finding committee headed by Justice (Rtd) Premod Kohli. According to some NGOs, the total number of murder in the violence is 43, the number of victims are more than 60000. There are 10500 complaints filed before the authorities including police, NHRC, Women’s Commission and SC/ST Commission.
Even now the situation is not changed; there are no measures from the part of the State Government to bring back the people who left Bengal due to violence. Instead of ensuring justice to the victims and creating confidence among the people, a dirty political game is being played including accusing the head of the State, abusing NHRC members who came to the State to enquire about the human rights violations and preventing SC/ST Commission members from collecting the details about the violence by not providing facilities including travel facility. The ruling party tried to threaten the judiciary from hearing the violence related petitions.
(To be contd)