Press Releases Archive

Dr. JP’s comments on 10th December, 2010 in the Legislative Assembly as well as at the Media Point outside the floor of the House regarding the issue of withdrawing police cases against youth and student agitators in Andhra Pradesh:

1. The central issue is not about a particular party or a few individuals; or about a particular region or a particular group or community or religion. It is all about:

2. He quoted William Gladstone (the well-known fmr. PM of Britain) on the central role of the government: ‘It is the duty of government to make it easy to do good/right and difficult to do evil/wrong.’

3. He actually argued that all cases against misled and innocent youth and students must be withdrawn, where there is no premeditated violence, arson, destruction of property and extortion in the name of agitations. This has to be done so as to protect the future of these young Indians. It is evident that only a few, hard-core anti-social elements have created trouble.

4. However, he also pointed out that this withdrawal of cases against the students has to be done by following due process - in a just, fair, firm and reasonable manner; and not in an arbitrary manner, serving the interests of a few individuals. Other cases involving premeditated violence, arson, destruction of property have to be handled through due process (including compounding), involving the courts.

5. For instance, Bihar, until 5-6 years ago was plagued by anti social elements, kidnappers, arsonists, politicians colluding with criminals, etc. Reportedly, over 50,000 such anti-social elements have been convicted during the past 5 years - through due process and upholding the rule of law. This was done by the Fast Track Courts established across the State that handled such cases and convicted 52,343 such criminals.

To reiterate, the State government has to lift the cases against the innocent youth who did not resort to premeditated violence, arson and destruction during the course of the recent agitations. The rest of the cases have to be handled through due process upholding the Rule of Law – in a fair, firm and just manner.