I have my own reasons for demanding Shivraj Patil's exit...

It is likely that Shivraj Patil may be asked to quit the Union Home Ministry even before you read this column. This, however, is only a possibility and Sonia Gandhi may chose to ignore the strident demand for Patil’s removal from the opposition as well as from a section of the Union Cabinet. Lalu Yadav, according to reports in the media, has made such a demand. But we should also realize that Lalu Yadav is not all that powerful a player in the Union Cabinet now and it is also likely that the Railway Minister declares, at some stage, that he did not mean what was attributed to him.

There is also an incongruity in the demand itself. Law and Order, we know, is a subject matter in the domain of the State Governments and barring the blasts in New Delhi last week, the Union Government cannot be held responsible even if there was the ubiquitous intelligence failure. The status of Delhi, as a State, is different from any other State and Law and Order in the capital falls directly under the charge of the Union Government and in that sense, Shivraj Patil is directly responsible.

This, notwithstanding, the campaign in the media against Patil and the grounds for his exit are, at some level, ridiculous. Among them is the campaign that Patil was seen changing clothes thrice during the few hours after the blasts and that he was more concerned about his appearance than dealing with the crisis. Well. Patil’s reaction to that has been that he was not the police inspector to be straining himself round the clock in the event of such a crime and that he did what was expected of him.

Amid all this and the larger issue of such terror strikes, in frequent intervals, that must cause concern to anyone who is committed to democracy, let me now recall one of my experiences with Patil during an interaction with him as Union Home Minister. And that will be in order to make my own point demanding his exit as Union Home Minister.

It was in October 2005 that I had gone to meet with Patil at his official residence in New Delhi. I was part of a delegation consisting of human rights activists, fellow lawyers and political party leaders and at least a dozen victims of police atrocities from Mettur and Sathyamangalam. They had suffered severe torture and some of them had lost close members from their families and some of the women had affirmed, on oath, that they were raped while being held in illegal custody.

They had filed affidavits and later deposed before a Panel of Enquiry, headed by Justice P.Sadhashiva (a retired High Court judge) that was set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), to find out the truth and report that, on complaints that the personnel of the Joint Special Task Force (JSTF), set up to nab Veerappan, had committed rights violations on the ordinary and poor villagers in Mettur and Sathyamangalam region. At least 200 such poor men and women had filed affidavits and the deposed before the Panel and Justice Sadashiva (along with retired police officer C.V.Narasimhan) had found that many such instances were true.

The report was available before the NHRC and even after several months, the Commission did nothing and hence we decided to take it up with anyone and everyone who we thought will help render justice. Among them was the Honourable Home Minister Shivraj Patil. He was kind enough to receive us at his residence and his officers had arranged tea and refreshments to all those hapless victims and those of us who went with them. We all were frisked and our names entered into the register there as it is the norm and then taken to the spacious lawns outside the Home Minister’s residence.

Patil joined us after we were all seated there and even condescended to listen to the tales of torture and brutalities. Most of them were rendered in Tamil which I translated to him. And it just occurred then that some of the victims spoke Kannada as well (for they lived on the other side of the border) and that Patil understood Kannada as well being one who hailed from the Maharashtra-Karnataka border! So, we asked those victims who spoke Kannada as well, to render their story in that language. And Patil listened to all those without opening his mouth and simply nodding his head. Well. I must add that he was dressed up for the occasion as well and I don’t blame him for that!

And as it went on, I told him, with much expectation, that these poor and hapless people are posing a lot of faith in him. He was, after all, the Minister who commanded all the police and para-military forces across the country and that they looked up to him with lot of hopes. Patil just did not wait, even for a moment, before he told me: Please take care and make sure that they do not pos such hopes on me. I swear that I am not making this up.

The point is very simple. Shivraj Patil must not have been there as Union Home Minister in the first place. He was of the firm belief that the victims of police torture, citizens of this Republic, shall not pose any hope on him in their quest for justice. He is not fit to be a anyone in the Government. The people of Latur, his constituency, had given this verdict in May 2004 by defeating him in the elections. But Sonia Gandhi defied that mandate and made him Home Minister!