SUNIL NEGI
The most talked about Ankita Bhandari case and its only slogan # Justice to Ankita Bhandari which has taken more than three years and the VIP, the prime culprit still at large with no hope in sight despite the state chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami recommending it to he centre for CBI investigations and the probe already commenced, it looks that justice in this case by bringing the VIP to law book is still a distant dream.
The recent protest demonstration at Jantar Mantar, under the scorching heat of more than 42% celcius by women and men hailing from various opposition political parties coming to Delhi from Uttarakhand demanding early CBI probe under the monitoring of the SC judge etc unambiguously reveal that not only justice seems to be difficult in this case but it’s also doubtful if the probe will be transparent and impartial.
One must not forget that the case of 2012 Nirbhaya that occured in a running bus in Delhi has been solved within few years and culprits hanged to death but the Ankita Bhandari case has been deliberately delayed for more than three years despite hundreds of protest demonstrations and the entire people of Uttarakhand being on one side and the government on the other side under question mark, demanding death to the murderers and bringing the VIP, prime culprit to justice at the earliest.
The alleged names of the said VIP was and were revealed in an audio tape by the actress Urmila Sanawar who was earlier in BJP but the law enforcing agency failed to even question the allegedly named VIPs during the probe , who is now completely free of any blot and visiting Uttarakhand attending party programmes and meetings in his capacity as the Uttarakhand BJP incharge as if he has been given a clin chit.
Whereas the fact is that morality in politics demands that till the CBI probe is not completed, the saffron party high command should have alteast devoided him of the state’s responsibility to ensure that he is not able to use his political clout or influence the probe or the witnesses etc.
Meanwhile, despite the Women Reservation bill already passed by both houses of parliament in 2023 with Congress fully backing it and the bill already notified after the president have accorded her consent to it, the Uttarakhand government is again bringing it in the state assembly for discussion obviously with the aim to hold the opposition parties for not passing it in parliament responsible which actualy is not the case as it was the delimitation bill that was defeated not the Women’s reservation bill which has already been passed in 2023 and notified as law.
Instead of giving women of the country and state the 33% reservation in parliament and state legislature seats , the BJP government at the centre and states are twisting the women’s bill to misguide the countrymen under the guise of passing the Delimitation bill on the basis of census of 2011.
The senior Women leader of Uttarakhand fighting relentlessly on Women issues Kamala Pant has emphatically said that when in Uttarakhand Ankita Bhandari was brutally murdered and afterwards not a single leader, MLA or MP of the BJP spoke on this issue regarding giving justice to Ankita Bhandari and then today they are doing politics on the already passed Women reservation bill in 2023 with the support of all opposition parties by twisting it mixing with the Delimitation bill that has been defeated in Lok Sabha, just to earn the sympathy of the wimen community illogically , misguiding them.
It looks that by bringing this issue for discussion and consideration in the Uttarakhand Assembly in the near future the BJP is trying to find a platform to accuse the Congress for defeating the bill forgetting that the chief minister will rather become the target of the opposition who will expose the ruling political dispensation on Women’s bill , delimitation bill etc and bring the position of chief minister in quandary.
If the issue related to the VIP is not resolved and the latter not punished stringently before the assembly elections of 2027, political analysts say that the BJP will suffer badly going to the lowest level and this issue proving to be a waterloo for it.
