That's all, Your Honour! : Aug 28 - Sep 3

1. On August 11, President of India, Pratibha Patil rejected the mercy petition of three people convicted of assasinating former Prime Minister Raji Gandhi and 18 others in 1991. Many Presidents on have sat on this file, and the decision seemed very logical. These terrorists perpetrated a murderous crime on our citizens and deserved to be hanged. However, what transpired from then on was shocking beyond belief. The dirty politicians from Tamil Nadu bought in "sentiments of Tamils" into the picture. The noises became louder by the day, and believe it or not - the Tamil Nadu assembly adopted a resolution recommending commutation of this death sentence, keeping mind "tamil's sentiments"!! Meanwhile, Madras High Court accepted a petition by the convicts saying that 11 years is an extra-ordinary delay in awarding death sentence to them and therefore the order needs to be relooked. The death sentence has now been stayed for 8 weeks!! This whole thing is simply unacceptable. What does sentiments of tamils have to do with this? These convicts killed people - didn't they have any remorse then? So what if it took 20 years - this is kind of slow death to them, which these buggers so richly deserve. Their act is an act of attack on the country - how can we even think of pardoning them on the basis of a non-existent "tamil sentiment"? What kind of precedence will this set? Already, the loud Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir asked if the reaction would be muted if their Assembly passed a resolution asking for clemency to Afzal Guru? Now the debate will be centered around if Afzal Guru deserves clemency too (Afzal Guru has been convicted in the attack on Parliament). This resolution by Tamil Nadu assemly and the stay by Madras High Court have set such a bad precedence - something which will haunt us for a long time to come.

2. Prime Minister and his cabinet colleagues have declared their assets! 4 ministers, including the great Vilasrao Deshmukh haven't declared their assets yet. Apparently Vilasrao Deshmukh did not find the time to file these details! But that's not the main joke. The main joke is this - Sharad Pawar is worth only Rs. 12 crores! That's all, Your Honour!