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        Perhaps V I Lenin (1870-1924) had unscrupulous politicians like Sonia Gandhi, M Karunanidhi, Lalu Yadav, Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat and Seetharam Yechuri in view when he said in 1917: 'There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel.' The great politicians who have proposed and signed the nomination papers of Srimati Pratibha Patil for the highest office of the President of India, are supporting her only for the reasons clearly outlined by Lenin.

        In these columns I have already described the glory and the grandeur of the SAGA of Self-less Service and Self-Sacrifice of Pratibha Patil in the field of rural development, empowerment of women, poverty alleviation, female education, social welfare, industrial peace and labour welfare in her capacity as the Founder-Chairperson of the Pratibha Mahila Sahkari Bank in Jalegaon in Maharashtra. In this context I am presenting below some mean, sordid and biting facts about her husband in the light of an article by Arun Shourie titled: 'And don't forget: there is the husband too.' The trouble with women's empowerment is that, carried away, people forget that there is the husband too! It is clear from this article that the high ideals of Devisingh Shekhawat, the distinguished husband of Pratibha Patil, have always marched along those of his wife, in letter and spirit, in the field of education and social empowerment. It is now publicly known that in one of the schools run by Devisingh Shekhawat, a teacher called Kisan Dhage was driven to suicide by the cruel ways and excesses of dictatorial management. He and his associates have blocked the processes of equity and natural justice, apart from legal justice in this case. Devisingh Shekhawat is the President of the society. He is also the Accused No. 1 in the case that I am about to summarise. Here is the painful sequence of facts and events:

        Kisan Dhage joined the school run by the Shekhawats in 1977. He worked as an Assistant Teacher. After prolonged privation and harassment, on 15 November 1998, he took his life by swallowing poison.

        The police were called. As they examined the body in the presence of witnesses, they discovered in his pocket a suicide note that Dhage had written in his own hand. They also found a stamp-paper - Dhage had written out on it also the painful account of events that were leading him to take his own life.

        He set out how he had been harassed and mentally tortured for long by Devisingh and his associates. His salary was not paid. His pleas for credit from the credit society that is run by the education society that runs the schools were turned down. The forms to enable his son to take the examination for scholarship were blocked. The family was driven to starvation.

        Eventually, they dubbed him 'surplus', and transferred him to a far-off school. It turned out that there was no vacancy for a teacher's position in this school. Dhage was shoved around and told to supervise the hostel, such as it was. In despair, Dhage wrote to the Social Welfare Department in Amravati. On 27 January, 1998, the Social Welfare Officer at Amravati, wrote to the school management saying that the transfer was illegal as there was no vacancy for the position of a teacher in the school to which the hapless man had been driven. The Officer, therefore, withheld sanction for the transfer.

        To beat him into submission, Devisingh and associates completely stopped paying the salary of Dhage. He received nothing from September 1997. Being a family of little means, they were at their tether's end. Dhage appealed to the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court for relief - there is no vacancy for a teacher in this school, they have sent me here, they have stopped paying any remuneration, we are at the point of starvation - Such were his pathetic pleas.

        The application was filed on 19 January, 1998. But the wheels of justice move at deliberate speed. The order of the High Court did not come till 8 October 1998. By now a year had passed since the family had received any pay at all.

        The High Court ordered Devisingh and associates to take Dhage back as teacher and to pay his salary. It also directed them to pay arrears since 25 August 1997.

        Dhage kept going to the management. He waited upon these high and mightily-connected personages. His health broke down. He applied for medical leave - he attached a medical certificate with his application. His request even for medical leave was rejected peremptorily.

        Nothing moved them. In spite of the High Court's direction, Devisingh and Co. refused to pay him anything. Dhage's colleagues were aghast. But helpless. The family had to turn to moneylenders. They had to sell the wife's few ornaments. But now there was little left even to sell.

        Unable to secure food for his wife and children, crushed by the insolence of these heartless people belonging to Pratibha Patil's family, around 10 in the morning on 15 November, 1998, Dhage swallowed poison and killed himself.

        The police recorded the panchnama. It took the suicide note, the stamp paper and all. The body was taken away. The viscera were removed for examination.

        And then, full stop.

        Dhage's widow, Mangalbai, filed a complaint. Police looked the other way. Mangalbai then approached the Local Court. Eventually the Local Court ruled in favour of Mangalbai. It set out the entire sequence: The harassment; the illegal transfer; the stoppage of salary to beat the man into submission; the order of the High Court that the salary as well as the arrears be paid - In spite of the High Court order 'not even a single penny' has been paid, the Court noted. Finally the Court declared that a prima facie case had indeed been made out.'

        Thereafter the matter was reported to the police by the complainant (Mangalbai Dhage). The Local Court observed, 'however; under the political pressure (of Mrs. Pratibha Patil and her family-italics within this bracket mine?!?) police did not register offence against the accused… Complainant has proved her prima facie case' - That was on 6 October, 2000 - by now three years had gone since the poor man's salary had been stopped, two years since he had killed himself.

        To quote the searing words of Arun Shourie in this context:

        'A family as devoted to education, and women's welfare, and rural development and everything good and gracious as Pratibha Patil's bio-data makes her out to be, would have immediately agreed to day-to-day hearings - to say nothing of not having such privation befall a hapless teacher and his family in the first place. What did our friend do? He filed an appeal against the order of the Court with the Additional Sessions Judge.

        After a lapse of five years, the Judicial Magistrate, A A Nandagaonkar, delivered the judgement. He gave a resounding slap to Devisingh Shekhawat - the plea of Mangalbai Dhage, the poor widow of late Kisan Dhage, was upheld in entirety by the Court of Law. The Court stated 'The complainant, Mangalbai, has proved the prima facie case against the accused - Devisingh Shekhawat and his associates. Therefore, I am of the opinion that issuance of process against the accused is necessary. Hence, as such enquiry made by me upon going through the facts and circumstances of the matter and evidence adduced by the complainant is sufficient enough to proceed against the accused for commission of offence u/s 306 read with 34 of the IPC.' This judgment was delivered on 22 July 2005, seven years after Kisan Dhage decided to take his own life following his failure to get speedy and even handed justice in our country.

        Even after that Court Judgment, Devisingh Shekhawat did not allow justice to proceed. Even without the help or approval of the Would-be First Woman of the Republic, he filed an appeal in the High Court. On 26 December, 2005, the High Court passed an order directing the local Court to examine the grounds that Devisingh and associates had now given against the order and dispose of the revision application within three months.

        In a final stinging slap, the reviewing judge concluded in his order dated 7 February 2007 that Devisingh and Co. had no ground for their appeal at all. He showed that the elaborate judgements that Devisingh's lawyers had cited, that each and every one of them in fact fortified what the original Court had done. The evidence that had been adduced, the sequence of events that had been brought on record, the Judge ruled, 'are sufficient enough to inspire (sic) that these accused had abetted Mr. Kisan Dhage to commit suicide by creating unbearable situation for his survival and also making him unable to maintain his family members.' 'The series of facts alleged in the complaint also inspire (sic) that all these accused are in collusion with each other and therefore as far as the question of prima facie case is concerned, there are sufficient grounds brought on record before the learned lower court'

        The wife of such a man, Srimati Pratibha Patil has been proposed by Sonia Gandhi for the Office of the President of India. Sonia Gandhi has been hailed as the Tallest Leader in our deprived land by our disgustingly servile Prime Minister. In Indian politics there is no honour. In Sonia Congress Politics nothing is contemptible. In our shameful democracy politics consists wholly of the discovery, chase and scortching of Bugaboos.