Jaya, RS Disqualification

It is very sad to note that motives are attributable to a once tall institution like the Election Commission, looking at the way they handled the Jaya Bachchan issue. A Rajya Sabha MP holding an 'office of profit' is not unprecedented and 'out of the blue.' This is not an issue that could be decided hastily as the Election Commission did, without much contemplation and debate, and certainly not one that warranted immediate disqualification. All these developments convey to the people that the government to further its villifying agenda is using the EC.

(Published in The Hindu on the 20th of March, 2006)