Apr

21

Human traffickers within India’s parliament

April 21, 2007 posted by indiatime |

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation…
- Henry Kissinger

Just a few days ago, Babubhai Katara, a member of parliament (MP) from Gujarat was detained and arrested while trafficking teo persons on fake passports and helping them to go to Canada.

Now, after further investigation, a few more people including 3 more members of Indian parliament (2 of them living, 1 late MP) have been implicated in what is turning out to be an orgnised humantrafficing smuggling ring.

The scandal doesn’t seem to be a monopoly of a single party or state however. Two of the implicated MPs are BJP MPS (Katara & Ram Swaroop Koli), one Ram Awadh is a Janata Dal (JD) - he is no more actually, and one is from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)(Mohammad Tahir Khan).

A recent US state department report on human trafficking sheds light on the horrifying nature of this tragedy. Human trafficking is not just related to immigration or international travel violations (as is said to have occurred with the Indian MPs). There is a far more sinister side to it that involves smuggling of minors for prostitution, slavery, and labor. India has been both the origin as well as the destination for such trafficking (e.g. Nepalese minors being broght to India).

What will happen to these MPs? Wil they be treated as common criminals or will they be accorded the celebrity treatment that India so loves to shower its celebrity law-breakers with? Even if they are eventually convicted, will their political careers be over? Surprise, surprise….not in India. Anywhere else on the planet, probably yes. But we are a forgiving country. We believe that Walya Kolis (a thief and a murderer who turned into a sage and penned Indian epic Ramayana) can always be turned into Valmikis. Even today, Indian parliament does have members who have been accused or convicted of capital or other less severe crimes.

If the trend continues, very soon, we will be hard pressed to find a few good men within the halls of India’s parliament. Before that happens, the rest of India might as well get some help from these MPs to get out of the country and get settled somewhere else on the planet.


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4 Comments so far

  1. Top 10 lessons from Indian parliament’s human trafficking scandal : It’s Indiatime on April 26, 2007 4:06 pm

    [...] Human traffickers within India’s parliament [...]

  2. Let me tell you a joke. Our parliament! : It’s Indiatime on May 8, 2007 5:40 pm

    [...] Human traffickers within India’s parliament [...]

  3. Mahesh on May 14, 2007 8:13 am

    This is a case in Human smuggling and not trafficking. You can refer to US department of State site showing diffrences between Human trafficking and smuggling.In trafficking use of force, coercion, abduction, deception are the elements and person trafficked is used for slavery, labor, involuntary servitude or sex trade may be in country or acroaa the border. where as in smuggling person is crossing the international border voluntarily in a fradulent manner.

  4. Mutiny.in » The Human Body : The Great Commodity Exchange on January 17, 2009 10:29 am

    [...] , several members of the Indian parliament (from various political parties), the country’s law makers have been implicated in a scandal [...]

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