The last pillar seems to be crumbling.

Serial killer Surinder Koli has been sentenced to death, which has been upheld by the Supreme Court. He deserves to be hanged for killing 16 children, having been convicted of 5 of them. Koli worked as a servant for Moninder Singh Pandher who has pleaded ignorance of all the crimes. But is it possible to live in the same house and not be aware of the killings, not see the blood, not get the stench of rotting flesh? Pandher has been found not guilty of one murder already. Koli has apparently confessed to the murders in graphic detail, describing how he killed, cooked and ate some of his victims and also to necrophilia. The Supreme Court accepted his confessions saying," The confessions had been given voluntarily before the magistrate and there is no defect in it." If that is so surely he is the best witness against Pandher? Now that he has been sentenced to death and knows that he is to be hanged does his statement not assume the same significance as a dying declaration which is accepted as evidence in India? What is the hurry in hanging Koli, especially since cases of 11 other children are still ongoing? Pandher is a rich man with connections so it is important that he should not get away, if he was also involved. Strangely early this year the Supreme Court commuted the death sentences of 3 men involved in the assassination of Mr Rajiv Gandhi. Ms Jayalalitha, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, immediately took this opportunity and wanted to release all 7 convicts still in jail because they are Tamils. There was huge uproar with the Congress furiously indignant. In all this tawdry drama no one, not the judges nor the politicians nor the press cared about the 14 innocent people who were killed in the same incident. No one asked their families how they felt or what they thought. Mr Gandhi was playing for high stakes in trying to become Prime Minister but these people died only because they were near him. Their claim to justice is surely more important. In the Campa Cola case in Mumbai residents of 35 flats built illegally in excess of planning permission have been evicted. When buying these flats residents were given to understand that they would be ' regularised ' as is the case with unauthorised colonies in every city in India. These colonies come up when poor people squat on government land and because they constitute a large ' vote bank ' they are not only allowed to stay but are given every amenity on taxpayer money. There is an outcry by the Congress on the appointment of retired Chief Justice P Sathasivam being appointed Governor of Kerala. They allege that it was a reward from the BJP. In which case why is Justice Balakrishnan still hanging on? Poor India. Even the last pillar seems to be crumbling.