[There
was no official word on where Mr. Gandhi had spent the last two months, missing
a parliamentary budget session and a bruising battle against Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s overhaul of land use laws. Mr. Gandhi made no
public statements. But party spokesmen bridled at the notion that his absence
indicated anything out of the ordinary.]
By Ellen Barry
NEW DELHI —
Fifty-seven days after the Indian National Congress party’s heir apparent, Rahul Gandhi, mysteriously absented himself from New Delhi,
leaving word through his office that he needed a few weeks off to “reflect on
recent events,” he returned with equally little explanation on Thursday,
striding into his house as a scrum of television reporters said things like “he
has stepped out of the vehicle!” and “he was wearing dark glasses!”
There
was no official word on where Mr. Gandhi had spent the last two months, missing
a parliamentary budget session and a bruising battle against Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s overhaul of land use laws. Mr. Gandhi made no
public statements. But party spokesmen bridled at the notion that his absence
indicated anything out of the ordinary.
“He
has taken a sabbatical; he has gone to introspect,” Anand Sharma, a former
commerce minister, said huffily. “Is this the problem of others?”
In
a television interview, Sachin Pilot, a Congress lawmaker, recommended that the
news media “let it go.” “Mr. Gandhi took some time off,” he said. “It’s not
something that no one has ever done before.”
Some
information did escape. A report surfaced on social media of a round-trip
business-class airplane ticket to Bangkok. Citing unnamed officials, the news
station CNN-IBN reported that Mr. Gandhi, 44, had been at a “famous meditation
retreat center” in Myanmar and had left behind his security detail. Another
news channel, NDTV, said he had been engaged in Vipassana meditation, which
emphasizes heightened awareness of the moment.
Whatever
inner peace Mr. Gandhi might have achieved, he will most likely need it. Many
are expecting him to take over Congress’s presidency at a coming party
gathering, replacing his mother, Sonia, who was first elected to the position
in 1998. But the party is still reeling from a punishing defeat in last year’s
elections, and in Mr. Gandhi’s absence, a number of senior members have
questioned whether he is ready to take charge.
“I
am yet to meet anybody who has any critical remarks to make about the
leadership of Sonia Gandhi,” said Sheila Dikshit, 77, the former chief minister
of Delhi, in comments to The Press Trust of India. “Whereas Rahul, of course,
there is skepticism, because you have not seen him perform as yet.”
Mr.
Gandhi is expected to lead a rally of farmers in Delhi on Sunday, hoping to
harness popular resistance to Mr. Modi’s land acquisition bill.
His
reappearance was greeted deliriously, if a bit sarcastically,
by the pundit class known as Twitterwallahs. They invoked other long-awaited
returns, like those of Batman and of Rama, the hero of the Hindu epic poem
“Ramayana,” who spent 14 years in exile and endured numerous tribulations
before returning home to claim his throne.
Shekhar
Gupta, a journalist, told NDTV that Mr. Gandhi had hurt his party by guarding
his privacy so fiercely. “Everybody has the right to a sabbatical,” he said,
“but why not be transparent about it?”
[The move came after the brutal attack on a school in Peshawar last year by the Taliban in which at least 149 people were killed, most of them children. After the violence, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted a moratorium on the death penalty and presented a plan to fight terrorism and militancy in the country.]
By Salman
Masood
ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan — Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday suspended
the death sentences issued by recently established military courts in a move
that could incite tensions between the country’s powerful military and its
judiciary.
The
court order came as the justices heard a petition filed by the country’s
Supreme Court Bar Association seeking a stay in executions ordered by military
courts. Six militants were sentenced to death, and another was given life
imprisonment by the military courts early this month.
“The
executions will remain stayed unless the court gives a decision,” said Justice
Nasir ul-Mulk, while presiding over a full court of 17 judges in Islamabad.
Nine
military courts were set up in January after Parliament passed a constitutional amendment
that empowered the military to try those suspected of being terrorists in a
parallel system of courts, which operate swiftly compared with the slower-paced
civilian judiciary.
The
move came after the brutal attack on a school in Peshawar last year by
the Taliban in which at least 149 people were
killed, most of them children. After the violence, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted a
moratorium on the death penalty and presented a plan to fight terrorism and
militancy in the country.
The
establishment of the military courts and the lifting of the death penalty
moratorium were criticized by rights groups and lawyers, who have raised
concerns about the expansion of the military’s power.
The
petition to the court, filed on behalf of the Supreme Court Bar Association by
Asma Jahangir, a rights activist and lawyer, challenged the trials by the
military courts and questioned whether prisoners were provided with a fair
hearing under them.
“The
recent trials of military courts are neither public nor transparent, and
military courts do not ordinarily observe the principle of due process,” the
petition said.
The
military courts operate under relative secrecy, and few details are available
about the trials of the seven convicted of being terrorists. During the hearing
on Thursday, the chief justice observed that only the sentences were made
public, the local news media reported.
“The
Supreme Court suspending the execution orders issued by the military courts is
indeed a welcome development,” said Saroop Ijaz, a columnist and lawyer in
Lahore. “The proceedings are opaque, hasty and fall well short of all domestic
and international standards of fair trial.”
The
hearing on the legality of the military courts was adjourned until Wednesday.
There
was no immediate comment from the military, but the move to suspend the
executions might rankle the powerful generals who had pushed to set up the
military courts. The military has ruled, directly or indirectly, for more than
half of the country’s history, and it is not used to greater levels of scrutiny
and public accountability under the civilian government.
“I think
the clash between the military and the judiciary cannot be ruled out,” said
Asad Jamal, a lawyer based in Lahore. “However, the likelihood is moderate, not
serious. I think the Pakistan Army understands, or most in the senior hierarchy
do, that they cannot eradicate terrorism by simply operating military courts
and executing a couple of hundred terrorists.”
