THE memory of the republic`s first president has been disgraced. The authorities of Himachal`s Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College are as much culpable for the death of the first-year student, Aman Satya Kachru, as the four seniors who have been arrested for ragging. Clearly, no countermeasures were taken despite last year`s Supreme Court directive to educational institutions to file criminal cases against those who derive sadistic The Statesman pleasure from such aberrations in behaviour that afflict both engineers and doctors in the make.

... Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has been fairly prompt in ordering a magisterial inquiry though there is nothing more routine.... Indubitable is the fact that Kachru was kicked and lynched with the college authorities totally unaware of the mayhem until he succumbed. A police team has now been stationed on the campus. That enforcement of the law, which ought strictly to have been in place after the Supreme Court order, is merely an afterthought after the worst has happened. As is the shake-up of the internal administration with the suspension of the hostel warden, the manager and two guards....— (March 13)

Pakistan`s lockdown

THE contrast couldn`t be more striking. On the one hand, the Pakistani government readily acceded to a truce with the Taliban in Swat, allowing the state`s authority to wither in the face of organised banditry from the Taliban. ... But on the other hand, the government has cracked down swiftly on lawyers and opposition activists intent on taking out a `long march` to Islamabad.

... Nawaz Sharif and other opposition leaders have been addressing rallies calling for The Times

a `revolution` to dethrone President Asif Zardari. But Zardari`s tactics suggest uncomfortable parallels with Pervez Musharraf, who accumulated extraordinary powers around the presidency.... Presidential powers such as the ability to sack parliament are unconscionable in a parliamentary system.... Zardari promised to rescind those powers but hasn`t delivered.

... [T]he world, at large, must stand behind a return to constitutional and democratic processes in Pakistan. Although there are strong rumours of an army coup General Kayani, the current army chief, has stayed out of politics so far.... In case he is keen, he must be severely discouraged.... The world must also stop trying to pick winners in Pakistan.... — (March 13)