Absolute Power

I absolutely recommend the 1997 Hollywood flick Absolute Power. Gripping story, a very plausible and frightening scenario and best of all - Clint Eastwood.

Of course, the Americans and Israelis have exhibited their moral fabric in recent times very forcefully. Even top leaders are not immune to the rule of law. Clinton was impeached for the sordid Monica Lewinsky affair and more recently the Israeli Prime minister caught a lot of flack for alleged sexual abuse of female staffers.

What if such a scenario were to occur in India? Mute question perhaps, given that the prosecution of the killers of Priyadarshini Mattoo and Jessica Lall took several years of public hysteria and high drama, when the perps were wards of mere petty politicians.

HinduUnity.org seems to be in a lot of trouble again. You might remember the site from the blog ban last year. Apparently the site is running a feature alleging Congress dynasty heir apparent Rahul Gandhi of having been involved in a gang rape. Several blogs have picked up the story as well.

According to the story, Rahul Gandhi and his buddies forced themselves on a young woman, daughter of a Congress party worker, at an alcohol fueled party. The story even carries a picture of the said woman. It is further claimed that the woman and her parents have gone underground.

Now, there are zillions of hate sites on the web, perpetrating myths and propagating slander. The story itself sounds pretty cockamamie. What is surprising is that the Cong legal machinery has taken this seriously and gone after the site with full fire power.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has sent a legal notice to a US-based website Hinduunity.Org for alleged "perverted, scurrilous and gutter writing" against him and his family members.

Disclosing this on Friday night, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said that the notice has been sent against an individual, Rohit Vyasman and an entity called "Ezboard Inc" for allegedly launching a slander campaign against the Gandhi family.

Surely this whole thing has nothing more than shock value and public relations faux pas (far more people came to know about the site from the media coverage of the lawsuit). The question to ask is, what if the allegations were true?