Whenever he was asked by any journalist, he said, “My father is absolutely innocent. Somewhere, someone will have the courage to say that he is innocent. I am absolutely certain. If not in the high court, then in the Supreme Court; if not in the Supreme Court, at least the president will have the courage.”

To the last moment, the Supreme Court of India played an ugly game. They said, “At one o’clock the decision about the appeal will be declared.” Then they changed it to two-thirty, then they it changed to four-thirty. Finally they came out at six o’clock, because after that there is no way to have other recourse to some source; in the morning poor Kehar Singh would be hanged.

And the statement was a simple statement – it took the Supreme Court the whole day – that the appeal was rejected. A simple sentence…without giving any reason why the appeal was rejected.

The president was asked for a mercy appeal; even the mercy appeal was rejected. The World Court was contacted. They said, “Put us in contact with the president.” And when Ram Jethmalani phoned the president, the secretary said, “It is too late” – it was only eight-thirty in the evening – “I cannot disturb the president at this late hour.”

These are the public servants! Eight-thirty in the evening is a late hour…and one man’s life is at stake, and the president cannot be disturbed! And still, Nani Palkhiwala, you call this country a democracy?

I hope you will come out with the truth, and say exactly what is the situation. If the intelligentsia of the country remain silent, then this dark night will become darker and darker, and there will be no dawn.

I hope that not only Nani Palkhiwala, but all other intelligent people – poets, professors, vice-chancellors, authors, musicians, painters – should come out and say, “Unless National Security is removed….”

“Everything should be settled in the court according to the common law of the country; only then is this country a democracy. Otherwise it is better to call it a dictatorship.”

At least people should know that they are slaves, no longer free. They should know that they have been fighting for freedom for almost one hundred years, and this bogus freedom has been given to them.

It always happens. One has to go to the roots.

India has not been successful in getting freedom. Its last attempt was in 1942, when thousands of people were forced into jails. But it did not last long, only nine days. One feels ashamed to say that this was a revolution!

China had been fighting for thirty years continuously. A freedom struggle which ends in nine days, with no conclusion, and then suddenly after five years…. This is a very strange phenomenon.

If a revolution succeeds, immediately the country is free. But the revolution did not succeed and after five years the freedom was given by the British Empire. A given freedom cannot be a real freedom.