BSP MLA Jamuna Nishad, who was arrested and jailed in June 2008 for leading a mob into a police station in Maharajganj, eastern UP, and murdering a constable, has, outrageously, found in hospital a cozy refuge from the harshness of a prison, says a report published on Monday in Indian Express.

Nishad has been enjoying the tender solicitude of Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur for 21 months without any need for inpatient care, according to doctors.

Apart from avoiding the jail, the MLA has been skipping court appearances and waiting in anticipation for a Supreme Court decision on his bail application.

All 13 people accused of forcing their way into Kotwali police station in Maharajganj and shooting a policeman dead are out on bail, Nishad's lawyer is quoted as saying.

Mayawati government sacked Nishad for his role in the murder that took place on June 7th, 2008.

For the records, Nishad is suffering from diabetes, hypertension and spondylitis, and not even the prison department has been able to get this alleged murderer out of hospital and into jail.

By the way, Nishad is one of the three BSP MLAs who were arrested in June 2008 and thereabouts for separate crimes.

Others were Shri Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit, who was arrested on charges of fraud, illegal confinement and rape of an Agra University research scholar, and Anand Sen Yadav, who was jailed for his alleged involvement in an abduction and murder case in Faizabad.

Comment: If Jamuna Nishad's cocking a snook at law doesn't make us scream in feral rage, nothing will. Goonda-politicians of this unfortunate country haven't just given us a slap in the face – they have given governance a bloody nose.

Susceptibility of of India's electoral system, which allows criminals to grab seats in legislatures, parliamentary privileges of colonial vintage, which protect such characters from the consequences of their actions, and the spineless law enforcement and justice system, which falls flat before the slightest show of power and pelf ---- all are to be blamed.

But let's today also blame ourselves – the citizens of India.

Whatever be the failings of the system, how can we Indians elect such scoundrels to be our law makers!