MONTH-IN-PERSPECTIVE-DECEMBER 2021

NEW DELHI: In a recent judgment by Bombay High Court, learned judge had observed that groping a minor’s breast without “skin to skin contact” cannot be termed sexual assault under the POSCO Act. The judgment had said that since the man groped the child without removing her clothes the offence cannot be termed as sexual assault but it does constitute the offence of outraging the modesty of woman under IPC section 354. The High Court had accordingly acquitted the man for the offence under section 7 of the POSCO. Here is a case of an aged man pressing the breast of a fully dressed 12 year old child without removing her clothes. The victim is not even a teenager, and chances are that child can get deeply traumatized by the shock of this unexpected attack on her persona by a father like man which the so-called learned judge of Bombay High Court has failed to recognise. Court went by the argument of equally ‘learned’ advocates, that this is a fit case under section 354 of IPC, and therefore should not be seen and examined under terms of POSCO Act. As we all know, POSCO Act rightly stipulates much harsher punishment, since the victims are vulnerable children just beginning to bloom and any attack on their persona can have long term mental trauma which in turn can cause irreparable damage to their evolving personality. Thus any attempt by defense lawyer in trying to dilute the seriousness of the offence should be mercilessly putdown. In the event, the HC judges have bungled either without application or by design to help the accused with lesser punishment. In both cases it tantamounts to miscarriage of justice. Intention of law is to make a difference to the victim. If instead of going by the spirit of the law, the court lends itself to the letter of the law, as advocated by the defense lawyers, then clearly court has failed in its avowed objective of rendering justice, instead of mere judgment based purely on the convenient interpretation of the law. Reportedly, Attorney General KK Venugopal observed that “HC judgment would have devastating results as it would be followed by trial courts as precedent, unless stuck down by the top court”, while adding that “the judgment would lead to very disturbing conclusions”. No wonder the highest court of the land is seized of the matter while staying the controversial judgment after the National Commission for women, Attorney General KK Venugopal besides Government of Maharashtra challenged the verdict. It appears, the defense lawyer was trying to give lessons to SC judges on the interpretation of provisions of POSCO. While stressing that there is ambiguity in applying provisions of POSCO in the present case the defense lawyer persisted “whenever there is ambiguity in law, the rule of lenity would apply and it must be decided in favour of the accused”. Clearly, he had intentionally ignored the sexual intent of the accused while fondling the breast of the girl child, so what if the child was fully clothed!? The apex court, as and when it decides, should see to it that the young victim gets justice while being hard on the accused. UTTAR PRADESH: There is this print media report datelined Dehradun, “Khurshid’s Nainital house vandalized by mob”. The report was generally covering the attack on the house of politician Salman Khurshid, who is also an advocate. Reportedly, this attack carried out by a mob carrying BJP flags and chanting Jai Shree Ram, was a sequel to the contents of a book “Sun rise over Ayodhya: Nationalism in our Times”. This Salman Khurshid, has compared ISIS and Boko Haram gang to Hindutwa in his above referred to book. It does not need pointing out, what is ISIS and what is Boko Haram so also Hinduism or Hindutva. The entire world of homosapiens are aware, there is neither any comparison nor even remote similarity between ISIS & Boko Haram on one side and Hinduism or Hindutva on the other. According to Salmam Khurshid, “Hindutva movement in India is the ideological counterpart of ISIS of Iraq & Syria & Boko Haram of Nigeria”. World is privy to the knowledge that these dreaded outfits, ISIS& Boko Haram, have killed innocents in thousands, when not killed used them as sex slaves, tortured the living and mutilated dead bodies. Without doubt they are worse than any barbarians. Can the world forget the sight of public decapitation of the Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, some 20 years ago?! Therefore the comparison by this Salman Khurshid is not only obnoxious but also idiocy of the highest order. In a country where Hindus are more than 75% of its population, to cause an outrage of this kind is an extreme form of hatred. He simply does not deserve to remain in the country. He should leave India for a better place. It will not be out of place to quote another Muslim intellectual M.J. Akbar, who also published a book, as far back as 1985, “INDIA: The Siege Within”. In page 23 he writes “It needs to be pointed out that India remains a secular state not because 1/5 of its population is Muslim, Christian or Sikh and therefore obviously has a vested interest in a secular constitution, but because 9 out of 10 Hindus do not believe in violence against minorities”. Under the circumstances he should think, if he was to write something against ISIS while in Iraq or Syria, would he have remained alive to give a press conference! It is true that there are lumpen elements within the Hindu society, but to blanket write-off as a terror outfit, is a comprehensive betrayal of the writer’s intolerance or clearly agenda driven like the other two fellow travelers, who shared the dais with Khurshid while releasing the book. P. Chidambaram and Digvijay Singh, both senior politicians, who gave company to Khurshid on the stage have been comprehensively exposed by RVS Mani, a former official of the Union Home Ministry in his book “THE MYTH OF HINDU TERROR- Insider account of Ministry of Home Affairs 2006-2010”. In the book RVS Mani suggests how the state machinery was systematically subverted to undermine criminal investigations in order to sustain a false and questionable narrative of Hindu Terror. Coming to the vandalism at the house of Salman Khurshid, in Nainital, he is reported to have reacted “Hindu religion is a beautiful religion that has given fantastic culture to this country and I am proud of it. This attack is not on me but on Hindu religion”. The reported reaction after the incident of vandalism at his house clearly exposes his discomfort at the response in public space on the vehement remarks against Hinduism in his book. Yes, his reaction also throws light on the hoodlums, who are masquerading in BJP as political activists. These characters, who are sizeable in the rank and file of BJP, need to be reined in, so that the remark “This attack is not on me but on Hindu religion” would not have been there. Hope, not only Salman Khurshid apologises for his flagrantly irresponsible remark on Hinduism, but also BJP leadership in UP writes a note of apology to Salman Khurshid for the actions of some misguided elements who caused arson at his house. BIHAR: “On 26th November, entire Bihar will vow not to drink”, so said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. A Patna datelined report informed that ‘Bihar government employees and people of the state will take a pledge on Friday, November 26 that they will not consume alcohol’, the CM had announced. It appears that prohibition will be strictly enforced in the state and directions are in place not to spare anyone violating the rules. Purely from social perspective this ban may have its positive spin off; especially female folks would welcome it. Basically, it’s the females who have suffered and continue to suffer due to their drunkard husbands, fathers, brothers etc. Thus keeping the women folks happy and as a responsible government, responsible to its mothers, daughters and sisters, this step of banning consumption and sale of alcohol has its positive contribution. But it has been the experience of all stake holders that it is not possible to truly control activities such as sale and consumption of alcohol. With all the laws in place, illicit trade & industry in alcohol is a fact of life. Police, who have been given the blanket power to rein erring people, do end up many a time harassing innocents with corruption too being an issue of concern. Besides pledge or no pledge those who want to consume alcohol they will find their own way to acquire it and consume. Also alcohol is a big source of revenue for the state besides generation of employment opportunities in its production and distribution. All that is needed is a larger enforcement personnel like police with proper monitoring to ensure that there is an atmosphere of controlled consumption with law and order being a priority at the top, with individual permits based on their income. Of course nothing is easy. But TOWARDS A PURPOSEFUL REGIMEN, everything is possible. Freedom has to be exercised with responsibility then enjoyment of the freedom is only as far as that. Any freedom in excess is recklessness which is bad for the health of an individual or an institution including the state. Hope Bihar leadership understands this dimension in the overall health of the state and its people. MAHARASHTRA: Minority Affairs Minister in the Maharashtra government of MVA combine, Nawab Malik is in the thick of news in recent days, mainly for all wrong reasons. He was in the news since some time ago, as his son-in-law was detained on some drug related issues by the Regional Narcotics Control team led by Zonal director Sameer Wankhede. He is currently on bail. Then, film actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son got caught on similar charges by NCB. Unfortunately both Shah Rukh Khan’s son and Nawab Malik’s son-in-law both happened to be Muslims. But the way Nawab Malik got embroiled in SRK’s son’s detention, vis-à-vis NCB’s Sameer Wankhede, only makes one feel that it is the Muslim factor that nudged him to jump headlong into the imbroglio. If it was say, film star Akshay Kumar, who is a Hindu, would this Nawab Malik get involved in controversies involving NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede? Chances are NO! We all know, SRK’s son was arrested and was released on bail after some weeks in detention. But Minister Nawab Malik, made it a full time job to ‘expose’ Sameer Wankhede’s alleged wrong doing. Both the Minister Malik and Sameer Wankhede have been in public space / public life since many years. So, details of Sameer Wankhede were always available for those who were looking for it. But why only now it became a staple of public consumption? It is because, Sameer Wankhede, had made both his son-in-law and SRKs son suffer the ignominy of jail term and Minister Malik want to ‘expose’ the bureaucrat. So clearly it’s the vendetta in the mind of Minister Malik, having a free run, and sadly High Court in Bombay has allowed him to keep doing. May be there are issues of mis-representation of facts of Wankhede’s birth, marriage etc. which may be somewhat serious in the context of reservation, but cannot be clubbed with crimes like drug peddling etc. High Court could have stalled for a while, these antics of Minister Malik, until the issue of SRK’s son got fully sorted out and then Minister Malik is allowed to go ahead with his ‘settling the scores abhiyaan’. But then who will bell the cat! No wonder, as soon as Bombay HC refused to impose a blanket injunction against Minister Malik he goes ballistic to town to tweet “Satyameva Jayathe-The fight against wrong doing will continue”. Clearly he took his leaf from the fellow co-religionist Amir Khan’s successful TV show ‘Satyameva Jayathe’, where he ridiculed and took to task wrong doings in Hindu practices, while his own faith has its own share of negatives galore, which these so-called Muslim intellectuals quietly ignore to address or redress. But then this is Yeh Mera India where Hindu bashing is passé, by all and sundry, including High Courts and Supreme Court. In the meanwhile Malik's party supremo Sharad Pawar is enjoying the show. And why not! After all they want to see BJP squirming in the seat. MAHARASHTRA:It is a reflection of an India in the year 2021. In the 75th year of our political Independence, that an educational institution of higher learning, like IIT, could refuse admission to a student, who couldn’t pay on-line due to some computer technical issues, is truly an Issue of Concern. That he approached the IIT to pay it physically and then approached the Bombay High Court to address the issue, but sadly failed in both places is another reflection of our wooden approach to an issue of clearly a human dimension. Fortunately, in the year of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the young boy, all of 17, could manage to knock the door of the highest court of the land, who rose to the occasion to give a ‘rap on the knuckle’ of IIT Bombay and directed the premier institution to admit the student in his chosen stream of civil engineering, invoking article 142 of the constitution. Article 142 of the Indian constitution stipulates that “the Apex Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing ‘complete justice’ in any case pending before it.” Prince, a student from UP, had scored All India Rank of 25894 and Scheduled Cast rank of 864, was allotted a seat in IIT Bombay for the 4 years B.Tech course in Civil Engineering. But sadly was unable to pay the seat acceptance fee within the stipulated time due to some problem with the SBI computer. Of course, the delay was also caused because he didn’t have enough money to pay when he tried it the first time, and when later money was arranged by his sister, he tried some 10/12 times but failed to get across. On 31st October which was the stipulated last day for payment Prince failed to make the payment. Sent email to Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JSAA), then to IIT Bombay, but to no avail. Visited JSAA personally but nothing happened, then approached Bombay High Court, where his plea was dismissed. At last he knocked the door of Supreme Court, which heard him on November 20 and asked the authorities to explore the possibility of admitting him. On 22nd November authorities informed ‘no seat, all seats filled’. Recognizing its role as the adjudicator of last resort, Apex Court insisted on doing something or it will invoke article 142 of the constitution and since it is a genuine case it will pass order accordingly. Authorities submitted to request the court to invoke article 142 since all available seats have been allocated and the only way-out is to create a seat, while stating that there were 7 other students who missed admission due to non-payment of fees. Looking back over the issue, the student concerned Prince, would have already joined IIT Bombay by now, there was an opportunity for Supreme Court to take up suo-moto the issue of 7 students who missed out due to similarly non-payment of fees. After all India has 23 IITs across the country, hence if SC had initiated a process of accommodating these unfortunate seven students all could have gone home happy. Shouldn’t the justice be pro-active to address even those who cry in silence! MAHARASHTRA: When it comes to poor people in India, it is a crime to be born a poor. There is any number of laws made for their welfare, but more often they remain only in statute books and not much difference comes about in the lives of these people. Look at manual scavengers. How many have died inside the poisonously stinking manholes without proper headgears and other safety apparatus. Given a choice, how many would opt for this kind of job, chances are none. So only those, who are economically very poor, but will not steal or beg, opt for such jobs. They are sadly at the mercy of authorities. So many of them consume alcohol before entering such death-traps like manholes connecting sewer lines which gets in all kinds of filthy garbage including human excreta from toilets. Despite stringent penal provisions against manual scavenging, it has continued in several parts of the country including metros where workmen, mostly dalits, have died inside the sewer manholes. Reportedly manual scavenging persists mainly because of the continued presence of unsanitary latrines-2.6 millions of them- which require cleaning by hand. State governments have not demolished these latrines despite there being a law in place to this effect. Central government is supposed to rehabilitate these scavengers under self employment schemes. But 2017-18 union budget reduced allocation from earlier '448 crores to 5 crores', which is clearly unfair for a government which talks about 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas'. No wonder the High Court in Mumbai has come down heavily on an unconcerned apathetic government in Sachivalay to pay the compensation of Rs. 10 lakhs within 24 hours on 12th November 2021. The report in the print media datelined Mumbai "Compensate widows of manual scavengers or face contempt. HC to government", has said it all. Irked by the non compliance of its earlier order of paying Rs. 10 Lakhs each to widows of three scavengers who died while cleaning a septic tank at a housing society in Govandi in North Mumbai in 2019, the Bombay High Court has said that it will haul up state the government for contempt of court. The High Court reportedly asked the principal secretary to the government to deposit the cheque within a day. HC also directed the Maharashtra government to conduct a survey to indentify manual scavengers so also steps taken for their rehabilitation across the state after the enactment of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. An act of 2013, has not been acted upon for almost 10 years, shows the structural apathy of our system which has no genuine concern for the marginalized sections of our socio-political landscape, a sad reality of Mera Bharath Mahaan. KARNATAKA: There is a service road connecting Navabharat Circle diagonally opposite Ocean Pearl and Ram Bhavan in Mangalooru & Canara / Besant College Junction (CBCJ) on MG Road. There is some civil work-in-progress on this road at the mouth of CBCJ. Road has a T junction where it links PVS Kalakunj to the left if one is entering from Navabharat Circle. Since there is work-in-progress, it is not motorable to the right from T junction. At the mouth of CBCJ there is a ‘NO ENTRY’, board. It does not say why. However there is no indication at the mouth of Navabharat circle entrance to the service road that, MOTORISTS CANNOT ENTER MG ROAD due to the work-in-progress. The work is only on the stretch between CBCJ on MG Road and T junction, so those who want to go by driving to PVS Kalakunj the road is open, from Navabharat Circle only to the left of T Junction but to the right, there is a whole lot of construction debris, with barricades. So clearly you cannot turn right while driving from Navabharat Circle to enter MG Road. I had the ‘dishonor of driving up-to the T Junction and take U turn to Navabharat Circle to turn left at Ocean Pearl junction to go to PVS junction and then to MG Road. Just wondered if the MD of MSCL (Mangalore Smart City Ltd) had the similar dishonor of driving on this stretch to realize how smart are city managers? So truly speaking these guys sitting on the top floor of MCC building, aren’t they dumb! KARNATAKA: Thayil Jacob Sony George also known as T. J. S. GEORGE is a well known name in Indian English journalism. He wrote a piece “The Reach of Intolerant Minds” in the New Sunday Express of Indian Express group in Bengalooru. This piece of writing needs to be responded for what it has stated, but first TJSG. Having read TJSG in Indian Express for a long time ISSUES & CONCERNS has been sending a copy of its monthly editions to him for his reading, if time permits and hoped for some valuable feedback from him. Having started in 2000, for quite some time we have been sending a copy of I&C regularly. However, the hoped response never came. So one forenoon we decided to call him. His lady in the house gave his office number at Indian Express in the city (Bengalooru). He readily picked up the phone when called and acknowledged that he indeed is receiving the periodical (I&C). On asking if he has anything to say on the magazine, he merely replied “I read the magazine”. On enquiring if he has any thoughts to share on I&C and if he could write his feedback, he retorted “Isn’t it enough that I read?”. This was the first and the last encounter we had with the great TJSG. Coming to the above piece by TJSG it is clear he is not happy with a section of Hindus and therefore BJP and by extention he is not happy with Narendra Modi as well. We are a democracy; therefore all of us are entitled to our views. He mentioned about an incident in Anand, Gujarat, where a demonstrator, outside a newly opened restaurant owned by Muslims, had shouted “Muslims should be beggars, not hotel owners”. This, if true, is very bad. If the person has said what is attributed to him, he can be prosecuted and arrested, that should be done fast and without fail. But this one character does not represent entire crowd of Hindus. He quotes Soli Sorabji “Tolerance is particularly needed in large and complex societies, comprising people with varied beliefs”. He also quotes Madras High Court. “Freedom of expression protects not merely ideas that are accepted but also those that offend, shock and disturb”. Soli Sorabji ought to know that his ancestors came from a persecuted Persia and lived and flourished in India with all the freedom like all else. Most Indians do not need lessons in tolerance, but are aware that “price of freedom is its responsible exercise”. Restrain and right go together. It is alright for some judges to give lecture on right to freedom of expression. But when the women of judges’ family are at the receiving end of this freedom of expression, they realize at the risk of losing their cool. If people like MF Hussain, paint a lady fully clad in white saree and calls it ‘MY MOTHER’, and then paint a nude portrait and calls it Hindus Goddess of knowledge SARASWATHI, how an ordinary simple Hindu expected to react? Some may ignore as lunacy but some may react violently. Just like the right of the painter, to express there is right of the aggrieved person to protest. Why go far TJSG is himself a Christian, 93 years old. Did he experience any intolerance in his over 9 decades of life in India? It’s alright to nitpick, as a drain inspector, but to see the largeness of India’s mind needs equally largeness of one’s heart. He quotes about the sad demise of Fr. Stan Samy. Of course Fr. Samy was old and infirm, but his death would have been less bitter for himself and his near and dear ones. While the role and actions of government is clearly questionable, it was the judiciary which clearly failed to rise to the occasion. No wonder a brother HC judge AP Shah of Delhi High Court had bemoaned “lack of sensitivity on the part of judges which is deeply saddening”. It is true that there are characters like the one in Anand, but a vast overwhelming majority of Indians of all hues are tolerant and any number of examples can be given, with quotes from MJ Akbar, George Fernandes, Sikander Bakht and many others. Therefore for TJSG to feel so concerned to pen a piece like intolerant Hindu-mind can be a bit of intolerance from within.