Maharashtra: Crime is a Crime
Last month we had carried a story “Be it 2007 or 2003 Rs 100 bribe is trivial”. It was based on a report from Bombay High Court.
Way back in 2007, 20th Feb 2007 to be specific, one Laxman Pingle had lodged a complaint with Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), who had laid a trap and caught Dr Anil Shinde for having accepted
Rs 100 as bribe. Paud in Pune district of Maharashtra had a Public Health Centre (PHC) where Dr. Anil Shinde was the medical officer, since 1995. He had treated the complainant Laxman Pingle for some injuries. Pingle had asked for a certificate, probably to submit to his employers, certifying his injuries. For issuing the certificate, Dr. Shinde allegedly demanded Rs 100. It was in 2007, as is clear from the above details. May be in 2023, after 16 years doctor would have demanded Rs 500 or more, as bribe.
Since the matter was within the purview of ACB, it was referred to the special judge under ACB. Reportedly on Jan 31, 2012, after almost 5 years the special judge of ACB court had acquitted Shinde of all charges. Not known whether doctor bribed the special judge as well to get a favorable judgment.
According to the report, section 20(3) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) states that if the alleged bribe of gratification is trivial, no inference of corruption may be drawn and the court may refuse to presume that the accused is corrupt. Now this is clearly untenable, since crime is a crime.
The Special Judge of ACB court, probably relied on this section 20(3) of PCA and dismissed the complaint and acquitted Dr. Anil Shinde. But state being state, it challenged the acquittal and approached Bombay High Court (BHC). After-all state has to set a standard of no corruption, neither big nor small. Justice Jitendra Jain at BHC having gone into the details and the acquittal observation of the ACB Special judge upheld the acquittal observing that Rs 100 seems to be small as a bribe even for 2007, let alone for 2023. According to Justice Jain it was a fit case to be treated as a trivial matter and dismissed the state government’s petition challenging the special judge’s acquittal.
However here the issue is ethics of a government servant. It’s not the size of the bribe amount, but the bribe itself which should have been questioned. How can a patient respect a government doctor who demands bribe for doing his expected job! What if the patient couldn’t have paid or had refused to pay? Could he refuse to give certificate?
In Kannada, there is a saying in vogue, ADIKE Kaddaroo Kalla AANEY Kaddaroo Kalla, which literally means, whether one steals a small item like betel or one steals huge object like an elephant, the act is stealing and therefore the person stealing is a thief, period. This principle should be the basis of treating all matters relating to corruption. There should be ZERO TOLERANCE OF CORRUPTION in the system and no compromise on treating the crime. The only concession can be in the quantum of punishment. In this case, the Dr. Anil Shinde, if the accusation was proved, should have been fined Rs 500 and closed the case. Because, it’s the message that matters, that ‘crime does not go unpunished’ should be the dictum. Judges, do you hearken!
Karnataka: - Ungrateful Children
Daughters are generally known to be closure to their father. But here is a daughter, who not only badly treated her father and mother, even physically assaulted her parents, despite having received landed property and cash from her father as gift.
Karnataka High Court reportedly came down heavily on the daughter and her husband for the ill treatment of aged parents. KHC dismissed their petition challenging the lower courts verdict of cancelling the gift deed.
A Bengalooru datelined report tells “Father complained: daughter was forcing him to sell property”, said it all.
According to the report, father Rajashekaraiah had through a gift deed dated Sept 30, 2018 had given the property to his daughter Kavitha. He later filed a petition before the Assistant Commissioner (AC) under the provisions of Maintenance & Welfare of Parents & Senior Citizens Act 2007. He had contended therein that his daughter and son-in-law had taken him to tahasildar’s office on the pretext of formalizing old age pension .When it appeared that they were asking him to sign some sale agreement for the sale of property. Report however is silent on this. Besides, he also claimed that he gave his daughter Rs 10 lakhs for the construction of a house on the property, and now they are forcing him to sign the paper for the sale of property, informs the report.
AC noted on 24th Feb 2021, that the terms of the gift deed had a clause wherein daughter had to look after her parents, while observing that the young couple had assaulted Rajashekaraiah and drove the old couple out of home. Under the circumstances he thought it fit to cancel the gift deed.
The young couple – Kavitha and Yogish - went to high court challenging the cancellation of the gift deed. However, the judges of the Karnataka High Court were not amused.
In the meantime Rajashekaraiah passed away. The KHC refused to interfere with the order of AC and admonished the young couple that they were legally wrong so also culturally wrong in treating their parents badly.
It is hoped that now that the young couple is at the mercy of their elder mother/mother-in-law, they will behave.
Maharashtra: Freedom of Expression
The issue of freedom of expression is increasingly coming under focus.
‘Responsible exercise is the price of freedom’, we are told since our school days. It’s the same principle all over. In the name of freedom expression we cannot take liberty with societal emotions.
According to media report a feature film in Hindi, “1080 – The Legacy of Mahaveer” was scheduled for release in the end of this October. However due to the opposition by a section of Jains, the release has been delayed. Mahaveera is the presiding deity of Jains.
Reportedly Jains in Mumbai have approached Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) so also a group called on officials of ministry of Information & Broadcasting in New Delhi. According to sources within the community, the Minister of Information & Broadcasting has promised that ‘no release will take place without first screening and review by members of the community’. The community is also trying to get the film banned for online screening under cyber laws.
Here the question is, whether a celluloid feature film or even a documentary film on a faith, is it right for any film producer to produce? These productions or film creations are meant for public viewing. You are displaying characters and making statement and depicting happenings etc., from materials sourced from outsiders, who may know the truth in parts, not in its entirety. Again it’s not clear how biased or loaded with incomplete truth. So it’s very dicey to get into this very disturbing scenario. Best is not to touch. But in the name of freedom, you do not get unbridled right. If the Jain community has been hurt by the portrayal of their chosen deity, Mahaveer, they have all the rights to cry hoarse! Government must play its responsible role in ensuring that the community’s feelings are respected. If there are issues within the faith, it must be left to the members of the community to get together and thrash it out, without any dirty linen washed in public.
Hope luminaries like CJI Chandrachud understands his dimension. He had allowed falls stories by journalists to peddle in the name of freedom of speech.
Karnataka: 70 Hrs. & NRNM
Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy or NRNarayana Murthy, whenever makes a statement, it’s always thoughtful and meaningful.
He is a self-made man along with his initial partners in Infosys venture like Nilekany, Gopalkrishna, Shibulal and three others. Having started in 1981, as consulting firm and converted as Limited company that went public in 1992. Started with an initial investment of Rs: 10,000, today it has a market capitalization of over US $ 100 billion, with some 350,000 employees. All these because he worked round the clock to realize his dream. Surely he had his breaks when needed. He is 78 running hale and hearty with family of four, including wife and 2 children. All our youth need to know and remember that he was listed among the 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time by the Fortune magazine, besides co-chairing World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland in 2005.
So it’s no wonder he has advised the workforce of the country, especially the youth, to have a ‘70 hours a week work schedule’.
We are a country with more awareness on rights rather than duties in recent times. But we are also a country with wise sayings in Kannada like, ‘Udyogavey Purusha Laxana’, which means ‘being a bit of workaholic is the feature of man’. Then you have ‘Kaayakavey Kailasa’, which is analogous to ‘Work is Worship’. Then you have ‘Kai Kesaraadarey baayi Mosaru’, which literally means, ‘if you soil your hands with muck you will earn butter’. All these sayings are gleanings from great minds of yester years. They glorify working and working hard.
Look at the history of our contemporary heroes in the industry and commerce. Narayana Murthy is but an effervescent example of such men. Dhirubhai Ambani was a legend in his own lifetime. He never worked for 9 to 6 regimen. He created the biggest industrial empire of India, the Reliance Industries Ltd. And he is not alone, there are many who have become billionaires in $ terms by working without looking at the clock.
There have been all kinds of reactions and observations both in media as well as social media groups. At the outset the way one needs to view the issue should be in spirit rather than letter. Lot of people took the view, it enriches only the owner or the employer not the employee. Some people said about work-life balance. Some spoke about stress among employees. Some said about female employees will suffer mostly because of this, since they have other responsibilities at home etc.
All the points raised by those who opposed the 70 hour a week regimen are relevant, no doubt. It was mostly strait-jacket approach. It’s always possible to work for not just 70 hours, it’s possible to work for 90 hours a week. We can still balance life and work with 90 hours a week work schedule. It has to be flexible. There can be different models, depending upon the job and situation of each individual. After all we all have the same 24 hours every day, none more or none less. We have innumerable stories of individual success. How have they managed the time for better productivity for both the self and the employer! After all NRN Murthy is a standing example of exemplary success. What he says matters!
How it can be worked out, for the good of all, is what needs to be thought of, period.
World: An American joke on Manmohan Singh
One Shankar Raj, apparently an Indian journalist based in Washington writes a piece “US author praised Dr Manmohan Singh”. A Mumbai based newspaper published this story on 1st Nov 2023, in its daily.
This Shankar Raj highlights the piece within a red bordered box: REMARKABLE ACT OF RESTRAINT.
At the outset, with whatever knowledge the undersigned is having it can be emphatically dismissed as a poor understanding of the reality of the situation, both politically and diplomatically. Both the American author Thomas Friedman and this writer Shankar Raj suffer from some fixated syndrome, to say the least.
First will take up the happening of 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai. Apparently, this American author wrote his op-ed piece on the Israel-Hamas war in The New York Times. He writes therein “After the October 7 attack by Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could have learned something from India’s response to the 26/11 attack (on Mumbai) as the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chose not to retaliate militarily”.
This Thomas Friedman, the celebrated American author, ought to have known that the then Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, was never free to act without the clearance of the authority above him. All Indians are aware who the Supremo was during 2008 in the then government of UPA or the United Progressive Alliance.
Recapitulating the 26/11/2008 Mumbai terror attack, it can be recollected that 10 Pakistani terrorists had sneaked into the elite Colaba area of Mumbai equipped with AK47. During the 72 hours that followed, 173 were killed which included 9 Pakistani terrorists. Ajmal Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist was caught alive by the heroics of ASI Tukaram Ombale. Referring to the horrible events of 26/28/Nov. 2008, the then Director General of Police Maharashtra Rakesh Maria writes in his book ‘LET ME SAY IT NOW’, and I quote, “If all had gone well, he (Kasab) would have been dead with a red string tied around his wrist like a Hindu. We would have an identity card on his person with a fictitious name : Samir Dinesh Chaudhary, student of Arunodaya Degree and PG College, Vadre Complex, Dilkush Nagar Hyderabad – 500 060, resident of 254 Teachers Colony, Nagarbhavi, Bengalooru. There could have been screaming headlines in newspapers claiming how Hindu terrorists had attacked Mumbai, instead of Ajmal Amir Kasab of Faridkot and his gang from Pakistan”. Page 436/437”, unquote.
How many in the Indian press pursued this very serious observation by the then DGP of Maharashtra, and questioned him?
Then there is another book by RVS Mani, a former Joint Secretary of Ministry of Home affairs. RVSM published a book ‘THE MYTH OF HINDU TERROR – INSIDER ACCOUNT OF MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS’.
RVS Mani, without mincing words clearly accuses complicity of the then Home Minister Shivraj Patil in the 26/11/2008 terror attack in Mumbai with active participation by former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh and a Maharashtra cadre IPS officer Hemant Karkare. They were probably working under some instruction from some senior authority to somehow blame the entire Mumbai terror attack on some Hindu outfits. Thought probably was to blame BJP, which was growing rapidly around that time. Under the circumstances, how can a remote controlled Prime Minister could have taken the lead or acted independently in responding to Pakistan militarily?
How many authors or journalists either American or Indian have tried to dig into it, to know the truth and truth alone!?
Now for Friedman to indicate that Manmohan Singh could have been a lesson in political management during a serious crisis as a terror attack, is a joke and for Shankar Raj to pick it up and then this Mumbai daily to publish it is a bigger joke.
Karnataka: Teacher training in India
There was lot of commotion both in print media as well as in social media when NR Narayana Murthy exhorted the youth of India to go for 70 hours work week. It was by any stretch of logic, a very sensible call by the IT Czar.
But what most ignored or felt, it’s nothing to do with them, was his clarion call to the national funds managers or the central government that “India must spend $ 1 billion per year on training teachers in STEM”. A report datelined Bengalooru had carried the above story.
He was addressing the INFOSYS SCIENCE FOUNDATION while announcing the names of winners of INFOSYS PRIZE. He was generally commenting on the lack of seriousness in promoting teaching skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
As usual he is a Man of Ideas.
It is true that as a nation, we have always lagged behind in spending on education, more so on Technical Education. Our successive budgets, whether central or state, have always been pathetic when it came to outlays on education. Besides whatever we are spending, they are mostly on school buildings, infrastructure, connectivity, books and now on mid-day meals. While all of these are important, we have never spent time and money on quality of education and improvement thereof. Year after year our standards, especially in government schools, in learning skill development has been poor. Whatever learning that have been possible was only due to individual student initiatives rather than teacher driven learning improvements. Therefore there is a huge scope for up-scaling teacher skills. It is true that Azim Premji Foundation has been doing some good service in improving the skills among teachers, it is not clear, if these teachers are being recruited in government schools. There has to be some understanding between state governments and Azim Premji Foundation to make available quality teachers for government schools. But sadly no government is keen to do it, as is apparent. It is fairly well known that recruitment in government schools or any appointments in governments are sold on the size of the bribe rather than the competence of the teacher. If the government makes agreement with Azim Premji Foundation, how will MLAs, Ministers and officials and their hangers-on can make money? That indeed is a very sad scenario. These politicians and their hangers-on are interested only in their money making rather than in the future of the younger generation of our country.
Under the circumstances, the exhortation by NR Narayana Murthy, for the central government to outlay $1 billion every year is a clarion call. But would the government take the call? $1 Billion is more than 8000 crores. However, prima facie, there is no choice for the government if it wants to become an emerging power in technical competence with complete export substitution. May be there could be some kind of PPP, or Private Public Partnership, of all stake holders and people like Murthy and Premji are included in the think tank for a five year plan where a sustainable road map is drawn for the overall and long term improvement in STEM among the students community for the country to become a developed nation. Hope somebody up-there listens to the passionate plea of an extremely successful self-empowered man of the country.
Maharashtra: Police Inaction
Inaction, lack of action or over reaction by the police anywhere is not a news. It keeps happening, rightly or wrongly, all over.
There was this report in the print media datelined Mumbai, “Auto driver killed, locals pelt stones at inactive police.”
One Govind Chavan, probably a strong-arm trouble maker in the Malvani area of Malad in North Mumbai, was a regular, causing problems to locals. Reportedly there were multiple complaints to the Malvani police from local residents, against this Govind Chavan. But no action was taken, allege locals.
An auto driver Arjun Chavan, from Solapur, was plying his rickshaw in Malvani area. Both Chavans, Govind and Arun, reportedly argued frequently over petty matters. On 18th Nov, the argument took an ugly turn. Govind, informs the source, fatally knifed Arjun at Ambujwadi in Malvani. Police arrived, but enraged locals pelted stones at Govind and Police which resulted in minor injuries to two policemen, who had come to the scene of the crime and also the accused. Locals were angry that the situation of knifing and the resultant death of Auto driver Arjun could have been avoided, if police had acted early, on earlier complaints by the locals. But then this is how the police are in most cases. They act when it’s late. A life could have been saved, if only they had arrested this Govind Chavan earlier. Now the accused has been arrested on murder charge under section 302 of IPC. This is Yeh Mera India.
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