MIP - January 2024
Long time ago, an ad in the electronic media used to be frequently shown about the longevity of the ply-wood. It was giving the example of court cases, how it started when the litigant was young and still going in circles year after year, unfinished and litigant is growing old. Conveying that the plywood in question had a very long life. It appears to be in good condition year after year.
And comes this report datelined New Delhi “Court should avoid fixing time bound schedule: SC”. One Sheikh Uzma Feroz Hussain had petitioned the Supreme Court, seeking a direction to the Bombay High Court to decide his bail plea in a time bound manner. The bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Pankaj Mittal was hearing the petition. They observed that in all high courts, especially the bigger ones, there could be large number of bail petitions filed and therefore some delay in the disposal of such petition is inevitable. “Since every high court and every court in the country has huge pendency, the constitutional court should avoid the temptation of fixing a time bound schedule for disposal of any case before any court unless the situation is extraordinary” the bench had reportedly remarked.
Refusing to entertain the plea seeking a direction for disposal of criminal matter within a fixed time, the bench held that only extra-ordinary situation can warrant the need for such a time bound disposal of plea. It added that if there is a case of urgency in disposal of the petition, concerned bench can always hear the petition.
It’s all very well for the bench to observe what they remarked. But the very fact, as in their very own words “Every high court and every court in the country has a huge pendency (of cases)” isn’t it simply a case of judicial procrastination! If only all judges and therefore courts had an approach of time bound – not necessarily very tight – schedule, the huge pending cases across the courts in the country wouldn’t have been there. It could have been a thing of the past instead of being present continuous.
There is sadly a laid back attitude by the judiciary to go gingerly without recognizing the suffering of the litigants. In fact, like medicos taking the HIPPOCRATIC OATH, even judges when taking judgeship should be asked to take an oath not to unnecessarily drag the case by giving avoidable adjournments. Courts should also increase the length of their sitting, besides reduce their breaks-summer break, winter break or monsoon break or whatever.
After all they are there to serve the litigants. Shouldn’t they complete it as quickly as possible?
Haryana: Ram Rahim and Furloughs
The controversial head of the Sirsa based Dera Sacha Sauda Sect, Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh, a double-rape and murder convict, has been granted a ‘three week furlough’, informs a print media report datelined Chandigarh. According to sources in public space, this convicted God man was granted some 12 leave of absence or furlough during the last 4 years. Clearly this God man is more free than in jail. He will be more than happy to be in jail, for obvious reasons, if the authorities release him periodically as per his whims and fancies. The question is why is the authority in Haryana bending backward to keep this God man turned convict in good humor?!
This head of Dera Sacha Sauda Sect is, for record, is currently serving a 20 years jail term for raping two of his disciples and a life sentence in a case of murder of a journalist. Besides he is also facing other criminal cases like castration of his disciples and sacrilege registered in Punjab. This is for public consumption and the accused culprit is not apparently worried since his periodic freedom is ensured by the who’s who in Haryana government.
Sirsa, is a town in the North West Haryana with a municipality, on the border with Rajasthan and Punjab. Thus it is touching three states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab. Way back in 1948, an ashram was set up by a saint named Mastana Ji Maharaj on a barren piece of land on the Sirsa Bhadra Road. Over a period, it grew with thousands of devotees thronging the ashram. Reportedly, Dera Sacha Sauda is a socio-spiritual organization with over 65 million faithful followers all over the world. It has seen three holymen in charge of the aashram since its inception. The present head of ashram is Dr. Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan (GRRSI) since 1990. It is very clear from the name; the name comprises of Ram, the Hindu God, Rahim is Muslim, Gurmit Singh is Sikh. Add to these three parts there is ‘Insan’, which means human. Indeed a very strange combination.
Wikipedia informs that, “He is a religious leader, social worker, actor, singer, writer, song writer, director and composer.” Places like aashrams with huge following of both men and women, is generally known to be exploiting vulnerable men and women. Many of them put-up with wrong doings to live another day but all may not. Thus this Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh was, one day, caught by the wrong foot. Wikipedia informs that this God man was convicted for two cases of rape leading to 10 years for each conviction. So its 20 years jail since 2017. Again in 2019, God man along with three others were convicted for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chatrapathi. On October 2021, CBI court held the God man and found four others guilty for the murder of Ranjit Singh, a former manager of the ashram.
Thus this Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh is a convicted felon deserving no leniency. But this government of Haryana, led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, has made a joke of the entire issue involving Gurmit RRS Insan by granting him series of leave of absence or furlough, over 12 times! The latest furlough is reportedly of some 3 weeks or 21 days. So, even if you take an average of 2 weeks per furlough, its 24 weeks out of jail in some 48 months.
Reportedly this God man unfortunately has political clout and therefore has the ability of influencing voters with his followers, in lakhs and crores. He was earlier friendly with Congress Party. But has apparently changed his affiliations when Narendra Modi, as the BJP candidate for Prime Minister-ship in 2014, praised this GRRSI, in his election campaign. No wonder, the Haryana government of BJP is bending backward to keep this man in good humor. This indeed is an unholy alliance. It must end in all fairness.
Erosion of Kejriwal’s credibilityAam Aadmi Party or AAP when it arrived on the political landscape of India, it was like a breath of fresh air. Most of the educated class of India, disillusioned by the machination of other main stream political parties, looked up to the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal with lot of hope of change for better.
It’s been more than 10 years, AAP tried to be an all India force to reckon with. While it is true that it has managed to have governments, both in Delhi and Punjab, it managed some presence in both Goa and Gujarat. Once AAP won Punjab assembly election and managed to win some seats in Gujarat and Goa, it naturally started to dream big.
Thus it took part in the recently held assembly elections to Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram. But expectedly drew a big blank, with huge number of them losing deposit.
So, what went wrong with the ‘blue eyed boy’ of Indian politics, Arvind Kejriwal, the Party Supremo and the Chief Minister of Delhi? His downfall had started the day he decided to hold both the positions of party chief and the Chief Ministership of Delhi. ‘One individual-One post’ was his own creation in the party, but he was the first to break it. Removing of Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav from the party membership was the first blunder he committed. His theatrics of protests did neither win friends nor influence people. He resorted to appeasement politics which won him seats in the short run. But unlikely to stand-in-good-stead, in coming days.
While his initial initiatives of Mohalla Clinics and improved government school infrastructure in Delhi did give him lot of accolades, failure to maintain the tempo of change started to tell on the acceptability of AAP. Most of the educated class have deserted him but as usual he continues to present a brave facade.
His minister Satyendra Jain was the earliest to be taken into custody under PMLA, who has remained incarcerated since quite some time. The scam of liquor license procedures and changes has, kind of, stuck like favicol. The defacto Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the deputy CM of Delhi, is in prison with court continuously refusing to bail him out. Sanjay Singh, another senior leader and Member of Parliament too is in prison.
It is suspected that both Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh have acted at the behest of the party Supremo and the CM, Arvind Kejriwal. No wonder the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the agency following the liquor license scandal, have asked the Chief Minister and Party Chief to present himself for questioning.
Believe it or not, the supposedly the most honest and cleanest politician of India had cold feet and just didn’t take the call. He not only defied the summons from the ED, he attempted to discredit the agency as “politically motivated”.
As an editorial of a national newspaper puts it “Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s recent actions have raised serious concerns about his commitment to the rule of law and transparency in government and is deeply troubling. As a public servant, he should have set an example by appearing before the ED and subjected himself to questioning, rather than avoiding it. If the Chief Minister believes that the notice issued to him is legally untenable, the proper course of action should have been to approach the courts and challenge it. Instead, he has chosen to disregard the summons, creating an unsettling precedent”.
The question arises: how long can Kejriwal continue to evade questioning? By avoiding the investigation, he not only damaged his own credibility, which anyway is in tatters, but also raises strong suspicion about his own involvement in the liquor policy scam, which allegedly involves substantial money trail of close to Rs 350 crores. Besides he has not been defending actions of his close deputies, who are in jail, which has eroded the trust in AAP government in public space.
Like a newspaper puts it, “In the interest of upholding principles of democracy and the rule of law, Kejriwal must reconsider his actions and so cooperate with ED’s investigation. Evading questioning only deepens the suspicion and erodes public trust. It is imperative for him to face these challenges head-on, respond to the allegations and provide a clear and compelling defense. Otherwise the shadow of doubt and mistrust that currently looms over him and his party will only continue to grow, leaving the people to wonder if something is indeed amiss in Delhi’s political landscape.”
West Bengal- Mahua Moitra
Member of Parliament (MP) anywhere in the world is generally governed by certain do’s and don’ts. They are expected to follow rules of the game and are found to be ethically beyond reprimand. But we are all privy to the knowledge that rules of conduct are there for all to follow but lot of these members of the hallowed legislative house are known to have compromised their position on many occasions. But it could be that, they have been discreet in their misdemeanor, if any.
Generally all of them manage to remain unscathed despite some liberties they all take, or at least most of them take. Some of them accept favors since it was offered formally, from some vested interest groups or individuals. It could be that these vested interest groups or individuals could be on the lookout for some governmental favors or something similar. Even to just maintain cordiality on occasions many business groups or corporate houses keep giving gifts as New Year compliments or Deepavali gifts etc. to those MPs. Never know, when one would need the help of these trustees of public faith, the parliamentarians. These practices are in vogue since long and in all places all over the world. And comes along this Mahua Moitra, an investment banker by education and profession, who became an M.P with TMC ticket in 2019. She was disqualified and expelled from Loksabha on 8th Dec 2023 for “Cash for Query” corruption charges and for taking bribe. She is a graduate in economics and mathematics from Massachusetts, U.S.
As an MP, she has been vitriolic against the NDA/BJP government including Prime Minister Modi on anything and everything. She was allegedly used by Darshan Hiranandani, a Dubai based businessman, to raise questions on the floor of parliament on Gautam Adani and his Adani group. There appears to be a quid-pro-quo. She has reportedly accepted both cash and expensive gifts in exchange for asking uncomfortable questions on Adani targeting the government in general and Prime Minister Modi in particular.
It is alright to attack Treasury benches or even Prime Minister, with relevant information or even irrelevant material. But as a Parliamentarian, one should do such acts with clean hands. You ask questions which may be ill informed in the first place then getting caught with hands full of muck including breach of privileges like outsourcing parliamentary privileges by allowing her businessman friend access to her parliamentary computer portal. Clearly she is in politics for realizing her selfish ends, not to serve the nation.
No wonder, the Ethics Committee of the parliament with majority from ruling combine expelled her from the LokSabha membership for her alleged wrong doing. Reportedly she has been expelled without giving her a hearing which is as per parliamentary procedure. This has prima facie, given potent ammunition for the TMC and the opposition to cry hoarse in the market place.
While giving a marching order to the discredited MP may be principally tenable, politically it could prove costly and counterproductive. The government could have used the situation to simmer and work on it to expose the venality of the lady. But now it’s over. It’s likely that TMC and opposition parties shall try to tell Indians how dictatorial the present government is, using the expulsion issue.
Jammu & Kashmir: Article 370
So, the infamous, controversial, albatross round the neck of J&K, called Article 370 has been dumped into the proverbial dustbin of history. The highest court of the land confirmed the abrogation of Article 370 by the Central government saying “it was always a temporary clause”. In its unanimous verdict, the five member constitution bench said “Article 370 read together with Article 1 leaves no manner of doubt that the integration of J&K as a part of the nation, which in itself is a union of states was complete. Any interpretation of Article 370 cannot postulate that the integration of J&K with India was temporary”.
Supreme Court was hearing a series of petitions challenging the scrapping of Article 370 by the Government of India. It was on 5th August 2019, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced on the floor of the parliament, to the utter shock of some of our political parties, that the Union Government is revoking the constitutional provision of Article 370 which granted special status to Jammu & Kashmir. Both houses of parliament passed the resolution after a raucous debate. Congress, which was the party responsible of including the Article 370 in the constitution called the abrogation, ‘murder of democracy’, ‘catastrophic’ and ‘black day’ etc.
It was way back in 1949, upon the specific demand of Sheikh Abdullah Article 370 was included in the constitution. Except Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, nobody supported it.
Article 370 gave some special privileges to J&K; 1) Special powers exercised by J&K. 2) Dual citizenship – Indian & Kashmiri with separate passports. 3) Separate flag for J&K. 4) No reservation for Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist minorities. 5) RTI not applicable. 6) Duration for Legislative assembly – 6 years. 7) Indians from other states cannot buy land or property in J&K. 8) If a J&K woman marries an outsider she will lose J&K citizenship. 9) Panchayats had no rights. 10) RTE not applicable.
With the abrogation of Article 370 by the Union government all the above privileges were also scrapped. 1) No more special powers. 2) Single Indian citizenship and passport. 3) Only Indian tricolor will be the flag. 4) Minorities to have 16% reservation. 5) RTI will be applicable. 6) Duration of assembly will be 5 years like all other assemblies. 7) All Indians can buy land in J&K. 8) Since J&K citizenship is scrapped, no restrictions on women to marry outside J&K. 9) Panchayats in J&K would enjoy same rights like other panchayats. 10) RTE will be applicable. Thus, the exclusive character of the state of Jammu & Kashmir will be a thing of the past. In fact it will not remain a state, it will be a Union Territory with Ladakh area being given a separate status as another Union Territory.
The special privelage of Article 370 did not give any economic benefit to the state by way of investors for setting up industries, which could have had multiple effect on the overall growth of the state. Now that the state is open for acquiring land, Indians from across the country will be visiting the state for their future industrial and business plans, including a second home in the Panun Kashmir.
This development with the intervention of the apex court augers well for the state, its people and the entire country. However, how some of the media houses have reacted is interesting for its own sake. While Free Press Journal had a straight forward headline “REST IN PEACE (R.I.P) ARTICLE 370”, the widely circulated Times of India titled the historic judgment of the Supreme Court as “SC upholds the Modi govt’s call to scrap J&K special status”, clearly displaying its jaundiced vision.
Maharashtra: Corporate Social Responsibilities
Contributions or donations by corporate houses under CSR is an ongoing activity in the country. These business houses, both as Tax Planning as well as some concern for social commitments, do take an interest in reaching out to society as large with their altruistic reach-out initiatives. It is a process of giving back to society, from where all of us draw our resources. These contributions do help us to improve the life of society in general and of those ‘have-nots’ in particular.
Reportedly, a multi-national conglomerate is looking to adopt some 5000 government run schools in the state of Maharashtra, informs the State Minister of Education. Report tells about adopting one school in each cluster. A cluster consists of some 8 to 10 schools. Maharashtra government had introduced a scheme to let philanthropists and business houses to adopt a government school for a period of 5 to 10 years by pledging to spend anywhere between Rs 50 lakhs and Rs 3 crores. Under the scheme the business houses can associate their names to further their business interest by way of publicity etc.
However, these corporate houses will have no other role in the running of the school, the scheme stipulates. While these reach-out initiatives by the trade and industry houses, so also individual donors is a welcome development, they should be given some space within the institutional set-up, so as to monitor the progress or otherwise due to their financial or material assistance. So that they are in a position to feel satisfied or otherwise due to their involvement. Such scope or such freedom offered to these organizations will spur them to do more. This can have multiplier effect.
These donations or contributions are not in cash but in services and provision of educational tools like computers, desks and benches, educational aids etc., which in the end will only enhance the quality of learning by students of these schools. No doubt that these supports and assistance will help, but one very important aspect of school education is the quality of teaching. Its important to have committed and knowledgeable teachers who are passionate about teaching, who enjoy teaching. As we all know there are for kinds of teachers. We have only informers, who only informs you. Then you have those who explain. Then you have those who demonstrate and the last is those who inspire. It’s the last one that truly serve the purpose of school education. But we all know that its always the mix of the above 4 categories that make the teaching fraternity. These corporate houses should make available their resources and expertise in making the quality of education better by promoting quality teaching skills by employing committed qualified staff, something none of our governments have thought about.
Critics of the scheme tell that the scheme has provided the State government an escape route from the governmental responsibility to provide quality education, which is true to a large extent. After all taxes are collected to serve the society. We all know that independent India has not been spending enough resources for both education and health which is truly the sine-quo-non for any country to get into a DEVELOPED category. Be that as it may, the initiatives by trade and industry is certainly a better way for its surplus resources to be deployed in furthering progress of country’s human resources. Hope they remain a permanent source of support, where governmental support is lacking.
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