When religion became a burden for Justice Dinakaran

What a hypocrite ? Justice Dinakaran, finally resigned when the noose tightened around his neck, in the impeachment proceedings -- with SC clearing all hurdles to go ahead. He has suddenly discovered, that he is a Christian and that too a dalit and that is why he is being prosecuted. When he was recruited based on reservation into the lower judiciary, got promoted and eventually appointed to High Court all based on his being a Christian and Dalit, he didn't find that burdening. When a caste/religion agnostic corruption probe is launched he suddenly discovers his minority origin... Shame on you Dinakaran -- you have let down all the downtrodden masses who looked up to you as a hero....

Watch out for the "Civil Society" - Part 4

Watch out for the Civil Society Part 4

Boy, just as I thought the congress and their media inspired civil society will take a break, they are onto the next one. The topic this time is “Judicial overreach”. The debate and the orchestration of it is also going along predictable lines.
1. There is constitutional separation of powers
2. Supreme court is subsuming the government
3. Court is establishing precedent
4. Etc. on a variety of issues…
Let us ignore these morons and for ourselves, analyze the issue of what has the court done, the potential and consequences of its actions if any…

1. In the 2G case, the court admonishes the government and the ministry and assumes direct ownership of the investigations by the CBI, thoroughly delinking it from the government
2. In the black money case, the court creates a special investigation team and makes all relevant heads of government departments, who are charged with investigating financial crimes, members reporting into it.
That is it, this has ticked off the media and government with several intellectuals worrying about “Judicial overreach”. There is predictable and nauseating discourse on constitution. All these folks have forgotten that when one arm of the constitution abdicates its responsibility, the others exist to checkmate that and course correct it. Any disagreements?

Now, in light of the above, let us look as to why the courts had to “over reach”.
1. In the 2G after the initial admonishment the CBI filed charge sheet against “unknown persons” and didn’t do anything for 2+ years. That is right. Other than filling in a statutory requirement that too with the best option to let off the accused, the government (through CBI) was circumventing and totally abdicating its responsibility. Even after the second round of admonishment the CBI just filed two cases out of the 14 where there were blatant wrong doing by the minister!
2. The IT department sent a notice for concealed income and back taxes and penalties for 9000 crores to Hasan Ali, a known Congress Money launderer. Yet, other departments which charted with tracking the source of illegal income sat silent on the petition for 6 years. Yes SIX years… Even after the initial admonishment of the Supreme Court the government formed a committee of secretaries and was patting itself on the back! That is it no progress for 9 months.
For all the so called “intellectuals” and “constitutional experts” I have one question, what is the remedy? One more arm of the constitution the President is nothing more than a lapdog, which will lick and clean Antonio Maino’s feet at the drop of a hat. So which branch in the constitution the citizenry can lay its hopes on?

Please answer all these questions and judge for yourselves as to whether there is any judicial overreach? I for one am very happy at this transgression by the SC, if at all there is one.

Part 3 - http://baskarkothandaraman.blogspot.com/2011/07/watch-out-for-civil-society-part-3.html
Part 2 - http://baskarkothandaraman.blogspot.com/2011/04/watchout-for-civil-society-part-2.html
Part 1 - http://baskarkothandaraman.blogspot.com/2010/10/watch-out-for-civil-society.html

Watch out for the Civil Society – Part 3

Crocodile tears for under trials and judicial system.

There is a lot of noise about judicial delays in India, in the media today. By default, a panel will be assembled with a sympathetic politician, a lawyer from SC and member of human rights forum. They will shed tons of tears for the backlog of around 3crores of cases in the judicial system. How more than 2.5 lakhs of under trials are languishing in jails awaiting trial, how we need to speed things up etc. blah, blah.

On the face of it, nothing wrong right? Well, such shedding of crocodile tears will always be followed by how unfairly, RAJA, KALMADI & KANIMOZHI are victims of this horrendous judicial system in India, how they “deserved” bail but have not been given due to media pressure, over lynch mob mentality of the public etc.

Well, now you understand the where the real sympathy lies ? They will consciously ask/mask all reasonable attempts at reason/debate.

E.g. If so many under trials are already languishing in jails for several years, what is special about Raja/Kalmadi/Kanimozhi they their cases needed to be acted with alacrity. They can ensure that they get out of jail, by asking for a fast track court for corruption, ensure that they don’t even request a single adjournment, stop all frivolous appeals unless and until the court of first instance is done with its job of conducting a fair trial. Will they take up this offer, me thinks not.

Keep in mind, no politician while in office has even been filed a charge sheet against corruption and proceeded against, while they or their allies were in power. Even in the present case, the UPA government tried every trick in the book, including browbeating the CBI into filing charge sheets against “unknown persons”! It is due to the zeal shown by the Supreme Court that some light is now in the tunnel, though not the end of it.

Considering the capability that exists in these individuals and their allies all the way to the Italian Maatha, I am say -- get them even if it means going against the norm.

Human rights are not applicable those that work against the welfare of the society. Make no mistake, corruption is clearly against societal interests. So we should ignore such crocodile tears – at the minimum for some time – to come. We all know the saying that “All is fair in Love and War” it is time we added “getting at the corrupt” to that list.

The burden of Secularism ?

What exactly is communal violence ?

We all have seen the recent scorn heaped on the “Civil Society” by Kapil Sibal, Digvijaya Singh etc. as to how to unelected folks are dictating terms and even righteous anger displayed and scorn heaped as well. Behind the Scenes, quietly this government and all the intellectuals are licking the feet of Antionio Maino headed NAC and processes are under way to pass several bills from NAC as is in the parliament. The main and the most devious one amongst them is the “Communal Violence Bill”.

This bill is a pure political ploy to play to the minority galleries just in time for UP elections, where congress is still nurturing a dream that “Yuvarajaa” will be able to make an impact at least in one state. On the face of it, who could argue with a bill the compensates victims of communal riots, compensates them better and ensures that justice is done, right ?

Well, the devil is in the details, the bill deals with violence only against a specific group, if you look at the definition of who are this group then it becomes obvious to as to what is the intent behind the bill. OK, what a “group” is defined as follows: “A 'group' means a religious or linguistic minority and in a given state may include the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.”

Now you understand why I am upset. Why should the government treat some violence as more worthy of attention than others? The excuse given is the existing laws are firm enough to deal with the rest. This is the same twisted logic that has resulted in a commission for every category of individual in India. We have commissions for “Child welfare”, “Women”, Minorities & Soon for “Homosexuals”. All at the same time, we have a “National Human Rights Commission”. What rights are these specific categories entitled to -- which are beyond the rights entitled to every human being, escapes my reasoning. Now we have this communal violence bill. Where in the train burning and killing of Majority is “Secular” but the retaliatory riots (equally heinous) is “Communal” Even in the same riot, violence against majority is “Secular” and against others is “Communal”. This is insanity, there is hardly any debate, every well-meaning news anchor and paper should be screaming against this bill, but the media in India is largely subservient to the white skin of the ruling Maatha.

Oh, Yeah the parliament has proposed another bill that makes denial of apartment rental etc. to minorities -- an offense. Yes, a catholic housing society in Mumbai can still ask all prospective tenants to get a certificate from the local parish, but a Hindu society can’t do the same. Yet, all this is very “progressive”.

I am of the view, that such special privileges, categorization and treatment to various groups will only perpetuate the divisions that exist in the society today.

Why am I alone in this thought ? It seems that the burden of secularism is only on the Hindus, as far as the Congress and their media allies are concerned. Very disappointed, we really need a change of government. This is more dangerous than the monumental corruption that the Italian Maatha has presided over.

"National" news that shakes all of us, yeah right...

Today, an earth shaking event happened in India and the so called national channels are going gaga over it expressing shock and indignation. What happened ?

• Did a terrorist attack happen ?
• Did the government enact a lokpal ?
• Did corrupt cabinet ministers get dismissed ?
• Did we win a nobel prize ?
• At least, did Yuvaraja get married ?

Nope, not even close. Sit down, take a breath. The earth shaking event that impacts all of India is (drum roll please….) that of Delhi University’s college cut-off mark list. Yes, this news of so much “National Importance” is all the rage in the news channels (the Delhi kind). The arrogance and the presumption that somehow all of India cares about this is shocking. It would be interesting to poll in Andhra and TN and find out as to how many of the citizens there can even name even one of the so called “Institutes of national importance in Delhi” like St Stephen’s college or Lady Shriram College of Commerce etc. The first time I came to know about any of these is through NDTV, hell I got to know that there is a festival called Holi only when I went to IISc Bangalore. Even during the time the Central government was showing only the Hindi DD all over the nation sans a few metros… (Thank god that changed with cable and DTH, today you can live anywhere in India and not be kept away from entertainment in your native tongue..)

As hard as it is to believe, I hate to break the news to all the “national” news channels, that rest of India doesn’t care about this. Even NDTV had to shed its arrogance and had to start a Chennai based one called NDTV HINDU to get viewership in TN. So get a clue and stop this obsession that somehow, all of India cares about all the nitty, gritty and sundry in Delhi. Other than our parliament, Supreme Court and Scams nothing else gets paid attention to by rest of India on Delhi.

Now, coming to one specific issue there is huge ruckus that some commerce college in Delhi has announced a cut-off mark of 100% for non-commerce stream students. Even, our pseudo intellectual HRD minister has jumped into the fray -- expressing shock at this insanity which is designed to keep out science stream students from commerce. I for one, say more power to them. In all fairness, if you didn’t take science and took commerce instead you were never allowed to pursue degree in science, why commerce should be thought of as an “second class discipline” that all and sundry who never intended to opt for it should come in ? But then I am being logical here, so will not align with the lot that goes for intelligentsia in the media.

Is it time to give up on Indian Media ?

It is shameful that analytical reports are rarity now-a-days in the media particularly the English electronic media. The correspondents and all the way to the so called “brand name anchors” are either unwilling or unable to ask all the tough questions. The recent Baba Ramdev episode is a case in point here. As a layman who watched the proceedings the following questions immediately come to my mind?

1. When did the government discover that Baba Ramdev’s movement was a front for RSS, is it midnight of the raid?
2. If they had known it all along, why did the rush several heavy hitters to meet him and separate him from the rest and negotiate with him in good faith?
3. If the national interest were not threatened by the summit of separatists with Arundati Roy et al advocating even break up, if the home minister waxed eloquent about how diverse viewpoints are essential for democracy, what made him react with alarm when a movement against corruption had a forum?
4. If indeed, what Kapil Sibal said is true that Baba Ramdev agreed on some things and then went back, the media singularly failed to highlight what Sibal& Co did to Anna Hazare’s panel during lokpal bill follow-up? If so, why is he himself upset it at now. He was the one that taught that underhandedness to the “civil society”.
5. Even if indeed, RSS was behind it, what is so anti-national about it?
6. If constitutional bodies are being circumvented by movements started by individuals, then what is Antonio Maino doing in NAC, why everything proposed by NAC is taken as “gospel” by the government? Abolish that as well….

I want the media and the so called “journalists” to have hands on their hearts and introspect.

I still have my hopes…Do you?

A very upset, secular & law abiding Indian.

Hmm... If Osama has been killed in India....

If Gujarat Police had killed Osama… (special thanks to Ravikumar for having triggered this thought)....

1. The NGO factory, will file one million cases in the Supreme Court asking whether the encounter was legal. How manufactured evidence of Osama’s implication in terrorist attacks and leadership of al-Qaeida has been provided by Obama to Modi and unquestioned Modi ordered the elimination of Muslims in the operation to Kill Osama.
2. Teesta Setlavaad will distribute one hundred million Xeroxed copies to various people, all vouching as to how they “saw” a ‘pregnant Osama’ (sic!) was dragged out, his tummy butchered and the still born baby was killed by Gujarat Police Mobs.
3. Digvijay will hold a press conference in “Azamgarh, UP” deriding the continuous prosecution of Muslims by the US based BJP and Hindu terrorist cops. How he had spoken to Osama personally, before 9/11 and how Osama had assured him that his actions were intended only against anti-Muslim infidels and not Mr. Digvijay singh. How Osama expressed anguish at reported speeches by Narendra Modi during election campaigns and decided to terrorize America!
4. Javed Aktar will come on TV waxing eloquent as to how the Godhra train burning and reprisal was the inspiration for Osama and how Gujarat government is squarely behind it. How not enough Hindus have been killed yet by Osama as proof that he was not a terrorist.
5. Arnab Goswami, will host 100 days long special, as to how Times NOW had an exclusive footage of Osama defecating in the open in the mansion compound and about that Act’s serious implications for the security environment to India! With Digvijay Singh moderating a special panel discussion on how defecation by Hindu Terrorists poses a serious threat to the secular fabric of India.
6. Yuvarajaa, will visit various Madrasas interacting with the youth, reinforcing how Osama was a devout Muslim, asking the youth to emulate him.
7. Italian Maatha will not say a word, remaining aloof and thereby “intellectual” to the NDTV.
8. Manmohan, will announce how his government is to appoint a Sachar Commission (part 2) to find out why Minorities are not having enough share of “terrorist jobs” how according to Digvijay singh, all opportunities are being cornered by Hindus…

Now, aren’t you glad that he was killed by the US forces in Pakistan? Still, Digvijay Singh expresses grief at Osama not being given a proper Islamic burial….. so that he couldn't get his 72 virgins in heaven. God help this nation…