Judicial Arrears

Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer’s elucidation and criticism on the mounting arrears on the files of judges and a thought-provoking controversial comment on the concern currently being expressed by many stalwarts in the field of judicial reforms are indeed a food for thought to the rulers and the ruled. Parkinson’s Law will show its ugly head undoubtedly in judicial positions too. The venerable Justice Iyer said it at last regarding the perils of present system at the helm of affairs in higher judiciary. What we need indeed are intelligent, competent and bold judges who can read between the lines when frivolous litigations are put up to them for hearing and disposal. Revolt of the masses is the end-result sooner or later if justice is denied to them or delayed due to the rotten procedure in the system.

Iyer expects the effective executive to call the bluff when judges invent alibi to explain their inefficiency and lack of integrity. But unfortunately the other side too is not all that greener really, nor competent or committed in terms of time and caliber as obtaining at present.

Let us therefore allow a revolt against the existing system in a non-violent way as in the case of freedom struggle in the thirties and forties of 20th century. Let us be Indian in our thought and action through a second freedom struggle to steer clear of the vestiges of British behaviour in the existing hierarchy of Indian democracy, Indian bureaucracy and Indian judiciary.

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Static Nature & Dynamic Man

As the man or woman grows in age, he watches nature or his environs first as a child, then an adolescent, a young man, an adult, a middle-aged man and as an elderly man before he leaves the earth and his ‘atma’ leaves the human body/form. Things that appear giant or too big in size and shape to a child’s vision actually don’t change in physical status but the same child after growing in age views those very things in proper perspective and in actual status. ‘Atma’ or the knowledge of the human body gets updated and adjusted according to the human’s needs and understanding.

Nature gets disturbed and keeps changing marginally as the humans deal with it in their inimical style. At times such interventions accommodate man’s greedy requirements up to a limit but little later nature too starts showing its annoyance or irritation in the form of Tsunami, El Nino/La nina, earthquakes etc. Man’s commission and omission lead to a devastating effect on the environs immediately but at the same time gradually but certainly afflicting the balance of nature. Man helplessly and consciously watches his own time passing fast and painfully realizing that his past days are not going to come again.

A kid keeps shaking its hands and legs hither and thither most of the time kicking at the body of mother and father in whose lap it happens to be lying. The kid expresses it needs by screaming and crying in the absence of ability to speak and convey. A little grown-up child walks, moves, jumps, laughs, cries and screams, watches environs and people around and speaks the language known and beautifully and joyfully entertains parents and relatives till it reaches the adolescent stage.

An adolescent gets attracted by opposite gender in a natural way. Most of his free time is spent in fantasizing the presence or touch of an individual whom he loves and longs for. Nature brings out changes in his/her physique and mental calibre. He tries to view the environs in the true colours and strength. After obtaining a professional or vocational skill in a formal or informal way he/she becomes an adult and starts practicing for earning his bread/livelihood. Every individual around him senior and junior in age and experience helps in getting him to know of their ideas and understanding of his environs and objects/symbols of nature.

The man is in his fully-grown and ripe age starts appreciating, reviewing, reassessing and readjusting his thoughts and actions vis-à-vis those objects of nature which normally continue for ages and ‘yugas’. Man’s trivial length of life in comparison to the infinite age and indefinite change of nature in timeless future, man’s history, his knowledge of science and technology, the expanse of his brain power are all insignificant compared to the Creator’s designs and the charisma of cosmos in its time path.

Hail the Nature and Haul the Humans.

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Sad End of a Solid Life

A healthy and happy family of Karambir Singh Kang, the G.M. of Mumbai Taj Hotel met its tragic end on 26th November 2008 when the terrorists attacked and killed nearly 200 people in the city. GM of Taj Hotel at Mumbai is really a coveted and jealous post for any managerial incumbent. A Punjabi by birth must have really enjoyed his tenure with unlimited perks and privileges in the post and premier property of Taj Group.

Tragedy visits an individual or a family without any prior warning. It never allows an event to alter the visiting devastation into a positive and lucky ending always. Only a few do qualify in such a situation either by sheer stroke of luck or with a shrewd planning for an emergency escape. Is it the fate’s success or the man’s failure or both? I think it is both but the latter can ensure the former’s defeat provided the victim concerned reaches a cool-headed thought and ensures its timely implementation in quick succession. Unfortunately this was missing in the family and friend circle or colleagues of Kang.

Look at Srinivasan’s tragedy ending in flawless escape from the same hotel’s third floor after a similar ordeal in inferno and awful atrocity enacted by terrorists on that fateful night. A Chartered Accountant by profession checked in the hotel a few minutes before the entry of law-breakers instead of a different accommodation normally availed of by him in his earlier visits to the city. A constant touch with his close friends soon after the entry and the commotion created in the neighbourhood and the follow-up action he adopted on their sincere advice over the mobile phone and on his own commonsense dictated by his senses and reflexes enabled him to escape with the vigilant and venerative action of fire-brigade personnel.

May be GM Kang was busy elsewhere without any staff being able to contact him and make him feel the gravity of the situation as it was unfurling in the full view of other catering and security staff present on duty at that hour. He was perhaps physically and mentally not alert to perceive the enormity of the scenario and accordingly alert his wife and evacuate the family despite the full knowledge of the building’s layout and the familiar staff available on the spot at that point of time within the campus.

How would anyone else explain the enigmatic turn of events indicating the possibility of family shifting in a few days to a different location in the city and getting an admission to the younger son in a good school in the new locale but forcing Kang to not only lose his beloved wife and the fortunate children but also their belongings except laptop and a mobile in toto without leaving a trace of their relationship or memory in this mundane world. What an irony? It is not a natural disaster. It is only a man-made disaster made possible by a terror attack and a terrific lapse on the part of the head of the family. He was closer to the family in the same building occupying the highest position on the spot and having all the where-withal of the powerful and plumb posting at his command but all this came to naught in his case.

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Big Brains and Brainy Thoughts

In our own lifetime we see several thinkers, politicians, teachers teaming with new ideas, different approaches, more and more initiative with a mind to foresee future prospects and human needs. Mahatma Gandhi experimented with newer and more practical ideas as and when the issues appeared before him and gave vent to those thoughts, lectured often and put them in black and white. While a few of them were thought of and sought to be practiced by some people and institutions – whole-heartedly or half-heartedly, they not only met with success but at times with failures too. Central and State governments that had succeeded him in time did the same with mixed results. But importantly many thoughts of his on major issues like national defence, basic education, industrial development and village self-sufficiency etc. didn’t find favour with decision-makers and policy framers from time to time. In a way it is not necessary also that every idea of his may be suitable to all people at all times. But the difference between him and other thinkers is that he not only preached what he believed to be correct in the context but also tried to practice what he preached. His thought and action reflected honesty in its conceptualisation and commercialisation. The ideal thing is that a thinking society and the powers-that-be should make a thorough analysis of such Gandhian thoughts and ideas and select the best ones suitable at a particular point of time. Nehruvian thoughts and approaches also had a similar fate. In his case he was not only a thinker but also a practitioner of some of his own ideas and thoughts owing to his position as the first Prime Minister of this country from 1947 to 1964 till his death. He was considered to be the architect of modern India and the Socialist Republic of India with major steel units, multipurpose irrigation dams/projects, agrarian reforms etc. His monumental oversight was in the arena of mass literacy campaign facilitating a check on galloping population growth. A simple and unlettered mass leader K. Kamaraj from deep South knew its necessity and enabled the mass education for about a decade in the state of Tamil Nadu. The literate Tamil Nadu and its balanced growth of population owe to the direct contribution of this great leader. The legacy left by him had been literally followed by successive Chief Ministers not only in Tamil Nadu but in other states as well.

The biggest brains that influenced humanity to their ways of thinking and life were Gautam Buddha, Mahavir, Jesus Christ, Mohammad Nabi and Guru Nanak. The whole world or different parts of the world follow their teachings with faith and prayer for more than two millenniums in majority of the cases and they only know for how many more millenniums they would continue to do so till the Great Deluge or the Holocaust one keeps talking about. Humanity survived and sustained on longevity albeit many wars were fought by their practitioners all along. Love and peace were the cardinal principles taught by them but some of the fundamentalists from among their followers take extreme positions in politics, economics and religion of late abetting crime, hatred, terrorism in their respective areas of influence.

Marxism in political economy had its sway for quite sometime in the 20th century. Its core thoughts and principles were followed in some parts of the globe with varied and mixed results of course. Of late it is practiced in limited number of countries in modified versions based on practical wisdom and contemporary contingencies. Pure communism as attempted in USSR is no more in existence. With a few reforms in approach and content, socialism with limited scope for individual enterprise and flexible international trade practices enabling mass employment of working class in mass production of exportable and consumable goods at comparatively cheap costs is prevalent in some countries like Russia and East European nations, Middle and South America and China.

Nation Awaiting a Laboured Landscape

The patch between Bhopal and Betul and beyond – towards Nagpur – needs the development of a landscape by men and machines over the next one decade. Minimum Employment Guarantee Act can be timely utilized by a development administrator – retired or serving – with some defined goals to be designed and developed over a specified period of time.

In and around and up to a distance of some five kilometers in all the four directions of Itarsi Railway junction, a litter-free zone can be created – it should be free especially from poly-products like bags, cans, wrappers, napkins and containers, strewn all around giving a nasty and awkward look and posing a challenge to the administration – both Railway and Civil (state and local body). Are we short of funds or brain power or capacity to deliver? No! But yes we are short of men who could view and purview a strategy and execute it with a missionary zeal. Maintenance and development of the land adjoining the railway track is a subject which needs serious attention sooner or later. Such a scenery and its concomitant development alone can improve the image of “Incredible India” and boost the prospects of tourism in the country. In addition we the Indians traveling by train would feel that well, we are indeed civilized human beings knowing the value of land and the need to protect it for a better look and posterity.

Stretch of lands around the track near towns and cities all over the country are unashamedly encroached and degraded with litter and sewer for decades now. They too need to be looked into, schemes drawn and projects executed without any further delay and discord. Slums near the tracks can be surveyed, low-income earners identified and shifted to multi-storied flats built especially to shelter such house-holds in a systematic manner.

Value of land is known better in countries like Japan, Israel or in densely populated areas in our own towns and metros. It needs a man-power planning of the highest order and in deepest thoughts by well-intentioned Civil Engineers and Administrators. Piecemeal attempts in the form of land reclamation by soil conservation wings attached to Agriculture Departments/Ministries and individual land-holders are not found satisfactory and sufficient in their reach and quality. Crores of rupees had already been spent on such projects during the last several decades.

Planning at the national level as well as at the state levels would ensure its implementation by a team of experts, executives and engineers mandated but undisturbed for a fixed tenure or a fairly long time for the purpose. Planning Commission can initiate this idea and involve the concerned ministries to draw detailed proposals and projects, monitor the progress in project preparation, arrange necessary approvals and sanctions from the concerned departments with adequate financial outlays – both from budgetary sources and otherwise and ensure proper and timely implementation of those projects across the length and breadth of this nation. We, the people of India, know the speed and gravity with which our planners and the bureaucrats are able to pursue and get the goods delivered in the present milieu. Many a bureaucrat or technocrat posted in Ministries/Departments in Government of India or State Governments are hardly in a position to see the end-result of any scheme/projects he or she initiates in their career in many cases. So what we need is a different sort of team totally dedicated not on the basis of their Annual Confidential Rolls but on the basis of solid commitment to work enlisted through a detailed interview for a few days in a camp. Schemes of such a nature sans proper selection of a team do normally end up soon as a decorative showpiece.

Tropical Forests of Central India between Betul and Itarsi can be developed into a beautiful tourist paradise especially to those from Gulf countries, South Asia and South East Asia for their visit during December – March. Deep in the interior forest locations, structures such as tourists’ lodges, animal watch towers, log huts, drive-in paths can be developed so that tourists can visit, stay and enjoy the Satpura ranges for a definite number of days. Plantation around the tracks in other parts of Indian Sub-continent especially near the urban centers can be taken up by the plantation wing of the Project Authority. Selection of species, nurturing of the saplings and actual plantation work need a thorough estimate, survey and sanction followed by implementation. After all every penny spent on a project should not only serve a social and environmental purpose but also take care of economic utility/commercial interests as far as possible. The best example which comes to our mind immediately is the commercial ventures designed and developed along the Super Highway (Road ways) between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore by the Malaysian Authorities.

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“Had Sardarji Lived………”

Harsh Mander’s (The Hindu Sunday Magazine dt. 22.11.2009) detailed depiction of a gory violence and massacre let loose in the life of Mrs. Lachmi Kaur by the so called sympathizers and satans in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination on all turbaned Sardars of Sikh Community especially in Delhi is indeed heart-rending and making our blood boil. What a wreck man can play in the name of religion? When the titans fight on the basis of beliefs and principles, not only the titans loose their lives, but hundreds of their followers and thousands of innocent civilians and citizens belonging to a cult, religion or region too are done to death mercilessly. Man for a man or a woman is understandable although per se reprehensible but thousands of individuals for a man or a woman reflects the brutality of a section or a group. Who is to and how to teach them a sense of propriety or wisdom? So-called god-men and god-women should take up such responsibilities for good conduct and reasonable restriction on the man’s evil actions. Every religion speaks of quality of innate man’s good behaviour, peaceful co-existence and harmonious brotherhood but some of its followers known for bigotry and fundamentalism indulge in acts of intolerance towards different outlooks and normal dissent in expression and try to show their supremacy in thought and action through violent means. Man-made disasters are worse than natural disasters which ipso facto do take a toll in great numbers from time to time. Man manifests both good and evil nature in mind and body in different proportions. It is the duty of the society and its citizens to inculcate and instigate more of good forces and suppress and subjugate the evil ones promptly and periodically for the good and orderly life of the nation. Anti-Sikh riots and Anti-Muslim retributions need to be studied and requisite social action mooted by the will-wishers of India’s secular democracy so that we prove ourselves worthy of being rated as intellectuals and civilized human beings of 21st century unlike our ancestors in B.C. and the first millennium in A.D.

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Pot-Holes in Bharat Roads

Kashmir to Kanyakumari is our Bharat. ‘Mera Bharat Hai Mahan Desh’ (My Bharat is great nation). Due to paucity of funds or scarcity of thought or both put together we are unable to make roads especially black-top roads which can see through at least two rainy seasons. Black-topping is done every year after the rains. The bejewelled Indian bride (renovated roads) becomes ugly with small pox symptoms in the form of pot-holes needing treatment every year. This is a malady afflicting almost all roads from Kashmir to Kanyakumari with no exception.

We may compare and contrast this scenery with the roads in Europe especially in a country like U.K. where rain-soaked bitumen roads never develop cracks, nor create pot-holes anytime of the year – rain or no rain! The so called four-lane roads constructed recently in India with regular toll collections hardly offer a smooth surface all over the length. The patch near Rajiv Gandhi Memorial in Sriperumbadur on Chennai-Bangalore National Highway is a typical illustration of this phenomenon. Super highways in Europe or USA should be seen and driven over to believe their superior quality in erection and maintenance.

Let the policy makers, executing engineers and budget providers make a note of this mundane phenomenon and do the needful as and when possible in the near future.

Crux of Section 377 (I.P.C)

Indian Penal Code initially drafted by Lord Macaulay was based on the moral principles of English law and character, celibacy and monogamy, etc. etc. These tenets were all born out of Christian morality and traditions developed over a number of centuries. Sex is a term which usually connects two individuals of any animal species - a male and a female. Any amoral relationship between the two human beings especially permitted by the society and based on mutual consent is treated to be a perfect and a practical mode of showing/exhibiting one’s love and affection. But if the same is found between two individuals of the same gender is taken to be somewhat an unusual conduct and bizarre development in a traditional set-up. Since it was abhorrent and considered unethical in the outlook of majority in human species, the law makers thought it better to discourage, if not abolish altogether, the homosexual or lesbian behaviour of the citizens in a civilized society. There is no law or a rule in any human society/state which could be implemented in full in private or public life unless the same is noticed by others and taken up for investigation and prosecution for its non-observance or violation. It is but a paradox in our society that while 90% of those who punished and get jailed by the state machinery are innocent or pushed into criminal stream by circumstances, about 90% of the offenders of law and criminals under some statute or other go scot-free and found roaming at large like gentlemen in our midst.

Gay relationship is sought to be justified and lawfully permitted in some western countries. The day is not far off when it is legally practiced and accepted by modern societies. After all any form of pleasure should be permitted with moderation i.e. within reasonable limits and without forcing any individual against his or her will and consent!

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