Only a strong institutional response will serve the cause of justice following the communally charged remarks by a judge of the Allahabad High Court. Demands have been put forth for an inquiry against Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav, suspension of his judicial work and even impeachment. The Supreme Court has sought details of the controversial speech amid protests that this brazen violation of the code of conduct casts doubts on the judiciary’s independence and neutrality. Addressing an event organized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on the Uniform Civil Code, Justice Yadav said the country would function as per the wishes of the majority. Replete with communal slurs, his speech also alluded to the media attention it would generate. A line has been crossed, and what’s worse, all too knowingly.
Impartiality is the cornerstone of the Constitution and the rule of law. An individual who has taken oath to uphold these principles making an exhibition of his prejudices does a huge disservice to both his constitutional role and the judicial system. The impact is not confined to communal unrest; it erodes public faith in the judiciary’s integrity. A denial or a rebuttable will not suffice. There must be consequences. The top court, the expectation is, will send a firm message on what is not acceptable.
A Supreme Court Bench’s observations after its suo motu cognizance of objectionable remarks by a Karnataka High Court judge need reiteration. The perception of justice to every segment of society, it said, was as important as the rendition of justice. It was intrinsic for judges to be aware of their own predispositions, it noted, because it was only on the basis of such awareness that they could remain truly faithful to deliver objective and fair justice. Hear, hear, Justice Yadav.
(Tribune, India)
Weeks after the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the rollout of the Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand, the BJP has ticked another important box in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls by announcing the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Over four years after the law was passed, the Centre has notified the rules to fast-track citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 31, 2014, fleeing persecution on religious grounds.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has asserted that the CAA will not take away anyone’s citizenship, even as the Opposition and some religious groups are apprehensive that the enforcement of the law will intensify communal polarization. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has declared that she would fiercely oppose the CAA if it turns out to be discriminatory against people living in India or curtails their existing citizenship rights. The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has approached the Supreme Court, seeking a stay on the implementation of the rules that are ‘manifestly arbitrary and create an unfair advantage in favor of a class of persons on the grounds of religious identity’.
The passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill by Parliament in December 2019 and the subsequent presidential assent had triggered protests in parts of the country. The law has been under fire for excluding Muslims from its ambit despite the fact that Muslim minority communities have faced persecution in India’s neighborhood. There are also fears that Muslim refugees will be singled out as ‘illegal migrants’ in India. The onus is on the Centre to convince various stakeholders, primarily in states such as West Bengal and Assam which share their borders with Bangladesh, that the law is not politically or electorally motivated but is aimed at weeding out infiltrators and streamlining the grant of citizenship.
(Tribune, India)
Structural weakness in Indian democracy needs to be addressed urgently
“Poaching legislators is not new to our democracy. The terms ‘Aaya Ram’ and ‘Gaya Ram’ were coined decades ago when political leaders of Haryana adopted the method of enticing elected members of rival parties to cross over to bring down governments. Some sense of shame must have seeped in because there was a lull in such shenanigans for some time till Congress lawmakers shifted en masse to the BJP in Goa in 2019, tempted by the lure of office.”
By Julio Ribeiro
Very soon, the BJP ranks will be stacked with Congress leaders seeking a lucrative future. After former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan left the Congress and joined the BJP, former Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath seems ready to jump the ‘sinking ship’.
The inability of INDIA parties to look beyond their noses has virtually sealed their fate.
Nath had handed over Madhya Pradesh to the BJP on a platter due to his misreading of the voters’ preferences and mishandling of other anti-BJP parties.
Chavan’s standing in Maharashtra politics was visibly on the decline. He had even lost his Nanded seat to the BJP’s Prataprao Govindrao Chikhalikar in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. His father, Shankarrao Chavan, was a highly respected politician who had served as the CM and Union Home Minister. Shankarrao had scruples about corruption which his son did not share.
Chavan has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha by his new-found friends. He will have to compete for a ministership with other turncoats from Maharashtra like Narayan Rane, who was another ‘candidate’ for probes by investigation agencies had he not crossed over a few years ago.
The migration of the inglorious from the Opposition to the ruling party has picked up steam before the Lok Sabha polls. Is the BJP’s goal a Congress-mukt polity or an Opposition-mukt one? Starting with those with skeletons in their cupboards, others who hanker for the spoils of office or just want to feel important will gravitate to the winning side. Greed is the guide. The BJP capitalizes on this.
Recently, the AAP-Congress combine was assured of victory in the Chandigarh mayoral poll with 20 votes out of 36. The returning officer invalidated eight votes to ensure the BJP’s win. The Supreme Court had to intervene and order the prosecution of the returning officer. It declared the AAP-Congress candidate as the winner. Before the SC verdict, the BJP, the party that had once proclaimed that it was ‘different’, carried out ‘Operation Lotus’ to make three AAP councilors switch camps.
Poaching legislators is not new to our democracy. The terms ‘Aaya Ram’ and ‘Gaya Ram’ were coined decades ago when political leaders of Haryana adopted the method of enticing elected members of rival parties to cross over to bring down governments. Some sense of shame must have seeped in because there was a lull in such shenanigans for some time till Congress lawmakers shifted en masse to the BJP in Goa in 2019, tempted by the lure of office.
The BJP has sharpened this unethical method to a fine art after tasting blood. In Karnataka, it displaced the Congress government by successfully luring a good number of its legislators to change sides. In Maharashtra, this game is being played out even today. The voters who voted against the BJP have been short-changed. They vote for a particular party on ideological grounds but cannot be sure that those whom the party has chosen to represent them will continue to reflect their aspirations, once elected.
This is a structural weakness of Indian democracy. It needs to be urgently addressed. No legislator or corporator should be allowed to cross over mid-term. If he has concerns about the policies of the party on whose ticket he was elected, he should resign from the Assembly and re-contest on the ticket of his new party. If he is popular in his constituency, he may well win again, but at least those who voted for him or her on ideological grounds will not be let down.
Since the BJP’s new tactic of remaining in power at any cost, fair or foul, has obviously kicked in, it is urgent to restore our good name in the democratic world by devising a mechanism to combat this menace of ‘Aaya Rams’ coming and ‘Gaya Rams’ going for reasons far removed from dissatisfaction with the policies followed by the party which they have decided to discard.
The inability of INDIA parties to look beyond their noses has virtually sealed their fate. After the votes are counted and Modi is back in North Block for another term of five years, expect Opposition leaders to face the music in a much more defined degree. The ED, the CBI and other Central agencies will make their lives uncomfortable. Only those who cross over can expect to be absolved of their sins.
If the BJP gets a two-thirds majority in Parliament, the Constitution will be subject to revision. Women, in particular, will have to conform to a rigid standard of morality. Live-in relationships, which are now common among the urban liberated youth, will be frowned upon, like we have seen in Uttarakhand, whose holier-than-thou Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has introduced the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which restricts choices in love and marriage.
I have no objection to the UCC as long as the objective is to ensure that women are treated on a par with men. The rights of the woman in inheritance of her father’s property and her right to choose her life partner should be upheld. There are myriad related issues like divorce and adoption, but the right to inheritance and the right to choose one’s spouse are paramount.
It is not wise to advise the BJP to desist from accepting tainted members of Opposition parties in its fold. The BJP is on a roll. Modi consecrated the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, secured the release of eight former Navy personnel sentenced to death by a court in Qatar for alleged spying, and inaugurated a Hindu temple in a Muslim-majority country (UAE).
Unfortunately, there are counter-balancing issues. The farmers’ agitation for legal guarantee for procurement at the MSP is one such issue. If the demand is conceded, it will compromise fiscal responsibility. The unabated violence in Manipur is another. The BJP knows the people responsible for the raging fire, but its hands are tied. If the incompetent CM Biren Singh is replaced, the Meitei vote will be in doubt. Reservation for Marathas is yet another issue that defies accepted solutions. It is not going to be an easy ride!
There are many other such problems that Modi will have to solve, but he is postponing action till the Lok Sabha polls are over.
(The author is a former governor, and a highly decorated Indian Police Service officer)
Karnataka, which goes to the polls on May 10, is a high-stakes state for both the BJP and the Congress. It’s the first major Assembly battle of the year and the two parties are keen to win it with an eye on the 2024 General Election. The BJP, which came to power in Karnataka in 2019 after the collapse of the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) government, has promised to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The party claims that the UCC would ensure gender justice and equal rights for Muslim women. This is significant for a state where Muslims account for around 13 per cent of the electorate. Even as the BJP government’s decision to scrap 4 per cent OBC quota for Muslims has been challenged in the Supreme Court, the party is keen to split the community vote — to the detriment of its main rivals.
What’s common between the election manifestos of the BJP and the Congress is a slew of freebies. Notwithstanding PM Modi’s avowed disdain for the ‘revdi culture,’ the BJP has promised to provide three cooking gas cylinders free of cost to all BPL families — one each during the months of Yugadi, Ganesh Chaturthi and Diwali. The party has also announced that it will launch the ‘Poshane’ scheme under which each BPL household will get half a litre of Nandini milk every day and 5 kg of Sri Anna siri dhanya (millets) through monthly ration kits. The Congress’ promises include free of cost travel for women in government-run buses; monthly assistance of Rs 2,000 for each woman head of a family; 200 units of free of cost electricity to all households; and a dole for unemployed graduates and diploma holders in the age group of 18-25 years. The manifesto of the JD (Secular) caters primarily to the farming community and women self-help groups.
With religion being an emotive subject in Karnataka, the BJP has promised to create a state wing against religious fundamentalism and terror, while the Congress has named the Sangh Parivar organization Bajrang Dal vowing ‘firm and decisive action against individuals and organizations spreading hatred among communities.’ All in all, an intriguing contest is on the cards, with polarization and populism being the key factors.
(Tribune, India)
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