“Laughter is an instant vacation.” said Milton Berle. Here at NK, we would like to contribute to lightening your mood in preparation for a meaningful and relaxed weekend. So here’s the tongue- in-cheek look at the events of the week gone by that you’ve been waiting for 🙂
We are proud that our Central Government and its indefatigable leader, work very hard for our welfare and more importantly our safety, especially that of our women. Within hours of arriving from London, where he addressed Indians who no longer reside in India about India and its problems including rape, his cabinet cleared two ordinances, one of which (the more important one was about women – the other, less important perhaps, about money since it has already flown the coop and disappeared from the ATMs) created a provision in the POCSO Act by virtue of which rapists of children below 12 years could be awarded the death penalty and those of up to 16, a life term.
This set many wondering – does the age of the victim alter the nature or heinousness of a crime and how? The move came quickly after the nationwide outrage over the rape and murder of an 8-year-old in Kathua. As the PM said after the promulgation of the ordinance, while speaking in Mandala in Madhya Pradesh, his government listens to the people it serves… It is the people who are to blame for this faux pas (as always) – after all it’s a government of the people, by the people and for the people…
A rape by any other name smells as bad. What will happen inside the jail if the death penalty is not applied to all convicted of such a crime is a question that does not beg an answer… Bapu Asaram was surprisingly convicted (despite death and threat of witnesses) and is in jail for life for the rape of a 16-year-old and the jail authorities may be concerned.
Rape is a serious crime and reported cases are proliferating. In order to arrest its growth, the PM speaking at the same meeting in Mandala, suggested we “increase the importance of daughters in the family and start teaching sons about responsibility. It will never be difficult to protect daughters if we start teaching sons about responsibility”. True, it is the sons that are responsible for rape (by the very nature of the crime), but there is another factor – our traditional culture of respect for and a cult of following our leaders in what they do and say. According to the Association of Democratic reforms, 48 MPs, MLAs have declared cases of crimes against women according to the Association for Democratic Reforms. Unfortunately for us, the PM’s wise advise in this regard is post these events…
Meanwhile, the safety of women and judicious adjudication got a boost with the induction of Indu Malhotra, 61, as a Justice of the Supreme Court – the seventh woman judge in the top court since Independence. She is the first woman practitioner of the law to be directly elevated to the Supreme Court – other women judges were elevated to the Supreme Court from high courts. An honour for her, the collegium and the people of India. Did I miss mentioning the government in all of this? Yes, I did… because they sat on the recommendation of the collegium for three months, and split the recommendation of two to elevate one and stall the other by returning the name to the collegiums, with what they (and perhaps nobody else) believe are cogent reasons. Is it now Super me vs Supreme?
Given the events of the last week, both within and outside the Supreme Court including in the media, “Supreme” appears to be not so supreme anymore. It has vacancies and internal divisions galore and is ripe for interference and inference by one and all. So, what happens to justice? Exactly what is happening to the Chief of Justice… It is done, but is not seen to be done…
A motion for the removal of the Chief Justice (there is no such thing as impeachment of a Justice) submitted to the Vice President, who is also the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, by 64 MPs of that august body from 7 opposition parties was rejected by him with cogent reasoning after the mandatory consultations and due application of mind for 72 hours after its submission.
We must be proud of our constitutional scheme when it operates in the manner originally intended by its framers – with speed, precision, cogent reasoning and collective thinking rather than individual conviction. There is a paradox however – on the one hand, a Gatiman (after India’s newest and fastest train) quasi-judicial decision on the behaviour and capacity of the judiciary by a constitutional authority, even as the judiciary itself takes 5 years or more to decide a criminal case aided in its delay by an executive branch displaying the exact opposite of what the Vice President did, while dealing with the appointment of judges – sitting on files till they turn into piles….
Just for the record, the total number of pending cases in the apex court as on December 18, was 54,719. The number of cases pending in the court for more than 5 years was 15,929, which is more than 29 per cent of the cases. Those waiting for disposal for more than 10 years constituted 1,550 cases. In addition, there are over 1.65 lakh cases pending in every High Court of India according to the National Judicial Data Grid, with 49 per cent of these cases being more than five years old even as High Courts nationwide are 37% short of judges. There are also about 2.7 crore cases pending in subordinate courts according to various reports… They are piling up (pun intended).
The visit by a mini cabinet – the defence minister, the foreign minister, followed by the Prime Minister to “Woo” han is a lesson on how to use Dhokla to combat Chinese Dhoka in Dhoklam… First, they apparently sidelined the Dalai Lama, a thorn in the rose of relations between the two countries, then embarked on the journey to this historic central China showpiece for what is come to be known as the maiden Sino-Indian informal summit, during which the two leaders are scheduled to cross tongues on six occasions in 24 hours, including on a boat and by the lake side according media reports. I may have missed it but, I didn’t see any reports of a bear hug, possibly because of the wolf present…
Despite the Indian fire-power at the summit, the Indian public has been warned not to expect too much from the summit. Hopefully, there will be some meeting of minds on CPEC and state sponsored terrorism in the west, encroachment in the east, and uranium from north and south… Unfortunately, most Chinese goods have a reputation for short durability – it’s a business tactic to ramp up volume, like parliamentary disruption is a parliamentary tactic to ramp up pressure – and one of the minds is Chinese!
Meanwhile, in another blow to the war machine that is the US, the presidents of the two Koreas to the Chinese north, North Korean president Kim Jong-un and the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in met and agreed to ‘complete’ the denuclearisation goal – which should be the goal of the world – but, then what will become of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) that India is desperate to enter, and China is so eager to keep them out of? It will become a waste body, much like the land that has seen a nuclear explosion…
Last Word: The media has suggested that hung curd will be added to Karnataka’s diet post the May 12th Assembly elections. Hung curd is in itself bland but, when added to other ingredients like salt, chilly, pepper and other spices, it can yield spectacular results… and that’s what the media is looking for… but, the common man may just be satisfied with his Anna Bhagya, though the portions may get smaller and it may be renamed Mosaruanna Bhagya!
Hope you at least smiled as you read. If you didn’t, do it now.
Have a good weekend and a great week ahead.
The author can be contacted at [email protected]