A Blot on the Judiciary

Dr Binayak Sen has been released after two years in jail. But did he have to wait two years and did his case have to go up to the Supreme Court to get back his liberty? Isn't there any responsibility on the lower judiciary to exercise its judgment and stand up to the state govt and the state police?

This is a country where the Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that the attitude should be "bail, not jail". And here is a medical doctor who spends two years in jail simply because he sympathises with Naxalites who believe in realising social justice through violence.

And what about those who responsiblel for creating an unjust social order in the first place? Murderers are given bail and let loose on society. But a medical doctor who merely sympathises with Naxalites -- he definitely hasn't turned a gun on anyone -- is deprived of his liberty for two years. Isnt there a thumb rule for judges, especially high court judges to follow?

A similar fate awaits Nimesh Kampani and Minoo Shroff of the Forum of Free Enterprise in Andhra Pradesh. Shroff is said to be biding his time in the UK. Kampani was abroad for several months. So was the artist MF Husain because some intolerant communalists were misusing the law to harass him -- till the Supreme Court stepped in and quashed all proceedings against him.

This is not a matter that concerns only Sen, Kampani, Shroff or Hussain. It concerns you and me. The bell that tolled for them will toll some day for you and me if someone decided to misuse the law against us. It is time we stand up and make the courts aware of this. ###

The New Killing Fields

Places of workshop are the new conflict and killing fields. Yesterday it was was a gurdwara in Austria. The fallout was in Punjab where public property worth millions has been destroyed. Two days ago a church in Nepal was attacked by those who want to restore the monarchy in that former kingdom. How the monarchy gets restored by killing people praying in a church is beyond understanding.

Mosques get bombed, temples like Akshardham get attacked, chapels in cloistered convents are pillaged and statues broken, altars desecrated...and then the inevitable reaction.

I am reminded of an incident many years ago when a roadside temple was desecrecrated on Mahakali Caves Road in Mumbai. A crowd gathered and sat down on the road to protest, blocking traffic. Among them was a Catholic priest from the nearby SVD Centre. When asked why he had joined the protest, he said he wanted to show his solidarity with those whose feelings were hurt because when a place sacred to some is defiled, that pain is felt by all. Or rather, should be felt by all.

The same could be said of the Babri Masjid. India is still to recover from its destruction, although one of those who witnessed its destruction and was in a way instrumental in that despicable act has now been humbled beyond belief. India's soul is intact, notwithstanding the Advanis, MM Joshis and Uma Bharatis of the far right who think that demolishing a 400-year-old mosque will erase Mughal history in India. ###

Headlines today that tell the tale!

Here is a sampling of headlines culled from today's papers (reflectiing my biases and prejudices, of course!)

BJP is back where it was a decade ago
Capital punishment for BJP that wanted capital punishment for Afzal
How Karat nuked his party
Unscrupulous tie-up with TRS did Chandrababu Naidu in
Fortune favours the brave -- Rahul has shown us that there is a new aspirational young India out there, looking for new answers and new methods. He reached out to those voters even as the Mayawatis and Amar Singhs were playing their own sleazy games. These result show that he was right. Victor comes to the brave, to the farsighted and to those are in the right place at the right time (Vir Sanghvi who admits he too got it wrong!)
A vote for decency and development
Silent majority has spoken
The boot for ‘mazboot’ Advani theory - the ‘party with a difference’ was neither found ‘mazboot’ nor capable of roviding a nirnayak (decisive) govt; Advani’s magic just didn’t work
BJP ran a negative campaign – whether it was calling the PM weak or trying to resurrect historic issues. It had nothing to offer people than talking about personalities. Little wonder it lost.
Modi, the man who would have been king, retains Gujarat but pan-India dream is shattered as country rejects ‘Modi model of development’
Modi campaigned in 20 constitutencies in Maharashtra, Sena-BJP won in only three!
Arun Shourie’s ‘Modi for PM’ was a blunder – BJP spokesman Chandan Mitra
Caste politics clearly on the wane
Goodbye to Mandal (caste) and ‘Modi model' (communalism)
Pawar neither king nor kingmaker
Neither Maratha nor Marathi! – Maharashtra turns its back on Pawar the Maratha and Sena which played the Marathi card

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Small fish swallows big fish!

It would be nice to rejoice over the election results as a long-overdue, sound beating for the communal and murderous BJP and its multiple manifestations like the Ram Sene . But some observers see a more important message in the results that we may ignore at our peril - the power of youth.

The fact is today’s election results are a wake-up call not just to the political parties in the country, but also those in authority everywhere in our country. All day long, political pundits, media analysts, pollsters and political parties have been asking themselves – how did this happen, how did we get it so wrong?

Perhaps one reason is that this election has been driven by youth in a country where 50% of the people are below the age of 21 and 70% below the age of 35. Interestingly, the Congress victory was driven by a young man of 38, relatively young by Indian standards. The old wo/men in the other parties, in the media and even pollsters scoffed at him and his sister who carefully increased their media profile over the past three weeks (see Outook with Priyanka on the cover).

Modi made fun of her as a "gudiya" (doll) and likened Rahul to ’small fish’ in an aquarium. http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14860179 He said BJP leaders like him are like ‘ocean fish’ who weather big storms, unlike those ‘floating around in aquariums’.

"We are not small fish floating around in the comfort of aquariums, but we weather huge storms to win," he said in an obvious dig at Rahul Gandhi. "We are not flowers cultivated by gardeners of the rich, we have grown up in the forests on our own," Modi said. Now, it turn out the small fish has swallowed the big one which at the end of the day was trying to figure out how it landed in the belly of the small one. Or, to use Modi's other analogy, the mighty forest oak got felled in the storm while the little flower survived.

But apart from the youthfulness of the emerging India, there is another quiet revolutionary happening. Watch this space...tomorrow!