Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Pandas are Terrorists

Religion is the opium of masses, so said Karl Marx one of the greatest modern thinkers. Be that as it may, the people across the world think the religion, an article of faith and that is why; people throng to temples, mosques, churches, pagodas, gurdwaras and cathedrals. If we took at the number of non believers or atheists we find that they pale into insignificance in comparison to believers or theists.

Places of worship of some religions are found to be spick and span. If on goes there (s)he finds peace of mind and psychological satisfaction but on the contrary in Hindu religion most of the temples are the veritable picture of dirt and filth, slush and slurry. Peace of mind is robbed by Pandas and Pujaris.

What is, most abominable is that these Pandas make the life of devotees hell. Some of my friends have just returned from Banaras and Vindhyachal. They were on pilgrimage to have darshan of Lord Vishwanath in Banaras and Vindhyavasini Devi at Vindhyachal in Mirjapur district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, which is nearly 80 km from Banaras.

Their tales of woes to these world renowned Hindu pilgrim centers is horrible to say the least. They have vowed not to visit these temples again. They were stalked by Pandas and their agents from the Railway stations itself. Once in the temple Pandas pestered them to offer money at various idols and pay money for the feasts to Brahmins. When they resisted and refused to pay the money as demanded by the rogues, they were cursed.

There is nothing new in it. As a matter of fact, this is the experience which every Hindu, who has visited the temples, must have felt. Go to any Hindu temple, the Pujaris eye on your purse and offerings. If the offerings are little, then devotee is looked upon with contempt and disdain but if it is handsome, then Pujaris shower all incantations for his/her welfare.

The contribution of these Pandas and Pujaris to the society is next to nil. They get fattened on the offerings but hardly contribute anything for the comfort or convenience of devotees. Any talk of improvement or reform by anybody is met with the fierce resistance.

Needless to say these obscurantist Pandas or Pujaris are the real enemies of Hindu religion. It is because of there are evils galore. They are the root cause of caste system, child marriage, untouchability, discrimination, exploitation and what not. They are so shameless that they hardly bother about for maintaining the hygienic conditions on the temples and places of worship.

Strangely, the governments also do not take steps for improvement or reform in the name of being secular and thereby adopting the policy of non-interference. In fact, the government is legally duty bound to penalize all Pandas and Pujaris who are professing, preaching and practicing against the spirit of the constitution. The general public must also have to raise its voice against their oligarchy and exploitation of the God fearing people. The sooner it happens, the better.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Slough off Working Journalists Act

In the absence of ‘sunset clause’ in our legal set up, we have to often face innumerable new set of problems, which crop up due to the surging pace of technology, generational gap and growing population. Our Working Journalists Act, 1955 is afflicted with similar problems. When this Act was passed by Parliament on the recommendations of the first Press Commission headed by Justice Rajyadhyaksha, it was a revolutionary act indeed but now it has largely become irrelevant.

Till this Act was enacted the word journalist was absolutely amorphous. Anybody, even with the nodding acquaintance with the press, used to claim to be a journalist. The famous editor and the founder president of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ) M. Chelapathi Rau had postulated in an article that even the reader of the newspapers or magazines could lay claim to be a journalist. The Working Journalists Act of 1955, however, cleared the mist to a great extent about who can be said to be a journalist. The Act provided a fair amount of protection to journalists, who used to be hired and fired till then on the whims and fancies of the proprietors. Journalists got the protection of the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947; this was a revolutionary step indeed for journalist and non journalist employees.

The Akashvani was the only audio-visual media then and it was, as it is now also, under the control of the government. Then the Television came in 1959, which became household name only after 1984. There was the one and only TV channel and it was Doordarshan till 1995. After the opening up of the economy private channels came into play with great zeal and fervour. Within a short span of six-seven they changed the airspace of the Television beyond even wildest imaginations. Today news and entertainment channels are beaming across the length and breadth of the country. Coverage of news and its telecasting have become cheap. Every day we find new players having even the modest resources are jumping into the ring. With mushroom growth of television channels, the problems have also increased manifold with leaps and bounds. There is no job security for the employees. Again, who is a journalist and who is not- this question has on the surface.

On the other hand, the general public also feels aggrieved with undue and unwarranted interference in the privacy by the TV channels. There is no regulatory mechanism and Lakshman Rekha for the channels. It is no holds barred. What is ethical and what is not, what is the limit or who will draw it remains unclear. The discretion of individual can run riot in the absence of any regulation and that is what we are witnessing today. Salacious news, character assassination, fantasizing of the crimes has become the norms rather than exceptions. There are hardly any qualms and compunctions for the innocent Uma Khuranas, Gudiyas or Arushis in the TV channels. This is leading to aberrations in the print media also. This eloquently proves that the pathetic inadequacy of the Working Journalists Act.

The Wage Board for newspaper employees in born out of the Working Journalists Act and it does not cover the employees working for the electronic medium whose number is definitely more than the print medium. Similarly the Press Council of India came into existence on the recommendations of the Press Commission. The very process of the constitution of the Press Council of India suffers from lacuna. It is not at all a representative body of the press and that is why people look at it more with disdain than with even semblance of respect. Again it does not represent the electronic medium. This is the reason that the Indian Federation of Working Journalists has reiterated its demand during its working committee meeting at Bhopal on 24th August 2008 for the dissolution of the Press Council of India and its replacement with the Media Council. It should be left to genuine journalists and their representative organisations to constitute with the least interference of the government.

The constitution of the Wage Board needs to be given a fresh look encompassing the electronic media. The contractual appointment of employees deserves to be given urgent attention because it is causing untold miseries to the employees. Thus it is clear that almost all laws and Acts related to journalism and journalists have become out dated and they need to be sloughed off without any further delay. This is possible when mother of the journalists’ related acts-The Working Journalists Act is drastically recast and enacted. The journalists and newspaper employees union must have to redefine their roles in view of the cataclysmic changes that have taken place in the industry.

Azamgarh: Nursery of Terrorism

A few years ago there was a report published in some newspapers that hundreds of crore of Rupees lying unclaimed in the Azamgarh branch of State Bank of India. On a further investigation it was learnt that most of the money was sent from abroad mainly from Gulf countries to be used for Hawala purposes. There is not an iota of doubt that fundamentalist Islamic forces are well entrenched and have deep roots in Azamgarh and Maunath Bhanjan. These forces have been active here even during the freedom struggle. At the time of partition a large number of Zamindars and middle class Muslims migrated to Pakistan. It is also true that there has always been the undercurrent of sympathy among Muslims of Azamgarh for Pakistan. This does not mean that all Muslims could be tarred with the same brush. There have been numerous among them who have been vociferously nationalist and their patriotism has been remarkably above board.

Most of the Muslims of Azamgarh and neighouring districts are low caste Ansaris, Dhunias, Qureshis and Telees, who embraced Islam emulating their landed Rajput masters who had converted to Islam for many reasons including that of currying favours of the then Mughal Subedars. It is a matter of history and this has relevance only to the extent that rich Muslims deserted their land of berths and settled in Pakistan but poor Muslims remained in Azamgarh because they had no alternatives.

As a result of little or no modern education and poverty it became very easy for the communalists and anti-social elements to make inroads in the Muslim populace of the district. That is why, there should be no surprise when we are told that the ‘sharp shooters’ of Azamgarh are virtually the terror in Mumbai or even some Gulf countries. Azaamgarh is the centre of Madarasa education, where students from Bihar Bengal, Assam and other parts of the country come every year, although the oldest centre of Modern Education in Azamgarh is the Shibli College founded by a reputed Muslim Contemporary of Sir Saiyyed Ahmad Khan, the illustrious founder of Aligarh Muslim University. There is hardly any village of the district, which has not sent some youths to Gulf countries. When they come back from these countries, with lots of money, they eschew all traces of liberalism and become diehard Islamists.

I do not say it on the basis of hearsay but on my own personal experience. Such Muslims get alienated from other communities and concentrate more Islamic dress and construction of Mosques. This leads to further wedge between Muslims and Non-Muslims. That is why; Azamgarh is a hot bed of communalism and is considered a most sensitive district gripping it communal riots on very trivial matters. However, what is disgusting is that politicians of all hues and colours create further chasm between Muslims and Non-Muslims for their own narrow political ends. SIMI i.e. Student Islamic Movement of India is, in fact, a brainchild of a person belonging to Azamgarh. And it has, undoubtedly, a very large following in Azamgarh and other neighouring districts. The venom of communalism injected by the SIMI is fast degenerating into anti-nationalism. The arrest of Mufti Abu Bashir the mastermind of Ahmedabad and Surat bomb blasts amply proves the point. The saddening part of it is that the persons like Abu Bashir and Abu Salem are getting respectability and hero’s welcome in Azamgarh. Abu Salem is thinking of contesting the Assembly elections. Mufti Abu Bashir’s house in Sarai Meer has been thronged by persons like; Ram Naresh Yadav, a former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and a prominent Congress leader, Akbar Ahmad Dumpy, the Member of the Lok Sabha and the BSP leader, Abu Azami, Member of the Rajya Sabha and the Samajwadi Parti leader, apart from Saiyyed Bukhari of Delhi’s Jama Masjid. Bashir is being given a hallo by these leaders and this again shows the ebb to which our politics has gone down.

The visit of these leaders also indicates the connection which they have with these out-laws and with whose support they win the elections. This also amounts to interference in the independent investigation of the case by the police. And hence, the visit of these leaders should be condemned in no uncertain terms and it would have salubrious effect on others if some action is taken against these leaders, who are fomenting and fostering the elements like Abu Bashir and Abu Salem.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Rot in the legal profession

Delhi High Court enjoys a distinct reputation among all High Courts of the country as far as the efficient functioning and the quality of the judgements are concerned. Most of the judges are reasonable, indulgent to patient hearing and judicious in handing down the verdicts.

Only yesterday i.e.21st August 2008 the bench of Justice Manmohan Sarin and Justice Madan B. Lokur of the Delhi High Court has delivered a judgment which has evoked strong reaction from the Bar Associations .So much so, that the Bar Associations have gone flash strike on this issue. The High Court has debarred two senior lawyers-Shri R.K. Anand and Shri I.U. Khan-from practising for four months and also imposed a token fine of Rs. 2000/- on each. The lawyers have been found guilty of serious misconduct unbecoming of any lawyer, much less of both the designated senior lawyers. It may be recalled that Shri R.K. Anand has been engaged as a defence lawyer by Nandas in high octane BMW case and Shri I.U. Khan was specially appointed the prosecution lawyer.

In a sting operation conducted by the NDTV, which is known as a serious news channel ,both lawyers were found to be in cahoots to get the matter decided in favour of the accused. It was a laudable exposé indeed by the news channel and the channel deserves kudos from all. The High Court took suo motto cognisance of the case and convicted both lawyers for the contempt of court by creating obstruction in the fair dispensation of justice.

The lawyers were given enough opportunity to prove their innocence but instead of that they blamed the news channel for committing the contempt of court. One lawyer Shri R.K. Anand went even to the extent of levelling the allegation on Justice Manmohan Sarin, who has now been appointed the chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, for nursing the bias against him.

The judgment has brought to the fore that some lawyers indulge into very nasty job of setting or manoeuvring the cases and thus do damage to the cause of justice, which often gets miscarried by their dirty deeds. If such practices are adopted by senior lawyers, what signal it sends to others, particularly among hard working young lawyers, can be any body’s imagination. This, undoubtedly, leads to cynicism and frustration among them. This judgement will give a strong message and therefore it should be welcome.

But another point is also involved here. In ‘Supreme Court Bar Association vs Union of India’, the Supreme Court has reviewed its own judgment which was given in the V.C. Mishra case. Just to recollect this case to it is necessary to tell that Shri V.C. Mishra was the chairman of the Bar Council of India and he was found guilty of the contempt of court by the High Court of Allahabad. It was confirmed by the Supreme Court of India and the Apex Court debarred him from practicing for three years. After some time the Supreme Court Bar Association filed a writ petition praying for the review of the earlier decision on the ground that the power to debar any advocate from practice vests only with the Bar Council and not with any court. The Apex Court admitted the writ and rectified its own verdict by ruling that only the Bar Council has got the power to mete out the punishment of debarring any advocate from practice.

Therefore, the question arises whether the High Court is within its jurisdiction to debar the lawyers from practicing or not. In all likelihood this case would go to the Supreme Court and hopefully, the law will be settled. Be that as it may, the decision of the Delhi’s Bar Associations to go on strike against the decision of the High Court is hasty and unwarranted. It would have been appropriate if the Bar Associations had started healthy debate on the jurisdiction of the courts in such matters, ethics and conduct of the Bar and the Bench and also about the ways and means to curb the rot that is eating into the vitals of the legal profession.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Lawyers or law breakers

Lawyers are small unrighteous souls’, said Plato long ago and this image about them is almost etched on the minds of the people all over the world. But at the same it is also true that lawyers have always been in the forefront in voicing against the corruption, exploitation and arbitrariness and vigorously fought for the establishment of rule of law and democratic rights of the people across the world. There is hardly any profession which is free from blemishes but any speck of dirt stuck on the legal community is clearly visible to the general public because all omissions and commissions of the judiciary, particularly the lawyers, have wider repercussions on the society.

What prompted me to write on this controversial topic is a news item that Bar Associations of Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi have decided not to defend those who have been arrested in the cases of bomb blasts at these places. Every patriotic and right thinking person would like to see that culprits should be punished but is it possible without fair trial? Can we blindly believe the police, which often implicates the innocent people and perhaps that is one of the reasons that the acquittal rate in our country is 94 per cent, the highest in the world.

A few months back the similar resolution was passed by the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association that no lawyer would be allowed to represent the case of those arrested in the sex scandal, which rocked the valley. The accused persons were left in lurch and at long last they heaved the relief when the trial was shifted from Jammu and Kashmir to Punjab.

Though legal ethics is often described as an oxymoron or contradiction in terms–lay people find the concept amusing and lawyers can find ethics impossible. Here, however, is not the case of individual lawyers but the collective decision of the Bar Associations.

The question, therefore, is whether bar associations have any right to pass such resolutions and act on them? The answer is emphatic ‘NO’. Bar Associations cannot be law unto themselves. They are meant to protect the rights and duties of the lawyers and take such steps as are required for their welfare. The Bar Council of India, which is the creation of the statutory Advocates Act, has specifically prescribed that lawyers should not refuse the briefs and they ought not prejudge and case, howsoever, heinous it may appear on the face of it. So who gave the rights to Bar Associations to pre -judge about any accused?

Newspaper report says that an advocate Mohammad Shoaib was attacked on 12th August 2008 in the Lucknow sessions court for providing aid to some youths charged by the Police with being terrorists. This is no less reprehensible than terrorism itself and it amounts to the slaughter of the legal system of the civilized society. As a Doctor cannot refuse to attend even a sick dacoit or an injured enemy, similarly; the lawyers cannot behave like lumpens and deny any body his/her fundamental rights to be defended by any lawyer of his/her choice. The lawyers are duty bound to assist the courts in dispensation of justice and not in the obstruction of justice. It can only be hoped that Bar Associations will rise to occasion and lift the embargo forthwith imposed on anybody, otherwise justice will be a farce and the image of lawyers will get irretrievably eroded.