What is happening in Uttar Pradesh?

Few days back a judge of the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court imposed a blanket penalty of Rs 25,000/- on a particular Information Activist for filing any Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the court. This is not only discriminatory but against all logic of the constitutional jurisprudence. Nobody cannot make any personal comment or attribute motives to the judge. However, I am within my rights to criticize the judgment because it falls within the public domain.

Public Interest Litigations (PILs) are filed under article 226 of the Constitution of India before the High Courts and under article 32 before the Supreme Court for enforcement of the fundamental rights. Fundamental Rights are the very core of the constitution. Speaking about the article 32 in the constituent assembly Dr. B. R. Ambedkar had said that Article 32 is the soul of the constitution. Article 226 is a corresponding article for Article 32 to be exercised by the High Courts. Therefore, both Articles stand on the same footing and if they are removed from the constitution then the entire constitution will be nothing but a dead body.

All PILs are Writs. The only difference between the PIL and the ordinary Writ is that ordinary writs can be filed only by a person who has locus standi but in PILs locus standi is dispensed with. In PILs, every citizen is supposed to be impacted with the law. Public Interest Litigation as the name suggests is in the interest of the public at large. Nevertheless to control the misuse of the Public Interest Litigations judges certainly have the discretion to impose any penalty/cost but the imposition of cost has to be reasonable, which will depend from case to case. This cost cannot be imposed in advance on any particular person. Those who file the Public Interest Litigation should also have the understanding that this is not to be converted into Private Interest Litigation or Publicity Interest Litigation.

Needless to say, that Public Interest Litigations have proved to the turning points in the constitutional history of India. The two legal luminaries and the former judges of the Supreme Court namely; V. R. Krishna Iyer and P. N. Bhagwati gave a new meaning and shape to fundamental rights through the Public Interest Litigations. Think of the situation of those under- trials who have been rotting for years in the jails of the country if the case of Hussainara Khatoon had not been decided through Public Interest Litigation. Similarly, think of the scourge of Child Labour if Bandhua Mukti Morcha case had not been decided by the Supreme Court. In the same way what would have happened to the pollution in the cities and indiscriminate mining of the natural resources by the greedy contractors, corrupt officials and politicians if number of cases on the environmental issue had not been decided upholding interests of the public. Therefore, the indiscriminate imposition of Rs. 25,000/- even before filing the Public Interest Litigation by a RTI activist Nutan Thakur is  patently erroneous and needs to be done away with. This can be rectified suo moto by the High Court as this order is per incurium.

  

Another very disturbing news which has come from Lucknow is about the arrest of an RTI activist, that too, from the chamber of the State Information Commissioner of U.P. Shri Arvind Singh Bist. Here again I would not like to comment on any individual person although Shri Arvind Singh Bist is personally known to me. He has been a veteran journalist and before joining, the post of the State Information Commissioner Shri Bist was working with leading newspaper the Times of India of Lucknow. Although, the arrest has no bearing on personally of Shri Arvind Singh Bist because he is more known to many people of Lucknow as a Senior Journalists and also as a Trade Unionist. He is also related to Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav whose son Prateek Yadav and the half brother of the UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is married to Shri Bist’s daughter. The arrest of the RTI activists Shri Ashok Kumar Goyal from the chamber of State Information Commissioner Shri Arvind Singh Bist is shocking and puts a senior and respected journalist into bad light. The RTI activist Shri Goyal has been doing a commendable job. His arrest needs to be condemned by every citizen of the country for the healthy growth of democracy. It would be better if the initiative is taken by Shri Bist himself to get the false cases quashed which have been leveled against the RTI activist.

Why Narendra Modi has emerged a strong leader!

Going by the enthusiasm of the people and the overwhelming response that Mr. Narendra Modi is getting across the country one can safely conclude that he is destined to be coronated as the next Prime Minister of India. There are quite a large number of people, who dislike Narendra Modi to the extent to hating him. Their hatred is so deep and diabolic that they cannot be convinced with any amount of logic or reasoning. Modi bashers say that he has become popular because he is being projected by some important corporate houses of the country with the help of paid media and because of the support of a cadre based organisation like the RSS. They also say that Narendra Modi is a rabid communal person and he has polarised the people of the country based on the religion, which will be detrimental of the polity of the country in the days to come.

However, they conveniently ignore and forget the fact that Narendra Modi has become immensely popular in the country not only because of the reasons being given by his adversaries but there are many more factors which has been responsible to make him what he is. Is it not a fact that most of the political parties, particularly the Congress Party, have not been indulging in the appeasement of the Muslims and treating them as vote bank? Is it not true that Congress Party and many of its allies have not perpetuated the caste politics and the cult of dynastic politics? Can anybody deny that there has been a backbreaking rise in the prices during the regime of Dr. Man Mohan Singh, which is run by the remote control of Ms Sonia Gandhi? Is it not a fact that many swindles, scandals and cases of corruption have not eaten the country to hollow during the last ten years of Congress Government?

It is a known fact, that the foreign policy of this country has no say in the comity of the nations. India is no longer respected as the strong and powerful country in the world. Even the smaller countries do not bother much about India. The relationship with the neighboring countries like; Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Maldives has touched to its nadir. Pakistan, although a failed state and a bankrupt country, has never been friendly with India, yet it is poking its nose in the internal affairs of the country. Terrorist activities in India often take place with assistance and complicity of Pakistan. Many modules of terrorists have sprung up across India with the monetary support of Pakistan. Pakistan also works as the conduit between the Indian terrorists and terrorism exporting countries like Saudi Arabia.

These weaknesses of the Government and the Administration have left the people with no choice but to go to Mr. Narendra Modi, who has emerged as one of the strongest leaders the country has seen after independence. While all political parties are bending over backwards to  appease the minorities but here is a person who says that he will not succumb to any pressure and will remain upright to every citizen of the country regardless of caste, creed or religion without any fear or favor of anybody. That is what India needs at this time.

The political terra firma has almost become barren and that is the reason that Modi haters take the shelter behind the Gujarat riots of 2002. They shamelessly use the snoop gate or, the estranged relationship with wife against him. The fact is that in both cases the complaints have not come from the side of those who have supposedly suffered. The woman of the snoop gate has not said against Narendra Modi. His wife Yashoda Ben, who was married to him in the childhood, has no regrets for not being with Narendra Modi. She has herself said that she prays to God that he becomes the Prime Minister and serve the country in the best possible manner.  All the political adversaries of Narendra Modi have been side lined whether they are the leaders of the BJP like; L.K. Advani, Sushma Sauraj, Murli Manohar Joshi or Yashwant Singh. His opponents in the Congress Party like; Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi or Dig- Vijay Singh find themselves completely disillusioned. Man Mohan, the Prime Minister, is completely out of scene. Mulayam Singh, Mayawati, Jayalaitha, Mamta Bengerjee and Nitish Kumar have hardly any role to play.

 Arvind Kejriwal could have certainly changed the political discourse of the country if he had not been in the tearing hurry of becoming the Prime Minster of the country. In his impatience to get the power he even jettisoned his guru and mentor Anna Hazare. Anna Hazare must be credited to have changed the thought -process of the most of the people of particularly of the youngsters of the country. He was the harbinger of the hope for the young generation, which has been crumbling under the burden of corruption and unemployment. Nevertheless, this man Arvind Kejriwal drifted from path as shown by Anna Hazare. People believed him for some time but now he stands exposed. That is the reason that Mr. Arvind Kejriwal and his party has been dumped on the way side by the people of the country.

The type of response and support, which Mr. Narendra Modi received in Varanasi when he had gone to file his nomination paper, was unprecedented And that is why, we find a ray of hope and wish Narendra Modi gets absolute majority in Lok Sabha to bring about the changes that he has envisioned. May God help our country and us!

Time to rejoice over the Right to Information Act

By: Parmanand Pandey

Right to Information Act, no doubt, is one of the most revolutionary acts passed by Indian Parliament since inception after 1952. This Act was passed in 2005 after a great deal of efforts by Right Activists across the country. This Act has virtually overshadowed the much-hated Official Secret Act 1923.The Official Secret Act was brought in by the English Government to perpetuate its illegal rule in India. The demand to scrap the Official Secret Act, 1923, therefore, has been going on for quite long time.

This Official Secret Act is anachronistic with freedom of speech and expression as guaranteed by the Constitution of India. This act provides for imprisonment to a person from three years to fourteen years to those found violating the Act. This Act vests with enormous empowers to those in possessions of authority. Under the official Secret Act, warrants may be issued at any time if the Magistrate feels that there is a danger to the security of the state. This provides extraordinary and arbitrary powers to the authorities. Even media persons were not spared from this draconian act. It may sound strange, but it is a fact that at a time when the satellite photographs can be taken of any place all over the world we often find the ridiculous instructions written by the senseless authorities on many palaces  saying that the ‘photography of this bridge/place/area is strictly prohibited violators will be prosecuted’. It is amazing that why the photography of a bridge should fall in the category of the official secret. This is in total contrast to the openness of the society. At a time when everything is available on the internet, the map of any place can be found through satellite on the Google map. A person sitting at the far away place from his/her house in the remote village can see and locate on the Google map. Yet if the foolish restrictions of photography are applicable on the citizens of the country, it exposes not only the insanity of the authorities but also there colossal ignorance about the march of the science and technology that has take place in the latter half of the 20^th century.

I have the satisfaction of being one of the campaigners for the Right to Information Act. I have had participated in numerous of seminars and workshops organized by the Right Activists and have expressed my feelings in those occasions. When I was the member of the Press Council of India from 1991 to 1997 I had advocated for the introduction of to Right to Information Act in the debates of the Press Council. A draft prepared by the Press Council was also sent to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Although, the draft was not comprehensive and needed to be amended but it was a good beginning of the Press Council of India.

The Right to Information Act is path-breaking Act in many ways. It has brought about tectonic change in the outlook and functioning of the Government apparatus. As the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Louis Brandies has said that ‘sunlight is the best disinfectant’ and he said it in the context of openness and transparency. This Act has worked as deterrent to the corrupt and irresponsible government officials. He had also said that ‘we should not only accept criticism but we should also embrace them’.

The Right to Information Act has been serving hugely for strengthening the democracy and the empowerment to the people of India. Most of us have still not forgotten that five members of Parliament were caught taking bribes for asking questions in Parliament. They were ultimately expelled on public outcry. Now there is a no need to go to any MP and MLA for asking the questions thanks only due to this epoch-making RTI Act. Every citizen has been empowered by the RTI to ask any relevant question seeking any information from any official and the official is a duty bound to provide reply to the question asked. If anybody, responsible for furnishing the reply avoids or failed to do so, will be punished and he or she may have to pay hefty penalty for withholding the information.

There has been a demand from the Right Activists for including the political parties within the ambit of the Right to Information Act. This proposal scared all political parties. There was an attempt by the Government of India to amend the Right to Information Act for keeping the political parties beyond the purview of the Right to Information Act. The amendment to keep the political parties out was even introduced in the Lok Sabha, which has happily expired today because it could not be taken up for debate and discussion in the stipulated period of six months. This is a big victory for every freedom-loving citizens of India. It is in fact a cause for good celebration. Let us rejoice it on two counts that the Right to Information Act has been left un-tinkered and that it is playing a very important role in empowerment of the people of India.