Rajdeep , this is not done!

On Sunday evening, I was leisurely watching news on different news channels, when suddenly my cell phone rang. The lady speaking from the other side wanted to know of my reaction about the alleged attack on TV Today’s Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai outside the Madison Square in New York. I simply told her that our organization was against ‘any violence against anybody particularly against a journalist. However, I will not make any comment on the alleged incident till I know the full facts'. The caller banged the telephone in apparent anger at my reply. Thereafter I kept on changing the channels through remote. I tried to get some information on the 'Headlines Today' and ' Aaj Tak' but there was no news about the incident. Yesterday afternoon i.e. on 29.09.2014, when I reached my office, I opened my email and found a video clipping link, which gave the full picture of the incident. I was aghast and appalled to find that the story as was circulated by Rajdeep Sardesai contained embroidered truth.

Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai was seen in the video provoking the exuberant crowd, which had assembled to welcome and express its solidarity to the Indian Prime Minister. Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai even used unsavory language against the people who were shouting ‘Modi-Modi’. It is highly unbecoming of the journalist of the stature of Rajdeep Sardesai to have behaved like a street-smart ruffian, that too, on the foreign soil where nobody should speak against a leader who represents the country. Mr. Narendra Modi has not gone to America as the leader of the Bhartiya Janata Party but as the Prime Minister of India. To rake up  the issue of Gujarat Riots on this occasion showed the wickedness of Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai.

What is most distressing to learn is that when an NRI was trying to tell him that ‘how can you blame Mr. Narendra Modi when the Apex court of India has not found anything against him?’ But you cannot convince a person who is prejudiced one. Another shocking thing is that contemptuous tweet of Rajdeep Sardesai , where he has used the words like idiots for the cheering crowds. Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai is free to have his own opinion about anybody but he does not have any right to foist it on others.

The drama that was enacted on the foreign land to garner sympathy in India is condemnable. It is Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai, who is to be squarely to be blamed for it. There is no dearth of embedded journalists in India. Some of them are communist charlatans, some are blind supporters of the BJP, and many have been fed and flourished by the Congress Party. Other smaller parties have journalists on their rolls and they show their loyalty to their masters, when the occasion demands. Worrisome part, however, is that these journalists masquerade as independents and thus cause incalculable damage to the profession by their duplicity and hypocrisy. The journalists working for political parties are, therefore much better than these wolves who roam in sheep’s clothing, because others know their opinions. I personally feel that this dishonesty among the journalists has spread for many reasons like the insecurity of jobs and their desire to take advantage from the political parties.

Recently a classmate of mine has been elected to the Rajya Sabha. He happened to be the Editor of a major Hindi newspaper of Bihar and Jharkhand. He has been posing himself as the most objective,fearless, independent journalist. But the way he has traded his profession of journalism and for the Rajya Sabha seat betrays the abominable trait of bartering the profession for gains. There is nothing wrong to become a sympathizer, supporter or the worker of any political party but it is certainly wrong to exchange journalism for one's personal gains or to settle scores from those who are opposed to the philosophy of so-called independent journalists.

Now I feel happy that I did not fall into the trap of the lady journalist, who wanted me to condemn the enthusiastic NRI s for no fault of theirs.

Glaring Example of Justice Denied

Many times, Litigation is self-defeating. There have been many instances when litigants have wasted their lifetimes, evaporated all their resources in contesting the cases but ultimately got nothing. In a Hindi novel ‘Raag Darbari’, written by Sahitya Academy award winner Dr. Shri Lal Shukla, a former IAS officer, has very poignantly pictured the plight of a pathetic lame man who wasted his whole life in making rounds of the courts.  From a teenager he became an old man and ultimately died, but did not get any relief from the temple of justice. 

 It has now become a trite to say that justice delayed is justice denied. There must be thousands of cases pending across the country for more than 50-60 years. There is one case in Allahabad High Court, which is pending for more than hundred years, and many generations of the litigators have passed away but till date the judgment has not seen the light. This speaks volumes about the state of affairs and the extremely slow process of justice in India. This is one aspect of justice.

 In our country when people go to the court they get resigned to their fate  and often say in jest and disdain  that one can be sure of death but there is no surety about the justice. Litigation for many people is like a bad habit of intoxication. They will spend hundred times more than what they would get if ultimately the decision comes in their favour. The saying of ‘penny wise pound-foolish’ is very apt and appropriate for such types of people. However, what can be said about the government and the agencies of the government when they go for long and protracted litigation to deny the justice to the opposite parties. This can be nothing else but the mental perversion and sickness of the persons who decide to carry on the litigation, which is of no use. Such litigations are kept alive at the huge cost on the exchequer. They, however, conveniently forget that money goes from the pool of the taxpayers. According to a data released by the Law Ministry more than sixty percent cases, which are pending before various High Courts and the Supreme Court belong to the Central Government or the State Governments. In all these pending cases, the Governments are either as a plaintiffs/ petitioners or as defendants/ respondents. The number of such cases can be reduced to a negligible level provided the authorities responsible for taking actions perform their duties in appropriate and judicious manner. It is because of their non-application of mind and audacious behavior that the cases are initiated. What is worse is that they do not make any sincere efforts to resolve the cases in amicable manner.  

 Here is a startling case of a poor DTC bus conductor who was compelled to fight his case for more than four decades. And for what? it was the dishonesty of the bus conductor for the princely amount of 5 Naya Paisa. According to the story that has been published in the last week of July of this year in the Times of India that the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) fought the case against a bus conductor Ranvir Singh for more than four decades. The case started in the year 1973. The conductor was on duty in a bus going towards Mayapuri.. A flying squad of ticket checkers found him guilty for issuing a ticket to a woman for 10 paise, while she should have been given the ticket of 15 paise. They charged the bus conductor. He was suspended. A departmental inquiry was conducted and he was found guilty of causing loss of 5 paisa to the public exchequer and was dismissed from the service.

 The bus conductor Ranvir Singh challenged the decision of the DTC before a Labour Court on the ground that he has been victimized because he was not allowed the opportunity to explain his innocence. The court ruled in his favour. The ruling came in 1990, which directed the DTC to reinstate the workman with full back wages. The Labour Court also said that the dismissal of employee was disproportionate to the alleged crime. The DTC was unrelenting and it challenged the decision of the Labour Court in the Delhi High Court, which dismissed the writ appeal in 2008 but by that time, the bus conductor had retired from his job. Therefore, he demanded the post retiral benefits with back wages. The blockheaded DTC officials decided to oppose the claim of the dismissed workman. However, the High Court again decided in favour of the workman.

Interestingly in a query made through RTI, the DTC has informed that it has spent Rs. 47,795/- on paying the  fees to advocates towards the litigation expenses. In addition to it, it has paid Rs. 8, 96,293/- only towards back wages from July 1976 to September 2002 till the workman retired from his service.If the authorities had taken right decision at the right time worker would have been saved from harassment and the department from botheration, In addition to it,there would not been crowd of cases in the docket.

 How bizarre is this case? And more than the case how sick and perverted has been the mentality of the authorities, who spent huge amount of money for the loss of mere pittance of 5 paise is reflected in this case. This is a classic example of monumental insensitivity of authority towards the department and the society, whose trust they are supposed to hold with good faith, sincerity and transparency. This is not loss of money but also the loss of the services of a person, which could have been utilized for the organisation. To top it all. it was a personal loss for the person, who fought the case for nearly 41 years and it will be very difficult to fathom the anguish, the mental trauma, the loss of prestige and economic hardships by the person who bro the brunt the heartless authorities. During this period, the dismissed workman might not have been able to educate his children and might not have been able to take care of his family. No body knows who came forward to help him in the marriage of his daughter, if any, or in the sickness of his family members.

 Another most damaging and deleterious effect of such litigations is to compel the employee(s) to become dishonest. There can hardly be any doubt that the dismissed bus conductor must have worked somewhere clandestinely for his and his family's survival which he could not have divulged to anybody for fear of being denied the back wages. This is an open secret that during the period of dismissal and pendency of the case workmen surreptitiously work somewhere for their livelihoods and the back wages that they get at the end of the litigations are the dividends and the windfalls for them. There is no doubt that this long drawn litigation could have been avoided with little bit of application of mind by eschewing the recalcitrant attitude of officials.

 The judiciary also cannot escape the responsibility of creating social tensions by delaying the cases for decades together. The need of the hour is to devise ways and means for swift delivery of justice. And in this process the use of technology should be enhanced of the benefit of society. Be that as it may, the above narrated real story tells a lot about the system, whether it is department, executive or the judiciary and they all have to make concerted efforts to change the scenario as it exists today..

To

Hon’ble Prime Minister of India

PMO, Raisina Hill, South Block,

New Delhi - 110011

Dear and respected Prime Minister,

Here is a request with a suggestion. The request is you to change the name of district Faizabad (Uttar Pradesh) and appropriately rename it as Awadh or Saket. It can also be renamed as Ayodhya that is only seven kilometers away from the district headquarters and is known throughout the world for being the birthplace of Lord Ram.

The world over there has been a trend to restore the old and ancient glory of the places by renaming them. In our country Madras has been renamed as Chennai, Bombay as Mumbai, Calcutta as Kolkata, Bangalore as Bengaluru, Vizag as Visakhapatnam, Banaras as Varanasi etc. Even the names of the many countries have been changed for retaining the old glory with which they were attached to. For instance, our neighboring countries like Ceylon has become Sri Lanka and Burma is rechristened as Myanmar.

I come from the Awadh region and I personally find it very painful that an ancient city was ravaged and devastated by a whimsical tyrant so much so that its name was changed to Faizabad. No body knows why was it done and why the old name Saket was not allowed to be retained? This was obviously done some times during the Mughal Period and the people of the area were so suppressed and terror- stricken that they could not raise their voice against this cultural barbarity.

The expectations of the people have gone up to sky high with your ascendancy as the Prime Minister of India. Although all the expectations and aspirations of the people cannot be met or fulfilled, yet change of the names of places with those of our rich heritage will not be difficult to be done. It can be achieved without any murmur of opposition from any side. Even professional secularists will not have the courage to oppose it. The people will get a sense of pride and belonging with which they have been associated with from time a memorial with this bold act of this government.

Needless to say, that the name signifies the quality and characteristic of a person, place of thing. There may be some crazy people, who will quote the Shakespearean line – What is there in the name? But even a devil can quote scriptures.  The fact is that if the rose is called by any other name, it will undoubtedly give the same fragrance but there will always be chances to be disillusioned. People often are attracted or distracted, in the first blush, only by the names. If some one calls a rose by marigold, it will certainly betray his/her ignorance. How apt is the Sanskrit saying, which says ‘Yatha Naamah Thataa Gunah’. Hence, it will be in the fitness of the things and time that the name of Faizabad should be changed to either Awadh or Ayodhya or Saket.

I have every reason to believe that a person of your understanding and courage will take the appropriate steps to fill the peoples’ heart with a feel of pride.

In addition, here is a suggestion. The name of Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Allahabad should also be appropriately changed. It is a painful to see that the legacy of slavery is carried on day in a day out in place like Delhi, which is the capital of India. I fail to understand why the names of some of the roads were named after independence, associated with the persons who ruled over this country with the cruelty, insensitivity and heartlessness. For example, I do not find any logic as to why we have Akbar Road, Humayun Road, Babar Road, Aurangzeb Road, Shahjahan Road, Tughlaq Road and Safdarjung Road in Delhi as these names are associated with Mughal rulers, who did not have any care or concern for the people of the country.

I, therefore, earnestly appeal to you that right steps should be taken to rectify these Himalayan wrongs and injustices, which have been shamelessly perpetrated to crush the honour and self-respect of the people. 

Thanking you and with warm regards,

Yours faithfully,

Parmanand Pandey

Advocate-on-Record

Supreme Court of India