India must help Sri Lanka to crushing the rising fangs of Terrorism

   The horrific terrorist attacks in many Hotels and Churches of the small but beautiful island country of Sri Lanka have left almost every Indian dazed and shell-shocked. Our country has seen innumerable serial blasts in temples, educational institutions, bazars and other public places. Not long ago, every Indian used to avoid going even to Railway, Bus stations or other crowded places, unless it was very necessary, for fear of bomb blasts. Thanks to the present Central Government of Modi that terrorists have largely been cornered. One can find the watchful eyes of the security forces that deter the terrorists from hitting their targets. The public has now become more awakened, the use of modern technology like CCTV cameras has also helped in tackling terrorism. But as they say, no amount of security, howsoever and vigilant and strict, can prevent the determined terrorist attacks. And that is what has exactly happened in Sri Lanka, where one terrorist in a hotel was found to be a suicide bomber.

    Therefore, unless and until the genesis of terrorism is eradicated, it will be difficult to fully root it out. Terrorism is not a law and order problem; it is an ideological toxic. So, it must be detoxified on the one hand, and the terror of the security forces must be struck in the hearts of terrorists or budding terrorists. They must be made mortally afraid that if they hit, then they will be hit with more force and will not go unpunished. In Sanskrit, it is called ‘shathe shathyam samacharet’ (a rogue should be dealt with roguery). The Northern and Eastern part of Sri Lanka, which was practically cut off from the rest of the country due to terrorism could be brought back to mainstream mainly due to the ‘tit for tat tactics' adopted by her.

    However, there is a difference between the previous terrorist attacks and the present one. The previous Tamil terrorists were getting support from a very tiny section of Tamils in India and their replenishment was totally strangulated by the tough policies of India. But this one is a part of Islamic terrorism, which has made the lives of the people across the world a virtual hell. Therefore, it has to be dealt with an iron hand with the support of the international communities.

    In the last two and half decades, radical Islam has spread very fast, mainly in eastern Sri Lanka. These Islamic clergies and forces have taken full advantage of the unrest of many years in Sri Lanka. Some 28 years ago, when I visited Sri Lanka for the first time, I had found not many mosques and Islamic seminaries or madrasas but now their number has increased beyond all proportions. Only two years back I had met a large number of Urdu speaking Muslims in eastern Sri Lanka. I asked them out of curiosity as to where they learnt Urdu, they told me in the Gulf countries, they learnt it from Indians and Pakistanis. The Gulf money is being poured to build mosques and madrassas, which is also responsible for the radicalization of Islamic boys.

    Sri Lankans are peaceful by nature and the influence of Buddhism has made most of the Singhalese very docile and unobtrusive. Most of them are profiles in courtesy. It is in the interest of India that Peace must prevail in Sri Lanka so that she develops much faster. While the whole country is solidly behind the people of Sri Lanka, the Government of India must ensure that all help is extended to her in effectively and stringently dealing with the menace of terrorism, which is again raising its fangs in a different but dangerous manifestation.  

Pension is Deferred Wage, not a Charity

  The pension of the private sector employees will shoot up under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS), thanks to a Supreme Court ruling which has dismissed a Special Leave Petition filed by Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) against the judgement of the Kerala High Court. The High Court had asked the retirement fund body to give pension to all retiring employees on the basis of their full salary, rather than capping the figure on which contribution is calculated at a maximum of Rs 15,000 per month. All employees in the organised sector currently contribute 12% of their salary (basic salary dearness allowance) to the EPF. The employer makes a matching contribution, of which 8.33% goes to the EPS.
      Back in March 1996, the EPS Act was amended to allow members to raise the EPS contribution to 8.33% of their full salary (basic + DA) provided the employee and employer had no objection, thereby doing away with the cap on salary. This raised the pension amount exponentially. But in 2014, the EPFO again amended the Employees' Pension Scheme to increase wage ceiling for coverage to the current cap. Thus, the new employees having salary exceeding Rs 15,000 per month were not eligible to become members of the EPS, while existing employees who were members of the EPS as on September 1, 2014, had an option to contribute on a higher salary. For this purpose, they needed to place a joint request along with their respective employers by a specific deadline, which has now been done away with by the Supreme Court.  Moreover, now the pensionable salary would be calculated as the average of the last five years' monthly salary, and not 12 months as per earlier norms, which was responsible for reducing the pension of many employees.
      This order of the High Court has been welcomed by millions of employees across the country.  As a result of this ruling an employee who presently gets a salary of Rs. 50,000/- and has completed 33 years of service would be entitled to get Rs. 25,000/- per month while earlier the worker could get only Rs. 5,118/- per month. Similarly, an employee getting a salary of Rs. 1,00,000/- per month and if he or she has completed the service of 25 years, he or she would be able to get the pension of Rs. 38,571/- per month while the pension before this order was payable to him or her was Rs. 3,420/- per month which is very low. Thus, such an employee would be an increase of 1026 per cent. It may also be noted here that earlier the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in ‘Regional Provident Fund Commissioner of West Bengal vs Vivekanand Vidya Mandir and others’ had ruled that all allowances including the Special Allowances would form part of the salary.
    The Act provides for the formulation of a Scheme for the creation of a Provident Fund Account in the name of each employee of a covered establishment. The fund was to be constituted by depositing an employee's share at the rate of 12% of the basic wages including Dearness Allowance. The employer has also to contribute an identical amount, which together would constitute the Provident Fund. Initially, the Act did not provide for the creation of a Pension Fund or for the payment of pension. Later on, Section 6A was inserted, authorizing the creation of a scheme for the purpose of providing pension to the employees. Accordingly, the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 was framed. As per the said scheme, the maximum pensionable salary was Rupees six thousand five hundred per month and contributions to the pension fund were to be made only on that amount. The corpus of the pension fund was to be constituted by transferring 8.33% out of the employer's contribution under Section 6 of the Act. As per the scheme, the maximum pensionable salary was initially fixed as Rs. 5000/- and was later on enhanced to Rs.6500/-.In the above circumstances, the pension scheme was amended with effect from 1^st September 2014. The pensionable salary was altered to mean the average monthly pay drawn in any manner, including on a piece-rate basis, during the contributory period of service comprising a span of sixty months preceding the date of exit from the membership of the pension fund.
   The High Court said that the intention of Parliament in framing the PF Scheme was to secure the rights of the lower wage earners. The said object was being defeated by the action of the employees paying contributions above the ceiling limit. The situation created was one of reverse subsidization. It has also disturbed the fund base of the scheme which in turn was found to affect the rights of the lower wage income group who receive a pension. It was in order to safeguard the interests of the said lower income group that the amendments were brought into force. The authorities are clothed with sufficient powers to amend the scheme, which power has been exercised considering the larger interests of the working class.
     The division bench of the High Court, however, said that ‘we have considered the respective contentions advanced by the counsel on either side.  In many of the cases, the validity of Section 6A the amendments was challenged. The industrial revolution that brought about drastic changes in the structure of our society created a large and distinct section of people, the industrial workers. The large industrial establishments that started springing up all around, required the services of workers of various categories. They came in large numbers from the rural areas in search of better salaries, better living conditions and better career prospects. They settled down close to the industries spurring the growth of urban settlements, that later developed into our cities. Such workers, when they became old and infirm were found to be left with no income or means of sustenance. In view of the obligation in the Directive Principles, to ensure social justice to one and all, the State had to find some means to ameliorate the conditions of the old and infirm industrial workers. Taking into account the fact that the financial resources at the hands of the State were limited, an alternative method of constituting a fund with contributions extracted from both the employers and employees has been statutorily put in place by the EPF Act. The Provident Fund so created is made up of the contributions of both the employers and employees, with no contribution from the State Exchequer.
   The contention as raised by the EPFO was that payment of pension computed on the basis of the contributions made on their actual salaries by the employees would deplete the Pension Fund and would make the Scheme unworkable. The above contention, the High Court ruled, cannot be accepted as a legal and valid ground for scaling down the quantum of pension that the employees are entitled to receive, as per law. The Pension Fund is constituted by transferring 8 1/3% of the employer's contribution to the Employees Provident Fund without making the employees liable for any further contribution. The aim of the Pension Scheme was to ensure to the benefit of all the employees who were covered by the Employees Provident Fund Scheme.
   It cannot be disputed that the workforce in our country has only been growing in numbers with more and more establishments springing into existence and getting covered by the provisions of the EPF Act. The contributions paid by them on the basis of the actual salaries drawn by the employees are constantly adding to the base of the fund. Such a process of accretion is a continuing phenomenon. Therefore, there is no evidence of the fact that the fund is getting depleted by the payment of pension. It is commonly accepted that the fund base has only grown over the years by the accumulation of EPF contributions. India is a country with a large number of people living on the margins of subsistence, compared to whom an organised sector worker, even if lowly paid in relation to corporate executives or civil servants, is relatively well off. The Court has said that Pension is not a charity, but it is like deferred wages to help the employees in their old age. Government funds should be spent on healthcare, education or women’s empowerment, all of which have been identified as yielding high social returns.
   There is another side of it that what proportion of an employee’s earnings should mandatorily be saved is an issue for rational analysis, not arbitrary court orders. No employer is going to raise what it costs the company to hire a hand, merely because a larger proportion of that cost is mandated to be saved. All that will happen is that the take-home pay would dip. Whether an employee, at low levels of earning, would be better off by depressing current consumption to save for the future is for the employee to decide. Now it is the Supreme Court’s order that will have the final say.

Media has Failed to Put Forth the Transformational Changes in India

The amount of work that Narendra Modi has done in the last five years is mind-boggling and unimaginable for any government to do in country and population of this size. It will take years for the researchers to properly comprehend and evaluate it. Almost every household in the country has now got toilet facilities, which was unthinkable only a few years back. When he declared from the ramparts of Lal Quila that every house will soon have 'izzatghar', he was being pooh-poohed by the prophets of doom, but they all proved wrong.

Go to any village in the country, there is hardly any family, which does not have a pucca house with modern facilities of kitchen, electricity and toilet. Every house has LPG and the subsidy goes directly to the consumer, which was earlier gobbled up and pocketed by the agents, middlemen/women and brokers. There is one briefless Advocate, who sits in the Supreme Court, who during his service, was caught by the CBI red-handed taking bribes, although he got acquitted by using the same methodology of bribing. However one can still find him pouring venom against Prime Minister Modi. He has been the worst critic of Jan Dhan Yojna of Modi saying that what was the use of the bank accounts when there was no money in it. He used to say that all bank personnel are because it has increased the burden of their work many times over. But now even the poorest of the poor is getting his subsidies directly transferred to his/her accounts. This 'gentleman' often gets eggs on his face but that makes no difference for him because of the large league of corrupt persons that he has.

Think of those days when getting a license, quota or permit was considered to be an achievement because there was enough scope of manipulation. There used to lakhs of ghost cardholders and the number of subsidies was being swallowed by the nexus of corrupt politicians, government officials, brokers and license holders. But now that link of corruption has been wiped out, which has saved the country’s billions of Rupees, that now goes for developmental works like ujjawala yojana, road-building, house buildings and many other schemes, some of them have been enumerated above.

There was a time, and that was only a few years ago when every honest person was groaning with an unbearable effect of black money. If anybody had to purchase a house or a piece of land, he or she had to cough up 70 per cent payment in black and only 30 per cent in white causing enormous loss to the exchequer, But thanks to the demonetization the real estate market has largely become realistic to the huge relief of common man. This is the reason all corrupt forces rose in unison against the demonetization. Despite all the flaws in the implementation of the demonetization due to the corrupt bank officials and others, it has helped the country to come out of the economic sickness. The benefits of GST are there for all to see. Earlier if one were to purchase anything from jewellers or any other shopkeepers, the consumer was told two prices, one without the receipt and the other with receipt. Every consumer or customer was discouraged to go for the receipt for the purchased items. But look, Modi is hauled over coals even for bringing transparency and honesty in the business.

These schemes and projects are benefiting every section of the society without any discrimination. Muslims are the biggest beneficiaries of them but surprisingly almost all Muslims orchestrate in the opposition of Modi. The number of Muslims supporting is few and far between. And even if he advises something good for the Muslims, he is accused of polarization on communal lines. This shows the bankruptcy of the opposition and Muslim leadership. When you enumerate the good works of Modi, they will turn at you by saying that he had promised 15 lakhs to every Indian and two crores job every year. This is a patent lie and a baseless rumour. Nobody has been able to produce even single audio or video, where Modi has been seen saying or promising such things. Our Media does not have the time to present the factual position before the people because it has its own axes to grind.

Be that as it may, Modi eminently deserves a second chance to become the Prime Minister to stem the rot that has been set in the administration. The country will achieve the dizzy heights in the comity of the nations. Some drastic measures for the population control and introduction of artificial intelligence can be taken only by Modi and none else. He is the only hope of the country, who is standing tall among all pigmies of politicians.

Who Listens Lachhaman Singh?

 I read a heart-rending story of a father of martyred Jawan of Indian Army, in the ‘Indian People’s Congress’ being edited and managed by the Supreme Court Advocate Shreepal Singh and written by Wing Comdr Venky Aiyer. He says that I informed Lachhaman Singh Rathore “Deeply regret to inform that your son Flying Officer Vikram Singh lost his life in a flying accident early this morning. Death was instantaneous.”

      He was brought by a helicopter and we all received the frail old man of nearly 80 years. He was in immaculate Dhoti. We helped him alight and then he asked me after getting down from the helicopter, “are you Venky?”  I said yes sir, The distraught father took me to some paces away and told me that 'you have lost your friend but I have lost my son, you tell me what do I have to do? My only desire is to meet his friends and spend the whole night in the room where he was sleeping and the next morning I will go to my place'. We did what he asked us to do. He told us that he has sired three sons. The first son was killed in the war against China, the second son was killed in the war against Pakistan and I insisted my third son to join the army. He has also laid down his life for the sake of the country. While Narrating his story Lachhman Singh Rathor was calm and composed I could see that he was braver than all of us. While reading this story eyes well up with tears. 

     Here is a Lachhman Singh who has lost all his sons and whose grandchildren are living without the affection of their fathers and whose daughters’ in law have lost their husbands, yet he did not show any sign of any weakness.

      On the other hand, see the contrast. Our judiciary is more concerned about the human rights of goondas, mercenaries and stone pelters. A few days back when some people lodged an FIR against a major for opening up of fire on the mercenaries which resulted into the death of two of them, The Supreme court stayed the action on the Fir and issued notices to the government and the people who pelted stones. 

    The Jawans who are defending the country in most hostile circumstances are expected to respect the human rights of those who are attacking them. Is it not shocking that we give respect to a Jawan who is killed and whose body is brought wrapped in tri colours but when he fires shots for defending the country he is brought in the docks in the name of human rights? We expected that the Supreme Court would order the state government to round up all mercenaries and try them for pelting stones on the Jawans but here we find that the Jawan is being hauled up for violating the human rights. See the contrast between China and India or America and India in dealing with the terrorist.  In China and America, security forces have been given free hand to deal with the terrorist and no question is asked but here a Jawan has to fear a terrorist on the one side and human rightists of our own country on the other side.

     His life is perched between the devil and deep sea    

Death Sentence to Continue in Rarest of Rare cases

Those who have been advocating that ‘capital punishment’ should be completely taken off the statute must be disappointed by the judgement of the Supreme Court in ‘Khushwinder Singh vs. State of Punjab’ case. The Court reiterated that the death sentence will continue to remain valid in the ‘rarest of rare’ cases. In the previous piece of the Judicial Panorama, it was discussed how the six innocent persons, who were waiting to be hanged were acquitted because they were falsely implicated by the Police.

In this case, the court has said that anything less than the death sentence will be an injustice. The case of the prosecution is that one Jasmeen Kaur who was married to Rupinder Singh in the year 2005. They had two children from their marriage. However, the atmosphere in the family of Jasmeen’s in-laws was not good. So, she started living along with her husband and children at her natal place. Her brother was a drunkard. Jasmeen was approached by Manjit Kaur, wife of the accused Khushwinder Singh, who is the daughter of her maternal uncle. Khushwinder, the accused informed the family of Jasmeen that he knew one ‘Baba’ (holy man) who can make a person get rid of the habit of drinking permanently.

 The accused further informed that he also knew one travel agent, who could send her husband, Rupinder Singh to Canada. The accused demanded Rs Two Lakh as initial expenses. He also informed that the remaining amount of Rs. 14 lakhs was to be paid on getting the visa. Thereupon, the family of the complainant pledged their gold ornaments with the goldsmith and borrowed money. The accused further informed that he had also got in touch with ‘Baba’ (holy man) to enable Gurinder Singh to give up his habit of drinking and, for that purpose, they would have to offer “Dhala” (offering certain pulses, rice etc. in running water).

On the evening of 25 June 2012 at about 06.00 p.m., the accused came  to the house of the complainant, Jasmeen, in his car and informed that the “Dhala” was to be offered on the night at about 02.30 a.m. and, for this purpose, the accused made Paramjit Kaur – mother, Gurinder Singh @ Babbu – brother and Rupinder Singh – husband of complainant respectively to accompany him. Gurinder Singh, the father of the complainant, also accompanied them as he was to pay obeisance at Gurudwara Rara Sahib. Then, on 26^th June 2012 at about 11.30 a.m. the accused came back in his car and informed that Gurinder Singh, Paramjit Kaur and Rupinder Singh had been left with ‘Baba ji'. In the evening, the complainant should accompany him to the ‘Baba” for offering 'Dhala'.

 On the same day at about 6.30 p.m. Jasmeen Kaur, along with her father Gurmail Singh, son Jaskirat Singh and daughter Prabhsimran Kaur accompanied the accused in his Maruti car. On the way, the accused informed that he had received a phone call from 'Baba ji' that Gurinder Singh would permanently cure of his drinking habit, but in turn, Gurmail Singh, father of the complainant, would have to take a drink. Thereafter, on the way, the accused purchased a half liquor bottle and gave it to Gurmail Singh, who gradually consumed the half liquor bottle. Thereafter, the accused took some rounds and got the complainant, her children and Gurmail Singh towards the canal where he turned his car towards the bridge and informed the complainant that they were to first offer “Dhala”. On this Jasmeen Kaur and her father Gurmail Singh got down from the car and the children kept sitting in the car. They came to the bank of the canal and when they were to offer “Dhala” in the running water, the accused pushed both of them in the canal. Jasmeen Kaur, however, fell on one side of the canal near the edge and somehow saved herself. She came out of the canal and by coming along the canal she disclosed the entire occurrence to the official of the canal department who, further informed it to the parental family. They searched for her father and children, but she could not get to know anything about them.

 The complainant had a firm belief that the accused by cheating their entire family on a false pretext had thrown her husband Rupinder Singh, her brother Gurinder Singh, mother Paramjit Kaur, son Jaskirat Singh and daughter Prabhsimran Kaur had been illegally detained somewhere or they had been thrown in the canal. The complainant further alleged that, along with her, her father Gurmail Singh was also thrown in the canal by the accused and the accused had killed him so that his dead body may be untraceable. The complainant further informed in her statement that they had sold their land for Rs. 37 Lakh and that money were lying at their home and only the accused knew about it. The accused, therefore, had finished her entire family as he wanted to grab the amount.

On being interrogated, the accused made some disclosures to the police, including that he had stolen Rs. thirty-six Lakh seventy thousand from the house of Gurmail Singh and he had concealed to money in his house in a bag which was lying in the almirah of his house from where the amount was recovered. During the course of the investigation and on the basis of the statement made by the accused during interrogation, the Chappals and shoes of the victims were found/recovered. That, during interrogation, the accused made a statement that on 26th June 2012 morning he administered sleeping pills with ‘mishri’ (Sugar) to Rupinder Singh, Gurinder Singh and Paramjit Kaur before offering ‘Dhala’.

The Sessions Court convicted the appellant-accused for offences punishable under Sections 302, 307, 364, 201 and 380 of the IPC and awarded death sentence for the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC. The High Court has, on re-appreciation of the entire evidence on record and by a well-reasoned judgment, confirmed the conviction and sentence passed by the Sessions Court, including the death sentence.

 It is to be noted that six persons out of seven members of a family have been killed by the accused. The complaint was also thrown into the canal by the accused along with her father Gurmail Singh and her two children aged seven and eight years. The accused was last seen together with the deceased Gurinder Singh, Paramjit Kaur and Rupinder Singh. The dead body of Gurinder Singh was found by the police on 29^th June 2012. The complainant having seen the accused last together with the aforesaid three persons has been established and proved by the prosecution by leading cogent evidence.

 The Supreme Court in a catena of decisions that minor discrepancies are not to be given undue emphasis and the evidence is to be considered from the point of view of trustworthiness. Here in this case, there are no material contradictions which may affect the case of the prosecution. The complainant is the eye-witness and also the victim. She has been fully cross-examined by the defence. But the defence has not brought out anything from her cross-examination which may affect the case of the prosecution and/or which may doubt her trustworthiness.

 Considering the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the case and the findings recorded by the Sessions Court and confirmed by the High Court, in detail by giving cogent reasons and on appreciation of the evidence on record, we are of the opinion that the High Court has rightly confirmed the conviction of the accused of the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC having killed/committing the murder of six persons.

  In the present case, the accused has killed six innocent persons, out of which two were minors – below 10 years of age. Almost, all the family members of the complainant were done to death in a diabolical and dastardly manner. Fortunately, or unfortunately, only one person of the family could survive. In the present case, the accused has killed six innocent persons in a pre-planned manner. The convict meticulously planned the time. He first kidnapped three persons by way of deception and took them to the canal and after drugging them with sleeping tablets, pushed them in the canal at a mid-night to ensure that the crime is not detected. Therefore, considering the law laid down by this Court in the case of Mukesh v. State (NCT of Delhi), the case would fall in the category of the “rarest of rare case” warranting death sentence/capital punishment. Striking a balance between the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, we are of the opinion that the aggravating circumstance would tilt the balance in favour of capital punishment.

 The crime is committed with extremist brutality and the collective conscious of the society would be shocked. Therefore, we are of the opinion that capital punishment/death sentence does not warrant any interference by this Court. Thus, the Supreme Court has again said that the death sentence cannot be abandoned if the crime is exceedingly shocking to the conscience of society.