The Supreme Court needs to be Dismantled and Rebuilt

I was once told by a friend of mine, who has been associated with the judiciary for a long time. And this discussion happened in 1990s.

 

There is lot of monetary corruption in the lower judiciary. This does not mean that Corruption do not exist in the upper judiciary. It certainly does. But the corruption there is more of 'moral corruption', which means either the Judge gives decision that is in tune with his political or religious beliefs, or because of certain inherent biases.

 

Much water has flown under the bridge since. It is beyond doubt that our higher courts, especially the Supreme Court, has become a cabal of self serving, holier-than-thou, crony, corrupt bunch of Judges, who has least interest in serving justice to common people.

 

They appoint themselves, are not accountable to anyone, they interfere in areas where they have no right to and then when they make a mess of it they just keep quiet ( A classic case is their interference in BCCI, where in three years, all they have done is to make the situation murkier in the process shaming one of the better run organization in front of their global counterparts. The Council of Administrators have only one or two left of the initial team, and Vinod Rai is already past 70, an age set by SC for BCCI Administrators to be ineligible! ). No one, including the elected Parliament has any say in the appointment of judges, and they had the temerity to strike down the bill passed by both houses of Parliament that would have brought a semblance of transparency to judicial appointments.

 

The four rebel judges who held a press conference were not even censured. And one of them has now been awarded with the CJI post. Now let us see if Ranjan Gogoi, the new CJI, will relinquish his Master of Roster role and ask the Senior Most Judges to be a part of allocating the Cases, as he wanted in the Press Conference. He has to walk the talk, but am sure it is not going to happen, and the so called liberals will not raise this issue.

 

It is a matter of concern that the SC is fast tracking cases which has an anti hindu slant, and passing judgments detrimental to the majority religion. The Sabarimala case is one such. When a more important, simple land dispute case of Ayodhya, is pending for decades, which is of more importance, SC has to rush in and meddle in Sabarimala. I am not for or against it. The 41 days vrata as an excuse for keeping women out is not acceptable to me, as 90% of men don't observe 41 days vrata. It is more like 3 days to 1 week. But every temple has a right to decide its rituals and right of entry, based on traditions. Any change has to come within the Community, and Hinduism has shown its ability to reform over a period of time, unlike the Abrahamic religions.

 

The issue is not SC interfering in hindu religion, but its reluctance to even touch minority religions. This is unacceptable. If not allowing women of certain age groups in Sabarimala is a violation of Fundamental right, how about not allowing women to pray with men in a mosque is not a violation of Fundamental right?

 

The earlier we have a uniform civil code the better.

 

The lower judiciary is absolutely corrupt. The higher judiciary is packed with judges of a particular political belief, who ensure only their types are promoted through an opaque, unaccountable system. They are also financially corrupt. The case of an ex CJI from Kerala is a case in point. The guy Justice Karnan, who dared to call out that the King was naked, was punished and imprisoned for 6 months. The judiciary as it stands today cannot be mended.

 

It has to be destroyed, dismantled and rebuilt from scratch. We cannot have a situation where SC interferes in a criminal investigation on people who are charged with assassinating the PM of the country, just because they are of the same cabal as a few high priced lawyers. Even after admitting that the case against the urban naxals has nothing to do with dissent, but everything to do with a plot to assassinate the PM, the SC refused to admit its mistakes. It should have pulled back its order on house arrest of the accused, and allowed the police to have their way. But hey! who will bell the cat?

 

The SC should take up only few cases a year, as it happens in US, and that too as a final stage of appeal. To interfere and give bail to Teesta Setalvad, and overturning lower court order on arrest of Urban Naxals is not what they are meant to do. Nor is it the job of HC to decide where Karunanidhi to be buried, and that too admitting a case at midnight!!

 

Will the next Government have the guts to take SC on? If not, then SC will face the wrath of the common man, who will just start defying their orders.

 

That will be a sad day, but that day is not far away.

 

 

 

Interesting Characters I met in my life -2

There are characters and then there are characters!

Life would be very dull without at least one quirky character.

We were only 11 during our Professional Course. 10 boys and 1 girl. Our age ranged from 29 to 20, me being one of the two youngest. As such homogeneity was lacking.

Each one of us had strange traits but this guy took the cake. But he made our 2 1/2 years of life quite colorful.

He had completed his PG. His father, a Businessman was street smart but lacked education, which made him determined to ensure his children got all the education they needed, and was willing to spend any amount of money for their studies. The catch was there. He was willing to invest only in education, but rarely gave them money for their other expenses, including clothes. And as long as his son was staying with him, he ruled with an iron hand.

When my classmate joined us, it was the first time he was staying away from his house, as we were all in the hostel. It was like letting a bird free after being caged for years. The guy just freaked out.

His father would give him any amount of money for buying books. Since his father was not aware how many books were required for the program, my classmate used to run rings around him. He would send request for Rs 1,000 every month to his father for buying books (Rs 1,000 was a lot of money in mid 1980's). His father would promptly send him the money. Son would hardly spend anything on books, and the whole amount went to movies, dresses, cabaret shows, liquor and good food.

Father would come once in a while for an audit, for he never fully trusted his son. The son had an arrangement with his mother, who would intimate him in advance of the fathers visits.

The lethargic son would kick into action. Our university hostel had students pursuing PG courses from Psychology to Physics to MBA to Journalism to English. And all the students were Rank Holders in their UG and very studious. We all bought books, or loaned books from the University/Department  Libraries. My classmate would raid all our rooms, collect at least 8-10 books from each room (never mind the books had nothing to do with our MBA Program) and stack them in his room. When the hardly literate father arrived, he would see a few mountains of books in his sons room, and his son sitting amidst, which would please him no end.

As I said, Father was a street smart businessman. He would insist on bills for the money spent on books. Son, who never bought a book, found a way around this too. He had an agreement with all of us to hand him over the bills whenever we purchased a book. In addition, he struck a deal with the Cashier at Pai &Co, the leading bookshop in the City, to give him the bills of books purchased by the customers, most of whom never bothered to insist on them.

Come exam time, he would be running around for books to study, for he had none. We had a studious classmate, with hardly any social skills, who hated sharing his books. One weekend, he was accosted in his room by this Character, and asked whether he could borrow his Marketing Research book. Not wanting to lend his book, the studious guy told him that he was planning to study Marketing Research the whole day and some. "Anyway, what I wanted was the Sales Management Book. I knew if I asked that, you would say you were planning to study that. Since your focus is on MR for the next day, I am taking your Sales Management Book", said our Character, and coolly walked away with the Sales Management Book.

He was fond of good food. Often one can see him in an expensive restaurant. Once me and another classmate were walking in front of one of the restaurant, when he hailed us from inside. "Come, Come. Join me for food". We happily accepted the invitation, went in and ordered along with him. We were waiting for the food to be supplied, when I had a nagging doubt. I asked " I hope you have the money to pay the bill". The guy without blinking his eye told "Yes, I have money to pay what I ORDERED, but you have to fend for yourself". We were stunned as we didn't have sufficient cash and had gone in believing he was footing the bill. Cursing him we ran to the supplier, explained our predicament, cancelled the order and left embarrassed.

Being University Campus, we had excellent sports facilities, including two tennis courts, which we used extensively. My classmate decided he wanted to play tennis too, mainly because there was a Russian Lady who was playing, and he wanted to get close to her. He bought a state of the art Racquet and the proper attire. The only hitch was that he just couldn't play. His legs and arms would go to different directions when he swung, and the ball would fly all over the place. It was embarrassing to watch for anyone, but he could care less. He persevered for 2 years without making an inch of progress and his style of play (if one could call that) was a standing joke.

Towards our 4th semester he vanished for 3 days. When he returned we asked him where the hell he was. He had apparently gone as Assistant Coach to the Calicut University Women's Tennis Team, as the regular Assistant Coach could not make it due to some personal emergency. He got a certificate for that!!!! Irony died a thousand death and we were speechless.

We had a young lady lecturer for Personnel Management. She was not quite liked by anyone, as her competency was in question, but we had to endure her horrendous lectures. A heavyset dark woman who word different sarees, she was quite vain. One day my classmate came late to the class, got in, loosened his shirt collar for it was hot, and looked around with a contented look. The lecturer restarted the class after his messy interruption. Suddenly my friend looked at her with mouth agape,

"Teachere" (teacher!)
"Entha" (what)
"Nalla Saree" (Nice Saree)
Lecturer was pleased but embarrassed, "Please......"
"Alla teachare, nalla saree" ( No teacher, saree is nice )
Lecturer murmured a thanks and continued her lecture. After a minute, the guy got out of his reverie.
"Nalla colour" (Nice Colour)
"Thanks"
After a while
"Nalla selundu kanan" (It looks nice on you)
Lecturer started warming up to the compliments but carried on teaching gamely, but losing control of the class, who were smiling broadly.
"Evidunna vangiyathu" (where did you buy from?)
"Trichur, but keep quiet now"
Still after a while,
"Ethraya koduthathu" (How much did you pay?)
" Rs 600"
"Nalla labham, Nalla labham" ( Good bargain/profit)
"Oh, thank you".  Lecturer was feeling real good now.
After 30 seconds when she had savoured the moment, came the bombshell
"Vitta aalku, vitta aalku" ( for the seller, for seller) meaning the Seller made a good profit.
The Lecturer who was floating in the world of compliments, suddenly came crashing down, and we all roared with laughter.

There are numerous such incidents one can recall. But they can be expressed properly only in the local language, and not in English.

Temple Elephant Syndrome

Kerala Government and Officials, as expected, has shown its middle finger to all the good Samaritans who helped during the Floods, and those who were affected by it.

1. The immediate relief of Rs 10,000 for those displaced not yet distributed, and not likely to be distributed for a long time. The excuse given is that Government do not have the Bank Account numbers of those displaced and till recently in Relief Camps. Laughable.
2. Complaints are pouring in that the financial aid for Reconstruction is being left to the discretion of the local surveyor, who is hand in glove with Ruling Party Members and allotting money as per his whims and fancy. It is clear as daylight that the CPM party members, who are experts at making hay when sun shines, will corner all these funds. The real needy, who were affected, will not get anything. And the so called 'Literate Malayalis', who cry out loud for anything from Beef ban to a murder in UP to Saddam Hussain being killed, have not even conducted a protest hartal against the absolute mismanagement of the situation by the Government, pre and post floods
   
3. The Chief Minister has vanished to USA for treatment (for God knows what!) for 3 weeks at this critical juncture, without even handing over the charge to his #2. And to add insult to injury, all the Ministers are scheduled to travel to various foreign countries to 'beg' the good hearted NRIs for more money. The NRIs have already rallied very well and if more money is required, all it required was one appeal, instead of these duffers spending public money on foreign jaunts. (One is reminded of the Tamil Nadu 'Temple Elephant' which is taken out every day by the mahout to the market to make 'collections'!)
4. I was listening to a TV Interview by the Chairman of Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). He apparently has a PhD in CYA (Cover Your Ass). His astounding claim was that though he knew there would be heavy rains during 13-18 of August 2018, from Private Weather Sources, he could act only based on IMD Weather Report, as otherwise "If he had recommended opening the Dam based on other sources of information, and if it had not rained heavily, "NO ONE WOULD HAVE PROTECTED HIM". And decision to not open all the Dams till it became inevitable was based on his instinct of Self Protection!. Why he was not sacked for that one statement is beyond me. It is another matter that IMD has dismissed his and Chief Minister's statements that adequate warning was not given, and has indicated how the alerts were issued regularly from 9th August.
5. An Ex Justice, who is the Chairman of Dam Safety Authority, made another bizarre statement when questioned about Flood Mapping. His take is that even if Flood mapping were to be done, it would have had no use! IF we had the flood mapping done, and IF the Government had people sensible enough to use the data, they would have released water in a staged manner ensuring steady flow, rather than opening all the Dams at once, leading to deluge. With People in responsible positions like the KSEB  and  DSA Chairmen, Kerala needs no enemies
6. Minister Raju, who vanished to Germany to attend an inconsequential program while the flood was raging, was not sacked, as expected. So much for accountability
7. The CPM is brushing of incidents of diversion of Relief materials as one off incidents, which is not true. There has been massive under utilization and diversion of relief materials. If at all it has reached the right people, it is only due to the good work done by some NGOs and selfless Volunteers
8. Central Government has agreed to undertake Reconstruction directly. But Kerala Government is lukewarm to the idea. Reason is obvious. Their cronies cant benefit if Central Government were to do this directly.
9. It is 15 days since water has receded. We are yet to see an Concrete plan from the Government as to how they are going to rebuild Kerala. And I suspect we will never see it. The whole objective now is to mop up as much cash as possible for the State, which has been following an unsustainable model of Economic Growth for a long time now.

The 'Temple Elephant' Syndrome is in full flight!

 

(P.S: One of the disgusting attitude of Malayalees was noticed during the floods. It could be an off shoot of the decades of Communist ideology, which views Capital Formation as a crime, unless the Party does it. Everyday Newspaper is flooded with statements from all and sundry as to why Mr.X or Mr.Y paid 'only' Rs 25 lakhs and why not 'Rs 1 Crore'. This is absurd. It is for individuals to decide whether or how much to pay. It is his hard earned money. No one other than him has an entitlement to it. If an Andhra Film star donated Rs 1 Crore, accept it gracefully and thank him. But don't ask why a Malayali Film Star didn't match that amount. It is cheap and petty. And it stems out of jealousy that they have more money than you. As I wrote before, Malayalees lack humility, and possess a sense of entitlement and arrogance, as if they are born to be supported by others. This has to be removed from his psyche for him to improve. I am a Malayalee and I have outgrown this syndrome. Time others did too. World will be a much better place then for Malayalees)