Now that he has stabilized the Economy, done excellent work on Infrastructure Development and Foreign Policy, Modi has to turn his attention to certain critical issues dragging the Country down during his Second Term.
First and foremost is to clean up the Judiciary. Our Judiciary is the epitome of inefficiency, cronyism and corruption (both moral and monetary). The appointment to SC is opaque, and about 50 families have dominated the SC Judges panel during the past few decades. This is totally unacceptable. Cases take decades (I have a personal experience of a land dispute filed against us in 1998 still stuck in local Civil Court till date). The Conviction rate in Criminal Case is abysmally low, and in cases pertaining to Economic Crimes, almost zero. The drama surrounding Sahara has made our judiciary a laughing stock. Government has tried to rectify this with the new laws, but that pertains to recovery of money. The fraudsters still can hope to go scot free or be a VIP undertrial. The entire Judiciary should be asked to fall in line or impeached. Courts should start functioning by 9.30 am and work till 5.30 pm. They should enjoy only standard holidays, and no bullshit about Summer Holidays, Vacations etc. The number of adjournments that can be sought should be limited to one or two per plaintiff and defendant. With technology available, if lawyers cant file responses within a week, they dont deserve to be lawyers. The lawyers fee has to be capped, so that the poorest of the poor have access to legal aid. Or alternatively, as part of CSR, Law Firms should be made to do pro-bono work compulsorily for 25% of the cases.
The Prison system, allowing rich and powerful criminals to misuse the parole and medical reasons, has to be demolished and reconstructed. We need to have more open prisons for not so hardened criminals, that gives them a real chance of reforming themselves. The prisons for hardened criminals should ensure they get no special privilege whatsoever. We have a situation in Kerala, where criminals convicted of Political murders are enjoying their life in Prison, and get Parole at will. Lalu Prasad Yadav is having field day running his party from the Prison. Whether Sasikala is actually confined to prison or is living in a hotel outside no one knows. Once criminals lose the fear of prison, they and others will continue to defy law at will.
The great shake up has to be in the Police Department. Our Police Force is a joke. No one has faith in them. Their ability to solve crimes in a time bound manner is questionable. In most States, the Police Force is highly politicised, unfit and corrupt. They are abusive to boot. We also need a modern Police Force at the Centre like the FBI in USA, that has the powers to investigate on all cases that has inter-state ramification, without having to being requested by the State Government. The focus should be on prevention of crime rather than detection, post crime. The conviction rate has to increase, targets fixed. The Police has to be made accountable for the law and order in their area. They should be protected from Political interference. All appointments has to be made by the Policemen themselves, and should not be influenced by Politicians. A classic example is how the Armed Forces handle this issue. It is why they are head and shoulders above everyone else, and trusted/respected by common man
Technology pertaining to Crime, Detection, Punishment has grown by leaps and bounds. Our system is still in medieval ages. We desperately need a state of the art Justice, Police and Prison System that is futuristic in thinking..... to be continued....
