Corruption and democracy

I have started wondering about the seemingly intangible link between corruption and democracy in India. Is it intangible after all?

I see political parties shielding persons accused of corruption and coming out in their defense all the while claiming to be champions of the people and democracy. I wonder whether it is now an issue of corrupt persons forming political parties instead of the earlier issue of having corrupt politicians in political parties.

Allowing the corrupt to continue to occupy the seats of power would certainly undermine our democratic institutions and pave way for dictatorships. Perhaps this is the reason why most political parties in India are not able to have genuine democracy within them.

It seems the present Central Government is using all means to prevent the true picture from being revealed to the public and it uses police power, lies and deception to cloud the real issues now agitating the minds of the people.

The current scenario also indicates the disenchantment of the people with political parties with the organizers of all popular protests against corruption trying to distance themselves from political parties. This is a ripe situation for political chaos, anarchy and revolution to occur in any country. With religious fundamentalism just an arm's length away, it would do well for all right thinking individuals to force this government to take concrete steps to combat corruption and to punish the guilty. Else, the vacuum created by a non-performing government is almost always fertile ground for forces of balkanization to thrive on.

United Colours of Terrorism - One Message, Across Borders

I found this intriguing post at http://ibnlive.in.com/conversations/topic/80787-1-3-2.
Posted by sriramvee at 01:17 PM, Dec 18, 2008

Mr.Antulay is one of the very few politicians who have been convicted in India for corruption and was debarred from contesting elections for 7 years and the congress rehabilitated him with an eye on Muslim votes. He was very close to the real estate mafia and was the CM of Maharashtra when Dawood was in Mumbai. Today Russian intelligence says Dawood funded the Mumbai attack - dont we clearly see a connection. One plus one is two afterall. Also this is what gets back to the question of unbridled partiotism of Indian Muslims. If a responsible Muslim leader can speak like this - which is clearly giving ammunition to Pakistan, how does one expect that Muslims are wholeheartedly with us? It is another question that issues surrounding so called Hindu terror has to be investigated, but to say that it is linked to the Mumbai attack is not just preposterous, but clearly shows a design of diverting attention from the current investigation and help Pakistan make more noises against us.

Selective Definitions of War Crimes

"Till the day the lions have their rule, history will only show hunting as a glorious skill and hunters as heroes." - an African Quote.
The BBC had an item on the reaction of its readers on the capture of Karadzic – a Bosnian Serb War Crimes suspect. That piece left me wondering about the status of George Bush the current President of the United States of America and of Tony Blair, the former prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Are they not of the same ilk? If definitions are only what matters, then what is the use of defining human rights? Should not people who bring in untold misery to others on account of their actions be held equally responsible as other criminals for they do what they do with full knowledge of the consequences?
Is it justice when dozens of innocent people are killed in Iraq or Afghanistan by bombs dropped by the military forces of the United States of America and the United Kingdom when they know that it could be a consequence of their act and when they have absolutely no business to be on its territory? Are not George Bush and Tony Blair, as the political heads of these countries, equally responsible as Radovan Karadzic for the acts done under their command? If so, are not the selective definitions to suit political purposes a greater crime against humanity than any other?

E-Bloomer?!!

On sources of legislative materials in India....

"The various laws are available in Bare Acts 
which is very brief form of Acts passed by legislature."

The One and Only One - Shyaam

"I am Me. In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine, because I alone chose it -- I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to others or myself. I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes. Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts. I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know -- but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and ways to find out more about me. However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me. If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which I discarded. I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me. I own me, and therefore, I can engineer me. I am me, and I am Okay and the Best!!!!!!! Any Problems???????"

Author: http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=16658908371104037972

That's a nice view to hold of one self.  I am glad that he is my student and a dear friend.

Exam Bloomers Again - a new Philosophy of Law

In answer to a question on the development of law in stages of history and classification of law:
"... As per a distinct branch of law, the law of cosmos, cosmic law, particles circling around in variating frequencies developed into a vital source of matter. Quoting the principles of dialectical meterialism, these particles resulted in the formation of universe, planets with it and most prominently sowing the seeds of life. ..."

How long to Wait?

Sometimes things are so difficult that you think of quitting.  At these times what makes one go forward is dreams of a tomorrow where everything will be alright.
The papers today had the striking down of the Narendran Commission's Report relating to creamy layer in Kerala by the Supreme Court as its headline.  Justice delayed is supposed to be justice denied.  What was the need for waiting till now (the case was filed in 2002), to strike down the report?  Now what will happen to the recruitment made on the basis of the flawed report till now?
I am not going into the merits and demerits of the Narendran Commission's Report.   I am wondering about the tardy judicial progress which is the bane of a democratic society that affixes responsibility and accountability on nobody.
At least in the judicial sphere, there has to be some efforts at reducing the time made available to a court to arrive at a decision.  human lifespan is so meagre that life of entire generations gets wasted by inordinate delay in finalising issues relating ultimately to policy.
We need more members in the judiciary.  26 judges in the Supreme Court of a Nation that boasts of more than a billion citizens is pathetic, to say the least.
This reflects the rest of the judicial setup and is indicative of the maladies that face justice 
administration in the country.  It is high time this is changed.

Why?

If the world be such a nice place, why is the creator not here?
Now, why would it be that he is not here?
Do we know all about what's going around to be sure about anything?
So long as the mystery of the missing links are not clear how can we vouch for darwinism as better than the theory of divine origin?

The more one think, the more one is in awe about the world.

Bloomer time, Once Again!

1. Exploitation of the ocean mainly leads to piracy.
2. Under a contract of sale, sale without consideration is a nude contract.
3. Immovable property is land attached to the earth.
4. When there are five judges in a bench, and three judges give the majority judgement and two judges give the minority judgement, the ratio decidendi of the case is 3:2.
5. Disguised employment is a situation in which the persons are willing to work at the market rate but cannot find employment and this unemployment is not distributed evenly.
6. A negotiable instrument should have been complete and regular on the phase of it.
7. A person cannot use a petrol purchased from Kerala to be used in Himalayas. Te reason is that the petrol from Kerala would freeze at Himalayas where a different type of petrol (petrol with a solvent to lower melting point) should be used.
8. Tax is the money given to a government directly or indirectly for the welfare of the subjects. It is the money which given to the government of a country for luxurious items, etc so that government can give salaries, allowances and other facilities to its subjects.
My dearest students will please forgive me for not including the names.
They may also rest assured that these are not confined to the papers that I get to value.

On Constitutionalism

“The main objects of constitutionalism are to limit the arbitrary action of the government, to guarantee the rights of the governed and to define, the operation of sovereign power”.
– Friedrich

Why the need for Secrecy?

One little thing that matters most,
Never disclose your secret thoughts.
The seeds of any grand vision,
Mature unseen for their great mission.

Need Some Inspiration?

It is a Sunday and I slept all day today. In the evening had to have some inspiration to start the perspiration going. Here is a poem by Douglas Malloch that has given me the needed boost.
"If you can't be a pine on top of the hill,
Be a scrub in the valley - but be
The best little shrub by the side of the rill.
Be a bush if you can't be a tree.
If you can't be the bush, be a bit of the grass,
And some highway happier make;
If you can't be a muskie, then just be a bass.
But be the liveliest bass in the lake.
We can't always be captains,
We've got to be crew.
There's big work to do and there's lesser to do,
And the task we must do is the near.
If you can't be a highway, then just be a trail,
If you can't be the Sun, be a star.
It isn't by size that you win or you fail.
Be the best of whatever you are!"

True then. What about now?

"... many Englishmen and Indian officials honestly believe that they are administering one of the best systems devised in the world, and that India is making steady, though slow progress. They do not know that a subtle but effective system of terrorism and an organised display of force on the one hand, and the deprivation of all powers of retaliation or self defence on the other, have emasculated people and induced in them the habit of simulation.
... .
In my opinion, the administration of law is thus prostituted, consciously or unconsciously, for the benefit of the exploiter."
- Prabhu, R.K., (ed.), Two Memorable Trials of Mahatma Gandhi, Navajivan, Ahmedabad (1962), at p. 67.

Examination Bloomers

Here are some gr8 ones.
1. "Passing away of property means handing over the ownership over any goods or property after sale."
2. "To be a judge of the Supreme Court of India a person must be an opponent of the President or a distinguished jurist."
3. "The Recorder's Court consisted of a Recorder and Aldermen. The Recorder was to be a barrier of five years standing."
4. "The Supreme Court is a court of record with the power to condemn and punish itself."

On Democracy ...

Is democracy the rule of the majority or the rule of the empowered activist minority?
The way things are moving in India I would suggest that democracy everywhere is nothing but the rule of a privileged few, who utilise the fiction of the rule of majority to gain their own legitimacy.

Is it time to start once again...?

Here is something I thought I MUST put at the LAWSPOT.

"We are formally under a Constitution but by the grace of world corporatecracy, under American hegemony. Gandhi's Swadeshi is dead. Nehru's socialism is under eclipse. The Constitution is comatose and the courts are drowned in oceanic litigation. Dalits have none to lead and there is chaos in the cosmos. The court itself has changed its class character. E.M.S. Naboodiripad was punished for contempt when he poined out the class character of the judiciary but today the judicial class has secured larger emoluments, more power over the other two branches and justice, especially social justice, is in a precarious condition. The past projects itself into the present and the tryst with destiny madeby Indians cannot be betrayed."

From, V.R. Krishna Iyer, "the Noble Preamble: We have Promises to Keep"

Things are Moving Up

I always have wondered why the world is the way it is.
Why is it that only those men who are either saints or sinners remain the remebered ones and not the ordinary mortals like you and me who toil all day and make each others life an enjoyable one?
Now I get the idea that the saints and sinners are remembered only for the sole purpose of reminding the rest of the humans the absolute uselessness in living a life like theirs.
So, now things have started to move up....

Some Lighter Moments.

I get to correct papers written by law students. Occassionally certain gems reduce the monotony of evaluating a hundred similar answers.
Here are two from a recent testpaper that I jotted in my collection today.
"The Supreme Court is a Court of Record with the power to condemn and punish itself."
"To be a Judge of the Supreme Court of India a person must be an opponent of the President or a distinguished jurist."
But then, was it my inability to convey the correct idea that resulted in this kind of an answer? Tomorrow, I have to check it up with the students concerned.

Getting Started.Objectives.
Just getting started. Let me place my objectives here, lest I may forget why I started this at all.
Humans in this world have reached this stage by sharing ideas and allowing space for each other. Ideas, views, comments about anything and everything in some way or the other will influence the society, now or in future. Pathbreaking ideas are not born in isolation. They are always accompanied by lesser ones. This blog will attempt a comment on anything that affects me profoundly and I would try to place my comment in a philosophical context taking into account the larger picture. I am a lawyer by profession and I teach law for a living. Whether I wish it or not, my comments and subjects will reflect my profession and socio-cultural background. Hence the name LawSpot for the blog.