Friends, you must have observed that my writings on political happenings is reduced in the recent past. The primary reason being there has not been much political happening which incited me to write on that particular subject. In my today’s blog, I am writing about a few political and other items, which attracted my attention recently:
1 Rahul Gandhi
As you all are aware for the last 4 months Rahul Gandhi is on the “Bharat Jodo Yatra” which started in Kerala and has now reached Jammu & Kashmir. The Congress party wants us to believe that he is doing this full yatra by walking all the distance, whereas the fact is that during the day he walks for a few km with his followers, and then travels by luxury air-conditioned Vanity van-type bus. During the course of this yatra, he almost daily gives interviews and gives some statements which according to me are senseless, and they are sometimes very hilarious. Here one to mention one of his such statements in which he says that “ wherever I have gone and met people, I have seen so much love and never found hatred amongst people”. But the next day he is found to be saying that “ Modi government is spreading so much hatred in the country”. It is your own sense which has to chose between these two statements and decide which is true.
2 Selection of Judges and Supreme Court
This is one subject which has been news for last few months, earlier I have written few blogs on this topic also. Here the point is, as per the current procedure SC judges’ panel chose which judge can be elevated to the bench of SC, and Law Ministry has to approve the same. Similar is the case for the appointment of judges for High Courts. It was smooth sailing for this collegium system of judges appointing judges till the time of UPA 2. The collegiums system came into operation as earlier Central governments could not formulate a system for the selection of judges for higher courts, and about three decades back it was decided that till government pass the law in Parliament for judges selection, this collegium system will continue.
The Central government headed by PM Narendra Modi in August 2014 passed the Constitution (99th Amendment) Act along with National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) Act 2014, providing for the creation of an independent commission to appoint judges to SC and HC to replace the collegium system.
Mind you this law was passed by both houses of Parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha), after due discussions. But it so happened that, the SC struck down the NJAC and 99th Amendment, saying that it violates the spirit of the Constitution. In reality, the fact is the Constitution does not specify how to select the judges, and it has left to the legislature to formulate the procedure for the appointment of judges.
The stand of the government and so many retired people of the judiciary is that the collegiums system of appointing judges is not a foolproof system as it can promote nepotism, favourtism, corruption etc, there have to be certain checks which are not there in this system.
Actually, there are many prevailing systems in Legislature, Executive, and Judiciary which are having some basic faults, but none of the successive governments at the Centre and States have tried to rectify the same. In the case of Legislature-there is one classic case of when MPs and MLAs themselves pass the increment in their salaries and perks every couple of years. Have you ever heard, that a person decides about his own increment in income?
The problem in our country is that the Legislature, Judiciary, and Executive think they are above the ordinary people, and they should get whatever they want. In reality, they are servants of people, and they get a salary from the taxes which the public pay to the exchequer. When some government wants to bring some reforms, then all the people connected with these three arms of democracy, start protesting against the reforms, as no one wants to lose his importance and financial benefits. It is the classical case of ‘Who will bell the Cat’.
3 Australian Open (Tennis)
In the ongoing Australian Open Grand Slam tournament 2023, it so happened that when both the top-ranked (No. 1) players in Men and Women’s sections crashed out in the early stages of the tournament. Top seed Rafael Nadal lost to M McDonald in the second round, and the women’s top seed Iga Swiatek lost to E Rybakina in the fourth round. There are many instances of either men’s or women’s top seed exiting from the tournament in earlier rounds, but in the recent past, both top seeds exiting before the quarter-finals is unheard of.
Waiting for your views on this blog
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
24th January 2023