Wednesday Thoughts

Wednesday Thoughts

Based on news reports and other happenings in the country, few thoughts

on last Wednesday of April 2019.

1. What a situation, even Chief Justice of India (CJI) is facing an allegation of sexual harassment by a dismissed female junior court assistant. CJI’s first reaction was of disbelief and he  strongly denied  all the allegations, and suggested that a bigger force was behind these allegations/charges. His contention was that , as he  was  heading certain Supreme Court (SC) benches and hearing some important cases and  which are going to impact the society & nation, and they have reached the verdict stage, so some interested groups want that I should not be in there to give verdict and they are behind all these false allegations. He agreed, for any enquiry  by other SC judges. So yesterday 3-judge committee was formed to probe allegations against CJI. Head of this committee is the judge, who is going to be next CJI as per seniority. This bench has asked complainant and SC secretary to be present before them on this Friday. Now there is one more surprise in this case, a lawyer has filed an affidavit in which he  has claimed to have been offered Rs 1.5 Cr by a person to frame CJI in false case. A special 3 judge bench of SC has taken cognisance of this. So let us wait and watch.
2. In my last blog, I had mentioned that Rahul Gandhi had regretted (in reply to SC) his action of  saying that now SC has agreed that Chowkidar is Chor,. Actually in a reply, which was later made public, he only said he regret his action, but never apologised to SC. So yesterday SC issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi in the contempt petition brought against him by Meenakshi Lekhi, but exempted him from personal appearance in the court on 3oth Apr 2019. Ms Lekhi’s advocate said that Rahul Gandhi without reading 10th April order made those statements ‘ no apology has been tendered by him to show his contrition and yet he calls himself a responsible leader of 130 year old party’. Interestingly the bench led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi decided to issue notice to Rahul Gandhi, just when his advocate expressed an gratitude to the SC for only seeking explanation from Rahul Gandhi.
3. So Election Commission(EC) has reiterated its decision to ban the release of PN Modi’s biopic and said that the content and dramatisation of the character was such that its screening before the last phase of polling will tilt the electoral balance of the particular political party. This is the gist of 20 page report which EC’s panel has submitted to SC. The report also says that 135 minute movie is unabashedly unidimensional, which puts an individual on a higher pedestal through use of specific symbols, slogans and scenes. It ends up eulogising an individual, giving him saintly status. One other thing came to my mind is that ‘ how opposition leaders are all the time blaming that Modi & BJP are always mis using the Election Commission’ . If that would have been the case then EC should have allowed the screening of this film. Secondly why these opposition leaders are afraid that it would influence the voters, then what these leaders are doing by releasing ads in their name and uploading short films on  You tube and other social media, are not equal to influencing voters. In my opinion Indian voters are not fool, who can be influenced by what they see on screen, the voters take their decision based on many factors. The problem is that , what they say in Hindi “ opposition ke deemag mein Modi ka dar baitha hua hai”.

In the end what you say my friends.

Waiting for your views/comments/feed backs on this blog.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

24^th Apr 19