E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Meeting the Veerappan threat
The death of 66-year-old former Karnataka Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader H. Nagappa, who was taken hostage by notorious brigand Veerappan three months ago, under mysterious circumstances, is most unfortunate. There are conflicting claims on the nature of Nagappa’s death.

Abu, and now Anees
About two months ago Abu Salem, wanted in India for the Mumbai bomb blasts, was arrested in Lisbon along with his starlet companion Monica Bedi. The CBI has made a formal request for his extradition. The report that another suspect Anees Ibrahim, brother of the dreaded underworld don Dawood, was detained in Dubai has been received as another piece of good news by the local investigation agencies. Anees was detained on Sunday while travelling to Dubai from Pakistan.

Towards a dangerous precedent
Those who have been opposed to a military solution to the Iraqi crisis may receive a major shock in the near future. Despite Iraq’s declaration to the United Nations that it has no programme for weapons of mass destruction, the USA has intensified its troops buildup for a final assault on the beleaguered West Asian nation, most probably in January.

OPINION

The politics of ethnicity
Waiting for truly equitable world order
Sunanda K. Datta-Ray
Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra does not enjoy the same reputation for abrasiveness as Dr Mahathir Mohamad, his colleague from Malaysia, who is constantly engaged in a war of words with white, especially Australian, politicians. So the world should sit up and take note when even the amiable Mr Thaksin refuses to let Australia take part in an Asian summit which, he says, is only for “yellow-skinned and black-haired” people.

MIDDLE

Fixing levels
K. Rajbir Deswal
An elephant owner wanted to sell his animal. He went to a village with his pachyderm. A curious crowd gathered around. One man from the assembly observed the tusker more keenly than others. He reconnoitered the hugeness of the elephant and patted his pillar-like legs when the elephant seller became suspicious of him.

‘If judges decay, the contempt power will not save them’
Anupam Gupta
"The place of justice is an hallowed place," wrote Francis Bacon in 1625, twelve years after he was appointed Attorney-General and seven years after he rose to head the English judiciary (to quit later in disgrace), "and therefore not only the Bench, but the footpace, and precincts, and purprise thereof, ought to be preserved without scandal and corruption."

Remember your first kiss?
When it comes to remembering significant moments in one’s life — such as the first kiss with a sweetheart — older adults may not remember all of the details as vividly as younger adults. But with age comes wisdom and older adults tend to express thoughts or feelings about those events in a far more interesting and worldly manner.

• ‘Combination diet’ cuts cholesterol

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

Meeting the Veerappan threat

The death of 66-year-old former Karnataka Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader H. Nagappa, who was taken hostage by notorious brigand Veerappan three months ago, under mysterious circumstances, is most unfortunate. There are conflicting claims on the nature of Nagappa’s death. Veerappan, in a cassette — sixth in the series sent to the Karnataka government ever since he abducted him on August 25 — has charged Tamil Nadu’s Special Task Force (STF) with killing Nagappa in an encounter. However, the Tamil Nadu government has refuted the allegation, saying that it had no role to play in the killing as the incident occurred within Karnataka’s territorial limits. What is disturbing in the entire episode is not just the fresh blame game between the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments but the impunity with which the poacher and smuggler is able to call the shots. It is distressing to note that neither Karnataka nor Tamil Nadu has shown the determination to catch the brigand in the last 10 years. The fact that Veerappan has emerged as a state within a state and is able to successfully dictate terms to the Karnataka government — either through cassettes at regular intervals or whatever other strategies available at his command — proves that he has reduced the entire state administration to a museum piece. Whatever explanation Chief Minister S.M.Krishna may have given on the matter, he has failed miserably in resolving the latest crisis. Public resentment against the role of the state government in the hostage crisis has been increasing day by day. Eyebrows were raised when the government tried to secure the release of Tamil activist Kolathur Mani on bail from the Bellary jail, by withdrawing serious charges against him under laws such as the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Explosives Act, and the Arms and Ammunition Act, as demanded by Veerappan.

The violence witnessed in parts of Karnataka on Sunday evening soon after reports of the recovery of Nagappa’s body were available and the state-wide bandh observed on Monday in protest against the death, are manifestations of the limits of public tolerance over the continued menace. The issue in question is: how long will the two state governments keep succumbing to a brigand’s blackmail, bluff and bluster? Veerappan’s political connections are common knowledge which have, apparently, helped him to hoodwink the long arm of the law. Mr Krishna’s “stern resolve” to catch the brigand, the cooperation extended to him by his Tamil Nadu counterpart, Ms Jayalalithaa, who has ordered prompt resumption of the combined STF offensive against Veerappan, and the willingness of Deputy Prime Minister L.K.Advani to help both states with an adequate supply of paramilitary personnel and equipment, are all pointers in the right direction. However, there are bound to be reasonable misgivings among the people about the two state leaders’ intentions because similar attempts made by them earlier have all ended in a fiasco, with the brigand having become more aggressive, shrill and tough over the years. Consequently, it has become necessary for both Chief Ministers to match their determination with appropriate action on the ground to catch the brigand dead or alive. Suffice it to mention, Mr Krishna and Ms Jayalalithaa will finally be judged by their actions and not by their umpteen promises.

Abu, and now Anees

About two months ago Abu Salem, wanted in India for the Mumbai bomb blasts, was arrested in Lisbon along with his starlet companion Monica Bedi. The CBI has made a formal request for his extradition. The report that another suspect Anees Ibrahim, brother of the dreaded underworld don Dawood, was detained in Dubai has been received as another piece of good news by the local investigation agencies. Anees was detained on Sunday while travelling to Dubai from Pakistan. He was arrested on two earlier occasions by the Dubai police and was later released for want of evidence. Even the Bahrain police had to set him free after arresting him because no case was made out for his detention. This time again the Interpol has issued a red corner alert and a CBI team has reached Dubai for bringing Anees Ibrahim to India to face trial for his role in the post-Babri Masjid demolition bomb blasts in Mumbai nearly a decade ago. In an unprecedented move the TADA court hearing the bomb blast case summoned all the 84 accused, including actor Sanjay Dutt, in connection with the proceedings on Monday. Hearing in the case has been completed and the strange order directing all the accused to be present has caused understandable ripples in judicial circles. Be that as it may, how both Abu Salem, in detention in Lisbon, and Anees Ibrahim managed to slip out of the country in spite of stepped up vigilance at all the international entry and exit points after the Mumbai blasts is an enigma wrapped in a mystery.

The mood this time in the concerned circles is upbeat because the UAE authorities had cooperated with Indian officials in the extradition of Aftab Ansari, believed to be involved in the attack on the American Center in Kolkata. However, it would be unwise to be unreasonably optimistic. The reason why most of the CBI’s efforts for extradition of high profile suspects fail calls for a realistic assessment of the procedures adopted by the premier investigating agency. There are two distinct groups of criminals who somehow manage to hoodwink the authorities in India and find refuge overseas — economic offenders and those wanted for acts of terrorism. Win Chadha was among those who made the CBI unsuccessfully chase him all over the world. By the time he agreed to face trial in the Bofors case he was too ill and died before the completion of the hearing process. The Italian businessman has won the first round and the CBI has moved a fresh application for his extradition from Malaysia. However, the CBI would do itself a world of good if it were to realise that its success rate in securing the extradition of terrorists is shameful. The extradition of Aftab Ansari was made possible because he was wanted in connection with the attack on an American facility. Which nation, except China, has the guts to defy the sole super power? The UAE authorities agreed to hand over Aftab Ansari to India evidently under American pressure. Had Dawood Ibrahim and his brother Anees, Abu Salem, Chhota Rajan and Chhota Shakeel or members of their gangs had attacked an American citizen or institution in India they would have had nowhere to hide. If in spite of American disinterest, the CBI is able to secure the extradition of Abu and Anees, it would be nothing short of a miracle.

Towards a dangerous precedent

Those who have been opposed to a military solution to the Iraqi crisis may receive a major shock in the near future. Despite Iraq’s declaration to the United Nations that it has no programme for weapons of mass destruction, the USA has intensified its troops buildup for a final assault on the beleaguered West Asian nation, most probably in January. As many as 60,000 soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen with about 200 fighter planes are already in or around the Gulf region. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s explanations have no meaning for President George W. Bush. The US leader has no regard even for a vast majority of the Americans who want him to find an answer to the Iraqi problem by working in accordance with the UN rules. The diplomatic community in the USA too is upset over the American Administration’s fast unfolding scheme of things. Few observers of the Iraqi crisis are prepared to buy the argument that the US steady arms buildup is basically aimed at warning the Saddam regime that any attempt to hide information on its weapons programme will invite crippling punishment from the international community — which means the super power. Those who know why President Bush is hell bent on exercising the military option, which has no justification now when the Iraqi regime is cooperating with the UN inspection team and has made a quick declaration on its weapons programme, are convinced that the US Administration’s plan is not confined to ensuring its control over the vast energy resources in Iraq. It is also meant for satisfying the ego of the American hawks and creating a favourable climate for a second term in the White House for Bush Junior.

The American public is not prepared to give even passing marks to the Bush Administration with regard to the war on terrorism because the main brain behind the international scourge, Osama bin Laden, is still illusive. US forces have failed to find him dead or alive. Hence the need for the Iraqi trophy. This means a regime change in Iraq. Such a development coming about in this manner will have serious implications for the world when there is no effective challenger to the American military superiority. Whether Mr Hussein remains in power or loses it is not the issue before the world community. The issue is related to the US Administration’s desire for direct intervention in Iraq for overthrowing the hated regime. That will mean writing new rules for handling international crisis situations. It can be interpreted as a major threat to national sovereignty. The USA, the most envied democratic success story, finds it difficult to cooperate with less powerful democracies. If it succeeds in setting precedents based on the personal desires of the US President, democratic nations will be the easiest target for super power intervention in case they decide to oppose it on any issue. Is this the new world order we have been talking of? 

OPINION

The politics of ethnicity
Waiting for truly equitable world order
Sunanda K. Datta-Ray

Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra does not enjoy the same reputation for abrasiveness as Dr Mahathir Mohamad, his colleague from Malaysia, who is constantly engaged in a war of words with white, especially Australian, politicians. So the world should sit up and take note when even the amiable Mr Thaksin refuses to let Australia take part in an Asian summit which, he says, is only for “yellow-skinned and black-haired” people. The message of such a blunt categorisation is that in spite of alarms about religious jehad, the politics of ethnicity looms larger today than considerations of geopolitics, economics or strategy.

Mr John Howard’s maladroit threat of pre-emptive strikes against terrorists operating from neighbouring Asian countries can only aggravate tension on this count. The Australian Prime Minister may have been thinking of his country’s security, but perception being all in diplomacy, neighbouring governments saw the remark as yet another instance of Anglo-Saxon arrogance and linked it to undying memories of Canberra’s traditional “white Australia” policy and to the pride Mr Howard takes in being President George W. Bush’s “deputy sheriff” in the region. Even Filipino politicians, always something of a Western Trojan horse in Asian affairs, bridled at a threat that Dr Mahathir denounced as “criminal”, going on to describe Australia as sticking out like a sore thumb.

Of course, pre-emptive action by Mr Howard would be against the United Nations charter and would constitute casus belli. If a similar warning by his mentor, Mr Bush, did not provoke such fierce criticism, that was only because the lone super power can get away with more than an Australian leader. Canberra needs to come to terms with its Asian neighbours and Australia’s economy and defence demand the maximum cooperation with the Association of South-East Asian Nations, as well as with Japan, South Korea and China. Asia can manage without Australia, but Australia cannot manage without Asia. It is not enough for it any longer to be only the Far Eastern outpost of Europe or America.

As Singapore’s veteran senior minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, once cautioned Australians, if they did not mend their ways they would end up as the “white trash” of the Asia-Pacific. But because Mr Bush’s remarks were not followed by the same vocal response did not mean that they were legal or that they did not rankle with Asian nationalists.

Little wonder that the tide of anti-Americanism is rising. The “Americans Are Not Welcome Here” sign that a restaurant in Seoul put up demonstrated how easily a run-of-the-mill dispute can take on a race dimension. Though South Korea willingly plays host to some 35,000 American troops, it is now talking of bringing them under Seoul’s closer legal jurisdiction. The conduct of American servicemen in Okinawa has also led to several protest demonstrations by angry Japanese. The usual facile Western explanation is that touchy Afro-Asians are quick to take offence where none is intended, but who is to judge intent? As James Baldwin, the American-African writer once put it, he would never know whether the elevator attendant was genuinely busy or had kept him waiting because he was black.

America’s war on terrorism has made it all the more necessary for the Western allies — the United States of America, Britain and Australia — to be careful of the sensitivities of their Asian partners. The Western rationale is that, secretly, most West Asian countries would like to see President Saddam Hussein toppled. Perhaps, but not one of them, and certainly not Saudi Arabia, is anxious to create a precedent for unilateral American intervention in the internal affairs of an Asian country. Hence the insistence on a full United Nations mandate.

Nor are Arab leaders prepared to treat terrorism in isolation from socio-political factors. However, much they might deplore the methods of Palestinian suicide bombers, the phenomenon is seen as a direct result of Israeli aggression and intransigence under American patronage. Thus, when Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak blames terrorism on injustice and inequality, he is in fact reminding the West that the North-South divide is a global version of the old Mason-Dixon line that used to separate the segregationist states from the rest of America.

The world suffers from a demographic imbalance that creates its own obligations. The white races are vastly outnumbered by the peoples of Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific and parts of South America. This is reflected in the membership of the UN General Assembly which all Republican administrations dislike greatly. But the white races are also in an entrenched position of dominance by virtue of their immense economic, political and military clout. There are many ways of interpreting this situation and its consequences. A moderate and responsible position would be to argue that pre-eminence vests the white minority with a special responsibility to make adjustments in order to usher in a truly equitable new world order.

A tale recounted by the distinguished British anthropologist Verrier Elwin who spent many years in India illustrates the point.

Never mindful of his shabby personal appearance or at all inclined to stand on dignity, Elwin was nevertheless surprised when an excise inspector stopped him at Raipur railway station in Madhya Pradesh where he had got out of a second class train compartment carrying his own suitcase, and asked to see its contents. Elwin bore patiently with the inspection but asked when it was over, why he alone had been singled out though hundreds of passengers swarmed the platforms.

“Sir,” replied the inspector, “you don’t look like a first-class European gentleman!”

The principle of noblesse oblige that Elwin was expected to follow is even more binding for governments than for individuals.

It would pay them to be more sensitive to Asian susceptibilities than Australian Customs apparently were recently to Malaysia’s International Trade and Industry Minister, Mrs Rafidah Aziz. Sniffer dogs and hand baggage inspection might be part of the normal routine but for every VIP who is able to go public on alleged discrimination, dozens of ordinary passengers swallow their humiliation with a festering sense of grievance. Reported incidents of racial profiling in the USA and the conduct of American air marshals provokes similar resentment.

In the outcome, race discrimination and religious polarisation and the basic disparity that compounds them are countering globalisation and belying the hope that economic cooperation would be the solvent for all differences. Unfortunately, this is something that many whites refuse to recognise. The reaction was revealing — and alarming — when I wrote recently in an international publication of race being at least as explosive a factor as religion. While my Caucasian friends were annoyed and sceptical, agreement and applause poured in from Malaysian, Indian and African-American readers from Sydney to Nairobi.

It is worrying to think of that as the shape of things to come. An initial divide between white and non-white could so easily be followed by divisions within the coloured ranks — brown, yellow, black and shades in between — so that the world community would eventually be honeycombed into many hostile ghettoes of the mind. There can be no simple or straightforward answer to such a complex challenge to the mantra of globalisation but the dominant white governments could at least show the way. In rejecting Australia from the counsels of Asia, Mr Thaksin was not imposing discrimination but merely responding in similar coinage to the discrimination that has been practised against Asia for ages and which politicians like Mr Howard seem loth to give up. They will persist for as long as Mr Bush, undisputed leader of the Western community, can bring himself to set the parameters of a more equitable new world order. That, as the Indian inspector told Elwin, is what Afro-Asia expects from “a first-class European gentleman.” 

MIDDLE

Fixing levels
K. Rajbir Deswal

An elephant owner wanted to sell his animal. He went to a village with his pachyderm. A curious crowd gathered around. One man from the assembly observed the tusker more keenly than others. He reconnoitered the hugeness of the elephant and patted his pillar-like legs when the elephant seller became suspicious of him.

He thought it wise to promise this man a share in the deal by asking him to keep his mouth shut if he had come to know of some defect in the animal. And suddenly, much to the complacence of the elephant-seller, the curious man asked him: “What is this?” Immediately his level of understanding had got fixed and he had to forgo the fortune also which could have been his.

Day in and day out, sometimes consciously and at others being blissfully unaware, we keep fixing levels with each other. It may be some manifestation of the survival instinct or a one-up-manship, but all of us indulge in this game of cutting people to size whom we interact with and show them their rightful place as against our own.

The looks you wear, the clothes you don, the conduct you indulge in, the mannerisms you compulsively give in to, the idiosyncrasies you get noticed of, are always in tune with your original self. And your projected self may always not be in conformity with your uninverted genuine self. Here itself lies the trick for those who fix the levels and catch for those who are the victims.

Understanding, maturity superiority, richness, beauty and/or antonyms of all these attributes, are stuff for level fixers. “Uskee kameez meri kameez se safed kyun”?-is always the complex in the minds of men. And you have a Shashi Kapoor fixing the Big B with his-Mere paas maan hai, rhetoric; or Jaani Raaj Kumar fixing Seth Chunaye-Ye bachhon ke khelne ki cheez nahin…! Julius Caesar too with his exclamation, “Ettu Brute” fixed Brutus’s level as a traitor.

If you are an officer in a government department, you fix levels more frequently than others. Particularly with your colleagues, whether superior or subordinate to you. Two officers of a certain cadre will meet each other how-so-ever warmly or informally, when one of them would like to know the other’s “batch”. The moment the year he entered service is pronounced, his level is fixed. What follows next regarding the interface of face-off, is anybody’s guess.

It is neither an apartheid problem nor class-consciousness. It is neither casteist nor communal in nature. It is neither creed nor sex. It is not either race or nations. Rather, it is purely an existentialist trait, found more in human beings and to a degree in the sub-humans also. The moment a dog is seen tucking the tail between his hinds, the aggressor canine becomes reassured of his superiority, by fixing the level of a tail- tucker.

Remember the famous fight composer and a Dharmendra detractor, Shetty? Yes, the dark, tall and bald giant of Bollywood of sixties and seventies! Appearance-wise, he inspired awe and dreadfulness but the moment he spoke, all impact was gone because he had a very meek voice. For this reason, the scriptwriter never put many words in his mouth. Moral of the story: Ek chup sau sukh. Or, speak not when you are not required to, or else, you’ll get your level fixed.

POINT OF LAW

‘If judges decay, the contempt power will not save them’
Anupam Gupta

"The place of justice is an hallowed place," wrote Francis Bacon in 1625, twelve years after he was appointed Attorney-General and seven years after he rose to head the English judiciary (to quit later in disgrace), "and therefore not only the Bench, but the footpace, and precincts, and purprise thereof, ought to be preserved without scandal and corruption."

Issuing from one who was also one of the greatest writers and philosophers of his age — Ben Jonson called Bacon's English "the mark and acme of our language" — these words, contained in his famous essay on judicature, come irresistibly to mind in the wake of the latest controversy affecting the higher judiciary in India: the allegations against three Judges of the Karnataka High Court and the court's contempt notice to over 50 media persons from 14 newspapers and magazines.

The sudden invocation of the contempt power by the High Court, even as an in-house inquiry ordered by the Chief Justice of India into the allegations is about to commence, raises serious questions about the nature, object and propriety of this power rightly described by the Editors' Guild of India as "antiquated".

"The reported move by the Karnataka High Court," said the Guild on December 6, speaking through its President, "putting curbs on the media to report on the activities of some judges under the provision of the antiquated Contempt of Courts Act is unfortunate and uncalled for."

Just how old this branch of the law is and how nebulous its origin can be seen from the following statement of the court of the King's Bench in Almon's case, the 18th-century English case which first established the contempt power as a necessary incident of every court of justice:

"I have examined very carefully to see if I could find vestiges or traces of its introduction, but can find none. It is as ancient as any other part of the common law; there is no priority or posteriority to be discovered about it...."

The most curious part, however, of the judgement in Almon's case, a judgement that earned its author, Mr Justice Wilmot, a permanent place in legal history, is that it is not a judgement at all, having never been delivered.

Arising out of a pamphlet assailing the Chief Justice, Lord Mansfield, the prosecution in Almon's case was finally dropped (in 1765) under circumstances not relevant to be detailed. The draft opinion prepared by the judge for delivery — the "intended judgement", as Sir John Charles Fox calls it — saw the light of day in 1802, some thirty-seven years later, when it was published by his son in a book titled 'Wilmot's Notes of Opinions and Judgements'.

"The arraignment of the justice of the Judges (said Mr Justice Wilmot) is arraigning the King's justice. It is an impeachment of his wisdom and goodness in the choice of his Judges.... and whenever men's allegiance to the law is so fundamentally shaken, it.... calls out for a more rapid and immediate redress than any other obstruction..."

Now unquestioned dogma, and the source of the modern offence of "scandalising" the judiciary, the first time this opinion was relied upon by a court — the Irish court of Common Pleas in Taaffe vs Downes, in 1813 — it evoked a frighteningly sharp response from the dissenting judge, Mr Justice Fletcher.

"Unless then every sentence in this book (Wilmot's Notes) be oracular," he said, "I do not know why I am to pin my faith upon this dictum of Justice Wilmot.... the piety of a relative caused the book to be printed in 1802... (and) it comes before us unauthenticated by a responsible editor and unadopted, indeed untried, by the profession."

He went on to decry Wilmot's opinion, on its merits, as "the hasty and warm ebullition of a mind fraught with arbitrary notions, irritated and excited by a severe attack upon the whole court" by the contemnor.

From Justice Manmathanath Mukerji's brilliant minority opinion in Editor Tushar Kanti Ghosh's case, decided by a Full Bench of the Calcutta High Court in 1935 — defended by Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, Ghosh refused to apologise for a leading article in the Amrit Bazar Patrika that accused the High Court of "hobnobbing" with the executive — to the Supreme Court's 1991 verdict relating to the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Nadiad, Almon's case has never been fully accepted in India.

Yet the contempt law in India today, no less than in England, retains the one-sidedness of definition and procedure that obtained in 1920, when Sir John Fox, researching the history of the subject with unrivalled scholarship, and quoting Lord Fitzgerald's impassioned protest in the House of Commons, wrote of the contempt judge "being at once judge of the law, of the fact, of the intention, (and) of the sentence".

Nowhere is this more apparent than in proceedings for "scandalising" the judiciary, where the court is the aggrieved party, the prosecutor and, of course, the judge, all rolled into one, with the principle of natural justice taking a back seat or being contorted beyond recognition.

"The remedy for contempt of court after it has been committed is punitive," ruled Lord Diplock in the Sunday Times case in 1973, "it may involve imprisonment yet it is summary; it is generally obtained on affidavit evidence and it is not accompanied by those special safeguards in favour of the accused that are a feature of the trial of an ordinary criminal offence."

An even more elaborate account of the procedural exceptions was given by Lord Justice Mustill in Griffin's case in 1988, an account discussed in Arlidge, Eady and Smith's leading work on contempt under the pregnant title "The missing safeguards".

In proceedings for criminal contempt, said Lord Justice Mustill, "there is no prosecutor, or even a requirement that a representative of the Crown (or the State) or of the injured party should initiate the proceedings. The judge is entitled to proceed of his own motion."

"There is no summons or indictment (he continued), nor is it mandatory for any written account of the accusation made against him to be furnished to the contemnor. There is no preliminary enquiry, or filtering procedure, such as committal..... There is no jury."

The position in India, where jury trials were given up long ago, and commitment proceedings do not (after the new Code of Criminal Procedure) involve any enquiry, is somewhat different, of course. Besides, though the practice is neither uniform nor entirely satisfactory, the contemnor must, under the 1971 Contempt of Courts Act, be informed of the charge against him.

All these differences notwithstanding, the following criticism of the contempt procedure in Griffin's case, in comparison to ordinary criminal procedure, applies fully to India:

"Nor is the system adversarial in character (observed Lord Justice Mustill). The judge himself enquires into the circumstances.... He identifies the grounds of complaint, selects his witnesses and investigates what they have to say (subject to a right of cross-examination), decides on guilt and pronounces sentence. This summary procedure, which by its nature is to be used quickly if it is to be used at all, omits many of the safeguards to which an accused is ordinarily entitled...."

More germane to contemporary Indian surroundings than even these misgivings of a modern English legal mind is the American approach to contempt jurisprudence, with its strong republican strain.

"The assumption that respect for the judiciary can be won by shielding judges from published criticism," ruled the Supreme Court of the United States in Bridges vs California, "wrongly appraises the character of American public opinion."

"For it is a prized American privilege (it held, speaking through Justice Hugo Black) to speak one's mind, although not always with perfect good taste, on all public institutions. And an enforced silence, however limited, solely in the name of preserving the dignity of the Bench, would probably engender resentment, suspicion and contempt much more than it would enhance respect."

Nor does the freedom of speech and the Press guaranteed by the Constitution, the court added, bear an inverse ratio to the timeliness and importance of the ideas seeking expression.

It must be recognised, said Justice Black, supplying the cutting edge, "that public interest is much more likely to be kindled by a controversial event of the day than by a generalisation, however penetrating, of the historian or scientist."

For all the cosmopolitanism of this survey, however, the last word must belong to some one back home, for justice like democracy must be rooted in the soil.

And who else can he (or she) be than the inimitable V.R.Krishna Iyer, a judge who has grown in stature with every passing day in retirement.

"If judges decay," said Krishna Iyer in Baradakanta Mishra's case, "the contempt power will not save them, and so the other side of the coin is that judges, like Caesar's wife, must be above suspicion."

Twenty-eight years after he spoke these words, it is time to pay heed to them.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Remember your first kiss?

When it comes to remembering significant moments in one’s life — such as the first kiss with a sweetheart — older adults may not remember all of the details as vividly as younger adults. But with age comes wisdom and older adults tend to express thoughts or feelings about those events in a far more interesting and worldly manner.

So when recalling their first kiss, younger adults might describe the colour of their sweetheart’s sweater, what the weather was like, or where they were standing. Older adults might also provide some specific details, but they are more likely to speak at length about the broader context. ANI

‘Combination diet’ cuts cholesterol

Researchers at the University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital have found that a diet combining a handful of known cholesterol-lowering plant components cuts the level of LDL cholestero, the so-called “bad” cholesterol, believed to clog coronary arteries, by close to 30 per cent.

The researchers said that the reduction is similar to that achieved by some drug treatments for high cholesterol, suggesting a possible drug-free alternative for combating the condition.

The study, published in Metabolism, is the first to examine the effects of these dietary components in combination. Scientists have known for many years that, individually, soy proteins, nuts, viscous fibres such as those found in oats and barley, and plant sterols (a substance found in vegetable oils and also in leafy green and non-starch vegetables) have the ability to reduce blood cholesterol levels by approximately 4 to 7 per cent.

However, the new study found that mixing these components together in a “combination diet” reduced bad cholesterol by a dramatic 29 per cent.

“This opens up the possibility that diet can be used much more widely to lower blood cholesterol and possibly spare some individuals from having to take drugs,” said lead author David Jenkins, a professor in University of Toronto’s Department of Nutritional Sciences and director of the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre at St. Michael’s Hospital. ANI

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

O Chandi, Wander in my heart

destroy the calamities

that besiege me.

Arising from the malice

and the fears that pursue me

So that free danger and protected

by your lotus feet

My mind may swim and revel

In the ocean of Bliss.

—Mahishasuramardini Stotra, I

***

—The Quran, 2:201