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Price blow Staying the course |
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Kalidas and the
Commissar Root and branch of knowledge society The saying that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, wisdom is not truth… verily was tested when China asked for a bust of Kalidas.
Quotas for votes
General recall
Common man’s faith is our strength: Justice Sabharwal A Lokayukta who has delivered Turning to the United Nations, again
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Price blow The
ruling party itself castigating the government for unbridled price rise does not make a very congruous sight but what was said at the Congress Working Committee on Thursday was only the reflection of the frustration felt by the common man reeling under the onslaught of skyrocketing prices of essential goods. In fact, the public ire is far stronger than what was expressed at the CWC meeting. The Congress came to power on the “aam admi” plank and cannot afford to antagonise them, particularly at a time when elections are round the corner in Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Governments have fallen in the past on the issue of price rise and the Congress surely would not want to become the latest victim. So, there was a bit of plainspeaking at the CWC meeting. But it is not as if ministers were sincere enough to own up responsibility. They indulged in the age-old practice of passing the buck. The end result was that although concern was expressed, no concrete measures were announced to tackle the problem. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram took pains to describe the trouble as essentially that of demand and supply. His statistical approach was too bureaucratic to convince the members of the party’s highest decision-making forum, let alone win over the housewives who have to balance their family budgets against rising odds. He did seem to have the support of the Prime Minister but as far as the CWC was concerned, the sentiment appeared to be firmly against his style of functioning. His take that the prices of wheat, pulses and sugar would start coming down within two weeks does not sound too convincing. In any case, the government is supposed to pre-empt price fluctuations, instead of predicting the future. The attempt also seemed to be to push the blame at the door of Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. Instead of making the latter pull up his socks, the move might increase the tension between the Congress and the NCP. Party politics does not interest the common man. What he wants is food in his bowl, not public sermons on his TV.
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Staying the course The Indo-US nuclear agreement crossed another major hurdle with the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee voting 16-2 in favour. The vote was on a bill proposing to amend relevant US laws to permit transfer of nuclear fuel and technology to India, similar to the one the House International Relations Committee voted 37-5 in favour, on Tuesday. What is particularly encouraging, and is a sign of the broad-based support that the historic proposals are receiving, is the overwhelming percentage of votes in favour. Even earlier, nay-sayers have been brought around to the agreement, testimony both to the Bush administration’s laudable efforts to see the legislation through and the inherent strength of India’s case. The few stragglers opting out had attempted to introduce potential “killer amendments” that would have derailed the deal. Most sought to impose unrealistic and unwarranted restrictions on India’s nuclear programme. Attempts to obtain guarantees from the US president that India would not use domestic uranium to make bombs even as it uses foreign fuel for civilian power, met with the thumbs down they deserved. It is to the credit of those piloting the bill that they urged members not to support such amendments. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry was eloquent in his support of a deal that “makes all the sense in the world.” With the two committee votes under its belt, the Bush administration can move forward on drafting a legislation that the entire House of Representatives and Senate can vote on. The benefits of the deal are clear – valuable energy for a growing nation of a billion people, and a partnership that can be a force for good in the region and the world. Cold War warriors and Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) fundamentalists notwithstanding, it is this recognition of a deserved strategic accommodation of a rising and responsible power on the one hand, and the inevitability of turning to nuclear sources to cater to India’s enormous energy needs, that have to ultimately see the deal through.
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Kalidas and the Commissar The saying that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, wisdom is not truth… verily was tested when China asked for a bust of Kalidas. The story of the sixth century Sanskrit poet-dramatist, as the legendary idiot-turned-literary icon, is known to even those who haven’t read his works. Yet, not all icons have an iconography that can be rendered in a visual form approximating the real. Naturally, India’s Ministry of External Affairs was in a tizzy: How do you go about casting the statue of a man who has never been painted, drawn or described even? The mandarins of South Block know that in diplomatese you cannot say “no” to such a request, especially from those who speak Mandarin. They passed the buck to the Indian Council of Cultural Relations, which passed the buck to the Madhya Pradesh Government, which, in turn, passed the buck to the Kalidas Academy in Ujjain, which set up a panel of experts. The experts psychoanalysed Kalidas’ works, concluded that he was a handsome man; and, lo and behold, a 30-inch imagined likeness came to be sculpted. In a world striving to build knowledge-based societies, Kalidas deserves pride of place, and not only on Shanghai Theatre Street. For he was the original ignoramus-idiot, found chopping the very branch of the tree on which he was sitting. It was his good fortune that a king, angered by his daughter’s scornful rejection of all suitors (because of her desire to wed the most erudite man alive), condemned her in marriage to Kalidas. Stunned at discovering her hubby to be an unlettered drunk, she carried her grief to Goddess Kali, who took form and blessed him with vidya. Thus did the dasa of Kali become a peerless man of letters. An apt metaphor, indeed, in the quest for a knowledge-based society.
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Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that. — Norman Vincent Peale
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Quotas for votes
Coming as it does at a time when anti-reservation feelings pervade the air, Arun Shourie’s book “Falling Over Backwards”« may be misconstrued as a quickie on the subject. Make no mistake about it; it is a painstakingly researched look at the issue which puts the whole gamut of reservations in a historical perspective. He picks holes in this provision in a masterly fashion. And are there infirmities in it! Medical students’ protests on the issue have been dismissed by some as the fulminations of a handful of upper castes, cross at being deprived of certain privileges. But Shourie provides the intellectual bedrock on which the anti-reservation feelings appear fully justified. His point-by-point rebuttal of many myths perpetuated by self-serving politicians makes fascinating reading. His conclusion is that reservations were used as a tool to garner votes and the country had to pay a very heavy price for this. It has almost divided the country on caste lines, managing to complete the divide-and-rule destruction which the British had started in 1857. Thus the device of reservations is harming the very sections it was intended to benefit. Ironically, the reservations were meant to end the odious varna system but are promoting them indirectly. Since backers of reservation are fond of quoting the Founding Fathers for proving that reservations were a historical necessity, he digs into old records to prove that they were extremely reluctant to introduce it and had agreed to go ahead with it with the specific understanding that it would be only for a very short period. For instance, in his speech in the Constituent Assembly on the provision that then dealt with the reservations, Article 10 of the Draft Constitution, Dr B.R. Ambedkar himself had cautioned against an exception to the fundamental rule of equality becoming so large as to “eat up the rule altogether”. But lesser leaders have done exactly that and also converted this temporary expedient into a permanent feature. Jawaharlal Nehru in his letter to Chief Ministers on June 27, 1961, wrote: “If we go in for reservations on a communal and caste basis, we swamp the bright and able people and remain second-rate or third-rate. I am grieved to learn how far this business of reservations has gone based on communal considerations. It has amazed me to learn that even promotions are based sometimes on communal or caste considerations. This way lies not only folly, but disaster. Let us help the backward groups by all means, but never at the cost of efficiency. How are we going to build the public sector or indeed any sector with second-rate people”? Still, the juggernaut of reservations continued its relentless march. In place of diminishing, reservations are on the increase. Kaka Saheb Kalelkar in his letter forwarding the report of the First Backward Classes Commission had written: “I am definitely against reservation in government service for any community for the simple reason that the services are not meant for servants but they are meant for the service of society as a whole”. But the views of this intellectual giant were conveniently ignored. This has brought in many anomalies, some of which Shourie highlights to buttress his point. In the year when controversies broke out over V.P. Singh’s decision to implement the Mandal Commission’s recommendations, a general category student had to secure at least 50 per cent marks to secure admission to Chandigarh’s PGI; candidates from the Scheduled Castes, Backward Castes and Scheduled Castes had no minimum to cross. They got in with 20 per cent, 15 per cent and 11 per cent as they had to compete only among themselves. In 2005, for admission to the course in medicine in Karnataka, general merit students who obtained ranks below 540 did not get into the free seats category, while those in the reserved category got in with ranks as low as 40,799! Out of 60 marks, this latter student obtained only 2.75 marks in physics, 6.5 in chemistry and 8 in biology. Things are even worse in the case of appointments in government service. They get precedence not only at the time of appointment but also promotions. While trying to extend 27 per cent reservation to the OBCs, Arjun Singh and others depended on the Mandal Commission report. The commission said that a socio-educational field survey formed the basis of its conclusion that the OBCs are 52 per cent of India’s population. But Shourie quotes Prof B.K. Roy-Burman, who headed the survey team, as saying that each of the suggestions of the experts was ignored, that instead of the 151 tables suggested by them being used, only 31 were used; that the data collected were concealed from the experts; that while experts had concluded that occupation was a better criterion of backwardness, or at least a blend of occupation and caste should be used, the commission plummeted for caste alone. And as far as the 1931 Census was considered, the enumerators themselves had pointed out how unreliable it was as far as one’s caste was concerned. Reservation today is going in a strange direction, points out Shourie. Given as a concession to one, perhaps deserving group, it is grabbed by one group after another. Introduced in one sphere, it spreads to others. Guardians, such as courts, who are meant to ensure that the exception shall subserve the end for which it was meant, instead take to rationalising the advance of the juggernaut. Politicians will be politicians. The author’s main grouse is that even the judiciary has lent a helping hand. According to him, some judges appropriated the high moral ground and stigmatised and pasted motives on to anyone who did not submit to their assertions. Courts say that there should not be any reservation in super specialities but it is OK to have them in other fields. How is treatment of cancer or operating on the liver, or replacing kneecaps or hip-joints …how is any of these less in need of specialisation and expertise than the instances that the Supreme Court has listed for illustrative purposes, the author asks. Court judgements have not only varied from judge to judge, but the same judge has taken different views in different cases, adding to the confusion, according to Shourie. Marks that a student obtains in an examination do not reflect his merit, some judges assert. Then how come the same criterion is applied within the reserved categories, he begs to ask. Reservations should not be allowed to become a vested interest, the Supreme Court stated in A. Pariakaruppan. The efficacy of the reservation policy will consist in how soon reservations can be done away with, it stated in Soshit Karamchari Sangh. “The policy of reservations in employment, education and legislative institutions should be reviewed every five years or so,” the then Chief Justice, Y.V. Chandrachud, counselled in Vasant Kumar. But today, if you so much as inquire when reservations may end, you are bound to be treated as anti-Dalit and worse. If at all the courts stood in the way, the governments are ever ready to amend the Constitution, changing the very definition of who the rightful claimant is. Now there is even talk of expanding it to private institutions. The author poses a vital question: why will the worldwide clients of Wipro, of Infosys or the automobile firms that are turning to India for designing or producing their components will come to India if half the employees in these firms have been selected because of their birth, and not because they are the very
best? * Falling Over Backwards — An Essay Against Reservations and Against Judicial Populism by Arun Shourie; Rupa and Co.
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General recall
JAMMU and Kashmir Governor Lt-Gen S.K. Sinha (retd) knows how to wriggle out of a sticky situation. The probe he has ordered into allegations that this year the ice lingam of Lord Shiva was artificially created at the Amarnath shrine to cheat the devout reveals this trait in him. It is for the judge inquiring into the episode to conclude whether anything needs to be probed after the media carried reports that the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board had ordered purchase of huge quantities of ice to be delivered near the shrine just before the yatra began. Incidentally, the General presides over the board. If for climatic reasons, no lingam was formed at the shrine, all that the authorities could have done was to admit it and not allow the fabrication of a lingam. The pilgrims would have thought that the Lord had simply decided not to manifest Himself this year. But then honesty is not necessarily the best policy these days even for those who manage the Lord’s temporal affairs. Few people know that unlike most others who join the Army to earn a living or to serve the nation, General Sinha joined it for a different purpose. I learnt this when I chanced to read the foreword he wrote for an autobiographical book,
Zile Ka Rajnaitik Itihas — Meri Atma Katha Evam Mere Vichar one of my acquaintances Suryadeo Narain Sinha of Katihar had authored. General Sinha wrote: “In 1943, when the movement for Independence had become dormant, I decided to join the Army so that, if necessary, I could contribute to weakening the British military hold over India from within. At that time I had begun to have doubt about our gaining Independence through non-violence and thought that, if necessary, the Army could, by force, ensure that we achieved our objective. I was influenced by what happened in 1857 and what had happened in Malaya and Burma with the formation of the Indian National Army”. Imagine the son of a “pucca Saheb”, who became one of the “first” Indians to become an IG of police, nursing such thoughts and joining the Army to wreck it from within! It is a different matter that during his long tenure in the Army where he rose to become the Vice-Chief of Army Staff, there was never an occasion when he did anything remotely connected with the freedom struggle. General Sinha quit the Army when he was superseded for the post of Army Chief. One reason why Indira Gandhi overlooked his claim was that she felt he nursed political ambitions. And he proved her right when he joined politics soon after leaving the job. His achievement of the period is the statue of Jayaprakash Narayan he got erected in Patna. Much against the wish of the then government, he managed to get President Zail Singh to unveil the statue. He then took upon himself the task of renaming Patna as Pataliputra for which he collected lakhs of signatures. When Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi wrote a letter to him in which he wrote Pataliputra, instead of Patna, in the address, General Sinha considered it the high watermark of his campaign. But a letter he wrote to me those days was an eye-opener. While he wanted Patna to be renamed as Pataliputra, he was still using the old name of Boring Canal Road, where he lived, instead of its new name, Diwakar Road, on his letterhead. After all, it was easier to preach than
practice!
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Common man’s faith is our strength: Justice Sabharwal Chief Justice of India Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal led a 60-member delegation of Indian judges and senior lawyers to the 72nd Biennial Conference of the International Law Association at Toronto, Canada, very recently. The theme for this year’s conference was ‘The world is here’. It had six key areas: International Dispute Resolution; Business Regulation; International Institutions; International Rule of Law and Human Rights; Environment and Development; and Cultural Heritage and Intellectual property. In an exclusive interview to Ajit Jain, Senior Editor of India Abroad, Justice Sabharwal spoke about the legal backlog in India and why faith in the judiciary should never get eroded. Excerpts: Q: What is the judiciary’s role in the globalisation of the economy? A: It is a political issue. It’s a decision to be taken by the executive and they have taken the decision in favour of globalisation. The judiciary has no role to play in this. We are discussing issues arising out of globalisation, foreign investments in our country, issues that arise out of international commercial arbitration, and intellectual property. Delay is one important issue. The delay in judicial decisions may deter some foreign businesses from coming to the country. Many steps have been taken to tackle the problem of delay. We are now trying to carve out some fast track channels for these cases on priority. There are projects in India but arbitration is somewhere outside the country. If we are able to pass that hurdle and arbitration is in India, it will be fine. We have the advantage of the English language; the legal system in India is less expensive compared to some Western countries, even Singapore. Q: What is being done about the backlog of cases? A: A number of measures are being taken to reduce the arrears of cases and to place some categories of cases on the fast track. Some fast track courts are already in position and some more will be created. The main problem is shortage of judges. For a billion people, the total number of judges is just 13,000. The modern technology of computerisation is also being used to monitor the cases to ensure their early disposal. Proposals are under consideration for placing cases relating to intellectual property, foreign investment, commercial arbitration, including international arbitration, besides serious criminal cases such as sex abuse and rape on the fast track. Q: How does the court deal with cases involving multinationals? A:
Enron is one such case. I am today in a position to mention, as the case has been resolved, that this litigation went on for a long time. The arbitration was on foreign land, but litigation was in the Bombay High Court. The case also came before the Supreme Court. This project is very important as far as energy/power is concerned. This is just one of so many examples. Q: Have any labour-related cases come before the Supreme Court? A:
The labour laws have been well settled. Hardly anything is left as far as interpretation part is concerned. In any case anybody can come to the court as courts are open to all — citizen or non-citizen, individual person or corporation — and our approach has to be the same. Read the Supreme Court decisions during the last 10 years. There does appear to be some shift in the court’s attitude towards labour laws. What is important is maintaining discipline by the workforce. The punishment which may be inflicted ordinarily is to be left to the management. There were cases where, say, a workman had assaulted or abused the management. The court had taken the view that dismissal was too harsh and disproportionate to the misconduct. There have been a couple of cases in the recent past and on that basis I can say there is a balanced shift in the Supreme Court’s line of thinking and dismissal orders have been upheld. Q: Recent media reports indicate that the Supreme Court is now proactive on environmental issues. A: Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees everyone the right to life to which nobody can be deprived of except by the law. Besides Article 21, there are many laws on environmental issues. Parliament has enacted a Central legislation, the Forest Conservation Act, which basically requires that no forest land shall be diverted for non-forest purposes except with the written approval of the Central Government (the Union Ministry of Environment). This law is applicable throughout the country. The judiciary’s role has to be there. These are the laws and constitutional guarantees. Whenever it is found that there has been violation of the laws or of the Constitution, directions have been issued by the court to implement those laws and, in that sense, the court has been pro-active. One has to issue the direction and leave it at that. In some cases whenever the court finds it necessary it issues continuous mandamus on a day-to-day basis and ensure implementation. Then a monitoring committee comprising experts is appointed. Such monitoring is necessary in matters of environment to preserve the natural resources like air, water, land or forest. In this context, the Supreme Court will have to ensure the implementation of the laws. It is the duty engrained on the court to interpret the laws and to issue directions for implementation whenever and wherever it is lacking. Q: What about the court’s intervention over industrial units in Agra and air pollution in Delhi? A:
Take the emission level before 2000 and after. Many opportunities were given to the government from 1993 to 1999. Orders were ultimately issued in 2000. Today there is increasing realisation that there has been considerable improvement in Delhi’s pollution levels. All these measures have been taken for the common good of the people. Ultimately, it is the common good of the people and the faith of the people in the judicial system that is the strength of the judiciary. Therefore, we have to take all steps within the law and the Constitution. The day the common man’s faith in the judicial system gets eroded, that will be a sad day for the country. That will be the end of the rule of law and a day of anarchy in the country which none of us can afford.
— By arrangement with
India Abroad
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A Lokayukta who has delivered
IT is open house in the Lokayukta’s office in Bangalore. It is the last few days of incumbent Justice N. Venkatachala’s tenure. Outside a truck is unloading a set of six books which detail his tenure in office through the eyes of the media as well as statistics of the work done by the Lokayukta during the last five years. It is difficult getting an appointment with the man who should have ideally been twiddling his thumb waiting for his marching orders. But then this is Justice Venkatachala. He is carrying on the same routine he has for the last five years which has transformed his office into a creditable grievance cell and himself into a popular Karnataka hero. Justice Venkatachala himself says his family members were not happy when he decided to accept the post of Lokayukta. “They told me I would have to do all the dirty work. I though somebody has to do it and decided to go ahead”. He has not looked back since. Immediately on taking over in July, 2001 he reached out to the people. Among his first orders was directing all Secretaries to put up boards stating that the public could complain to the Lokayukta in case of undue delay in attending to work or dereliction of duty. The new Lokayukta then went on to state that the work done by his office till now was virtually zero but promised quick results to the public in future. He immediately started on a round of inspections which themselves were a novelty for his office. Targeting hospitals, hostels, remand homes and civic bodies, he provided relief to ordinary people. He even wrote an open letter to doctors in the State warning that no one could save a corrupt doctor when the Health Minister objected to the Lokayukta’s interference in her department. Continuing his “programme”, the Lokayukta said there was a deep rooted nexus between politicians and bureaucrats and that they were always shielding one another. He demanded the right to take suo moto action against the Chief Minister, ministers, legislators and senior bureaucrats which the Karnataka Lokayukta Act of 1984 does not allow. He also demanded the Act be amended to allow the Lokayukta to take action against the guilty and not only “investigate” allegations of corruption and abuse of power. Sadly this was a demand which was never met. Starting from Congress Chief Minister S M Krishna to Congress – JD(S) coalition government CM Dharam Singh to the present dispensation headed by H D Kumaraswamy, everyone promised more powers to the Lokayukta but none delivered. Mr Dharam Singh went to the extent of claiming that coalition politics was coming in the way of meeting this demand. Justice Venkatachala reacted in his own style. In a suo moto notice he trapped a senior IAS officer – S M Raju while accepting a bribe of Rs seven lakh from the Principal of a Government Industrial Training Institute. A Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police was caught while accepting a bribe of Rs one lakh. The Engineer –in-Chief of the State Public Works (PWD) department was found with Rs five lakh in bribe money in his office. Assets worth Rs six crore were seized from the residence of General Manager of the loss making Karnataka State and Detergents Limited. The Lokayukta even arrested the Karnataka State Minorities Development Corporation Chairman M Obeidullah Sharief for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 75,000 to sanction loans to buy autorickshaws. The biggest blow was to fall four months back when the Lokayukta carried out raids at the residences of one DSP and four Inspectors, all of them based in Bangalore. Everyone was stunned by the haul of Rs 60 crore netted in terms of ill gotten wealth, some of it including stolen jewellery. One of the Inspectors was a recipient of the Chief Minister’s medal while another had been declared Best Nodal Officer. With only few days left in office it is the people who are standing by him by holding dharnas demanding he get another extension even as politicians want to see his back as soon as possible. Justice Venkatachala on his part says he has started the process of identification of black sheep openly by giving their names and photographs instead of the earlier system of issuing press releases without giving the names of those trapped by the Lokayukta. “Transparency has been the key to my functioning and this has helped me to deliver”, he adds.
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Turning to the United Nations, again IN a little-noticed announcement, US President George Bush, on June 14, the day he returned from Iraq, said that he would send two personal emissaries to New York to consult with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on the political and economic future of Iraq. The next day, still with remarkably little public attention, Philip Zelikow, the counselor of the State Department, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt met with Annan and his deputy, Mark Malloch Brown, at the secretary general’s Sutton Place residence. There was no one else present. The two presidential envoys asked Annan to use his unique “convening powers” to help organize international meetings that would lead (by this fall, the Americans hope) to the unveiling of a new “Iraq Compact’” – an agreement between the Iraqi government and major international donors that would commit Baghdad to a series of political and economic reforms in return for substantially more international aid. (Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called Annan the same day to make an identical request.) For Annan and the United Nations, Bush’s request poses an ironic and difficult challenge. On the one hand, the administration is asking for help on the worst problem it faces, acknowledging, however belatedly and reluctantly, that once again, the United Nations is not only relevant but at times indispensable to the US. On the other hand, the resentment among the majority of U.N. member states over the way the institution has been treated recently, especially by Washington’s current U.N. ambassador, makes any effort to get the United Nations to help the United States far more difficult. The United Nations is facing major budgetary problems caused primarily by American insistence on a six-month budget cycle instead of the normal two-year cycle. It must deal with growing shortfalls in the U.S. contribution to peacekeeping funding, despite Washington’s calls for more peacekeepers in Darfur and elsewhere. Still, even though Annan and the world body have been diminished by Washington, he and his colleagues simply cannot refuse to help on the Iraq matter; it is their responsibility as international civil servants to go where the problems are worst and then to do their best. And, on the basis of private talks with Annan, Malloch Brown and administration officials, I have no doubt that they intend to do just that. In fact, Malloch Brown has already agreed to travel to Baghdad very soon for preliminary meetings that the United Nations and the United States hope will culminate later this year in a high-level conference in the region. As Annan moves into his last six months as secretary general, this would be the right way to end a turbulent decade in that office—with a genuine contribution to the cause of peace in Iraq. The lesson should be clear: To weaken this institution further, as has happened in recent years, serves no clear American national security interest. To strengthen it would make it more valuable to the United States and to every nation that seeks conflict resolution, stability and economic progress. With the maneuvering over the selection of Annan’s successor underway, it is time for Washington—and this must include Congress—to put behind it a sorry period of confusion and offer the United Nations more support, both financial and political, in return for the things it needs in Iraq and elsewhere. Richard Holbrooke is former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. — By arrangement with
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From the pages of Fateh Singh’s threat The rift in the Akali Dal is deepening day by day and it appears that all chances of a compromise between the two contending sections have vanished. The latest reports suggest that while the group in power may oust the dissidents with suspensions and expulsions, the latter may have recourse to litigation to secure legal support for some items in their plan of action. However, it goes without saying that the outcome of the conflict is likely to leave a strong impact on the shape of Punjab politics. But there is a more recent development interest which is sure to extend beyond the Sikh community. He is reported to have warned Master Tara Singh that unless he desisted from conducting the “false propaganda campaign” in which he was engaged, the Sant would tell the inside story of the Akali leader’s fast unto death. We trust that Sant Fateh Singh would give the facts irrespective of whether he gains or loses.
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He who is educated and indulges in greed, pride and craving, should be reckoned ignorant, in spite of all his education. — Guru Nanak He who is called Brahaman by the gyanis is known as Atman by the yogis and
as Bhagwan by the bhaktas. — Ramakrishna Run to his (the Teacher) feet—he is standing close to your head right now. You have slept for millions
and millions of years. Why not wake up this morning? — Kabir The sixth virtue, which is developed out of the natural conditions, is side or veracity. So long as there is no incentive to tell a lie, man is naturally inclined to speak the truth. He is averse to lying from his very nature and hates the person who is proved to have told a lie. — The Koran Even if a false man tells a hundred lies and passes off the useless as useful: Even if the whole world is led to believe in his word
and deed. — Guru Nanak
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