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UPA performance Price of freedom |
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Underage drinking
A grave unfolding
crisis
In the shadow of
grandma
In a regime of
fear, he was fearless
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Price of freedom
The
International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh has convicted some persons for their involvement in the mass killing of people on the eve of the nation's independence. Indeed, it was only three years ago that the tribunal was set up by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She has made the prosecution of 1971 war crimes a major focus of her government. Prominent figures in the Jamaat-e-Islami party and its student wing have been convicted and awarded sentences, even as others are still facing trial. The creation of Bangladesh came at a horrendous cost of lives. Among the worst offenders were officers and men of the Pakistan Army which was assisted by a large number of Islamic fundamentalists. Bengalis, especially the intellectual class seen as leaders of the independence movement, and minorities, were the target of mass killings, torture, rapes and other crimes. Among those who have been convicted by the tribunal is Ghulam Azam, who led the Jamaat-e-Islami party till the year 2000. He has been sentenced to 90 years in jail. Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, another party leader, was sentenced to death, as were Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Muhammad Kamaruzzaman. The trials continue even as Bangladesh faces political agitations from the supporters of the men who have been sentenced. While the tribunal has convicted them for crimes against humanity, murder, rape, torture, etc, their followers see them as religious leaders who are politically opposed to the Prime Minister. Bangladesh paid a terrible price during its quest for freedom. It is unfortunate that it took four decades for the leaders of the massacre to have their day in court. As Bangladesh comes to terms with a past, one which left lakhs of people dead, it will have to find a balance between the need for justice against the perpetrators of the violence, as well as the cost of maintaining harmony in a deeply divided nation. The International Crimes Tribunal must continue to work in a fair and transparent manner. Once people have been convicted, they must serve their sentence as penance to the society they so deeply scarred. |
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Underage drinking The
incident in a Gurgaon pub where 100 schoolchildren were hauled up for underage drinking can't be treated as just another minor aberration. Tempting it might be to view the episode as a reflection of the new urban lifestyle, the truth is drinking among children can’t be justified in the garb of 21st century social mores. Indeed, the police did well to arrest the pub manager for not bothering to check the age proof before serving liquor. It is equally appreciable that the police took care not to harass the children and parents. However, that does not imply that children can be let off without making them understand the perils of drinking. Dangers of alcohol that can cause havoc to the health of youngsters have to be driven home within the four walls of a child’s home. Indulging in blame game — parents pointing fingers at the authorities and the police passing on the buck to the parents — won't help the cause of impressionable children. Both parental guidance and a deterrent for all those who flout the law are imperative. After the incident pubs might have come under the scanner of the police, the men in khaki often look the other way when drinking joints do not follow the rules. Despite the ban on hookah bars serving sweetened tobacco in traditional sheesha pipes, these continue to operate and sell the noxious stuff to teenagers. Some bars in Gurgaon have no problems with minors carrying drugs too. It is indeed ironic that the incident involving children aged between 14 and 18 years happened in a state where the legal age for drinking is 25. When Maharashtra passed a new drinking law and increased the legal age to consume liquor to 25, much hue and cry ensued. There is merit in the argument for rationalising the age of drinking across the country. Indeed, in many countries, including Pakistan, the age for drinking is pegged at 21. What is more important is that countries across the globe use a combination of strategies to
discourage drinking, especially among youngsters.
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The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself. — Douglas MacArthur
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A grave unfolding crisis
The
region of the historical Great Games, the land of the Hindu Kush, totters once again, with a grave crisis unfolding, portending a bleak future importantly for Afghanistan's integrity itself. Continually reeling with political instability and senseless Taliban perpetrated violence notwithstanding, more than a decade of a formidable US and International Security Forces' (ISAF) military presence in Afghanistan, the hapless fratricidal conflicts- afflicted country faces stormy times with the impending, perhaps hastily ill-timed, withdrawal of the US and the ISAF next year. For years, the principal player in this region, the US, essentially having not achieved its strategic objective of effectively cleansing this region of the Al Qaida and other fundamentalist Islamic terror conglomerates, is looking eagerly to vacate Afghanistan, leaving behind a volatile restive nation to its fate. It does not, at all, speak highly of the world's sole super power, notwithstanding the military fatigue and financial burden the US has undergone in its 12 years of presence in this violent expanse. Nevertheless, the US can take comfort for what it achieved in the early part of the decade when it had ousted the fundamentalist Taliban regime from Kabul in 2001 and later eliminating Al Qaida supremo Osama bin Laden in 2011 who was holed up in Pakistan clandestinely by the Pakistani establishment since 2005. That the US endeavoured, rather unsuccessfully, to usher in stable democracy and peace in Afghanistan, before its proposed inglorious exit, will remain historically one of America's grave failures like Vietnam in the mid-sixties and recently Iraq. With the draw-down of the US troops and the ISAF next year from Afghanistan, perhaps leaving a small training team and some air effort, teams to operate US drones, a security detail and some logistics and maintenance detachments, the US forces will be in no position to provide any worthwhile security to the Karzai regime or any governmental civil or military installations. Thus the situation will be ripe for the formidable Pakistani-supported Taliban, Pashtun warlords like Gulbuddin Hekayatmar, the Haqqani network and remnants of Al Qaida foot soldiers to create mayhem in Kabul, especially the eastern and southern portions of Afghanistan to fill in the political and security vacuum created by President Hamid Karzai's relinquishing his Presidential post and the US withdrawal respectively. Thus surmising that Pakistan and its Talibani cohorts are eagerly awaiting the US forces' departure will be an understatement. It is indeed paradoxical that most nations that have a stake in Afghanistan's future have, by and large, conflicting objectives. The US now only wish for a near trouble free exit with their heavy equipment and minimum 'bodybags', the Russians looking for some enhanced military sales to any future dispensation in Kabul, the Chinese in their unending quest for resources the world over, currently are eyeing the huge mineral deposits of Afghanistan, while the Iranians plan to restore their Shia influence in Afghanistan. However, the Pakistanis unabashedly are looking ahead to planting an absolutely pliant regime in Kabul which can acquiesce to Pakistan's eternal 'strategic depth' conundrum and also, importantly, keep India totally out of reckoning, even in development projects in impoverished Afghanistan. That Pakistan will leave no stone unturned to prevent India from even cementing its soft power forays in Afghanistan should be factored in not only by the Indian government but also by the large number of out of reality peaceniks in this nation. India, a nation respected by a majority of Afghanis, appears, in keeping with its inborn ancient pacifist and reactive inclinations, not showing any signs of a proactive approach in its future Kabul policy post the US withdrawal in 2014. The prospective shape of Afghanistan, post 2014, is going to be a litmus test for India's foreign policy in the immediate future. Afghanistan as a nation is of much strategic significance for India. No personality in recent times has summed up Kabul's importance to India than the Afghan Ambassador in Delhi prior to his President, Hamid Karzai's visit to India in May 2013 stating unreservedly by reminding India that " It is critically important that the two countries…… deepen and talk more substantive issues beyond training and other soft issues. " He further added rather succinctly that "… investment in the security and development in Afghanistan means the safety and security of India." President Karzai during his May 2013 visit brought a "wish-list" for defence equipment which the Indian government must be pondering over. Nevertheless, it will be in India's interest that whatever it can do to reinforce Kabul's security must be done speedily and effectively within the frame-work of the India-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Treaty 2011. Without dispatching any 'boots on the ground', India must sell/donate some lethal arms and equipment like helicopters, T 72 tanks, BMP infantry combat vehicles, heavy machine guns,105mm light artillery, light bridging, mines and mine clearing equipment, heavy machine guns etc to bolster the much-needed combat capabilities of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). In actual fact, it is the ANSF's capabilities that will be the centre of gravity for Afghanistan's survival. As India continues with its humanitarian and economic uplift endeavours in Afghanistan, it needs to beef up the security of its development and infrastructure projects by dispatching additional para-military units for guarding them as they are constantly under threat from Pakistani sabotage. In addition, though newly elected Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif may not be able to immediately pursue a peaceful and reconciliatory policy towards Afghanistan and India owing to strong pressure from the Pakistani Army and the fundamentalist 'tanzeems' in Pakistan, India should endeavour to balance both bilateral and trilateral relationships between these three nations which have a common stake in fostering peace and stability in the region. Time is now running out for Afghanistan, and India, as the leading regional power, has to take the initiative to stabilise this violent, albeit strategic, expanse. Afghanistan must not be allowed to be engulfed into a civil war, which some strategic analysts fear. With President Karzai's cooperation and consent, India must vigorously keep open its communication channels with the Pashtuns of diverse hues and revive its old linkages with the erstwhile Northern Alliance, the Uzbeks and the Hazaras. Notwithstanding Pakistan's likely machinations to establish a pro-Islamabad fundamentalist regime in Kabul, India must move with determination and alacrity on a multitude of fronts embracing the diplomatic, economic and military to help ensure a peaceful and smooth transition in Kabul, post Karzai's and the US departure from Afghanistan in
2014.
The writer was the first Chief of India's Defence Intelligence Agency
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In the shadow of grandma The
deepening wrinkles and the increasingly difficult breath were a sign that the days were numbered. How much I wished that I could stop nature from doing the cruelest it does to every being --ageing and death. Nature, however, could not stop the wisdom that flowed through those warm words. The wisdom has left indelible footprints on the sands of time and continues to nurture my life to this day. Till the last breath, my grandmother never left her motherly affection for us. Every time I would meet her, she would offer me some traditional delicacy, specially cooked anticipating my visit. She was always keen to know everything concerning my life. From marriage plans and career issues to any suspected loss of my weight, nothing could escape her keenness. Her advice, coming through those ages of experience, has often led me to great success on personal and vocational fronts. One fine day of the monsoon, she asked me to accompany her to the banks of a local Sarovar and find out saplings of three trees, neem, peepal and banyan, forming the sacred "Triveni". While planting Triveni on the banks of the Sarovar, she pronounced, I shall live to see you all through this Triveni. Little did we realise the significance of her words, until she left us for heavenly abode, a few months later. The wisdom of elders never dies. So did grandma, who continues to be a part of our lives through the Triveni that makes her presence felt. My job as a civil servant takes me to far-off places. But when I am back home, I make sure to spend some time under the canopy of the three trees, that elders say , once planted never die. A visit to this place is like meeting my grandma as it reflects life and wisdom. I can almost feel her presence under the Triveni. As was always the case, she has a shade and a solace to offer for the soul that is so involved in the complicated affairs of the world. The peace under the trees would offer time to talk to the inner self and come out with solutions of issues that plague the soul. The Triveni occupies a special place in the Indian philosophy and holy scriptures. The three trees are found throughout the length and width of the country, especially in temples. These are hardy trees that can grow in not so fertile soils. Today I find this canopy occupying a huge space in the landscape, just like the space elders' wisdom occupies in our life. The canopy is a meeting place for so many senior citizens who would spend their evenings there. Many little children play around the trees, reminding of the childhood games we children played while our grandmother would supervise us. Look at the chirping flocks that have made the branches their abode. They make the place so full of life and music. My childhood comes alive in this canopy. What a great idea it is to plant tree in memory of our elders. While it would make eternal the presence of our elders, society and the environment would benefit too. It would be a real tribute to the departed souls rather that meaningless rituals that are performed. Shiv Kumar Batalvi has beautifully compared trees with mother,
Rukh tan meri maa varge ne, jyun rukhaan diyan chhaavan (trees are like my mother, long live the
trees).
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In a regime of fear, he was fearless
In a tribute to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Harold Laski had said that to be a great Judge one must first be a great man. In the reckoning of the Bar, and of all who knew him, Justice H.R. Khanna fulfilled that pre-eminent requirement.
Over
five years ago at a prayer meeting held at the Panchsheel Club on February, 28th 2008 – just three days after the passing away of Justice H.R. Khanna, I was asked to say a few words about the great judge – this was because since his premature resignation as a Supreme Court Judge (in 1977) he had by then also become a personal friend. At that time I had said that we were paying homage to one who never became Chief Justice of India because (and only because) he had refused to bow to insolent might; because, that in a regime of fear, he was the one Judge who was fearless.
During the internal Emergency imposed on June 26, 1975, which lasted till 21 March 1977, personal liberties were taken away by the dreaded MISA, (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) resulting in excessive harassment and oppression of innocent citizens; they were left with no legal recourse, only because the Fundamental Right under Article 21 had been suspended – a suspension then permissible under the Emergency provision of our Constitution (Article 359(1)). At that time it was believed – a belief prompted by the assertions of a majority of four of the senior Justices of the Supreme Court – that Article 21 was the sole repository of the right to life and liberty – hence, whenever Article 21 was suspended during the period of an Emergency, no person could have recourse to any form of legal redress in courts. This was said by a majority of four of the five seniormost judges in that now notorious – and yet not overruled -- case titled ADM Jabalpur v. Shivkant Shukla, the judgment in which was delivered in April 1976 during the subsistence of the internal Emergency. Chief Justice A. N. Ray (who delivered the main judgment in ADM Jabalpur) attempted a juristic justification for the majority view when he glibly said: “Liberty is itself the gift of the law and may by the law be forfeited or abridged.”
“I am unable to subscribe to the view that when the right to enforce the fundamental right under Article 21 is suspended, the result would be that there would be no remedy against deprivation of a person’s life and liberty by the State even though such deprivation is without the authority of law or even in flagrant violation of the provisions of law.” Giving his reason for this view Justice Khanna bespoke the language of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 (to which India was a signatory). He said: “The right not to be deprived of one’s life or liberty without the authority of law was not the creation of our Constitution – it existed before the Constitution came into force”. For this proposition Khanna relied on the twin principles of universal inherence and inalienability which are the foundation of modern human rights law, viz. that every human being has certain rights capable of being enumerated and defined which are not conferred on him by any ruler or government, rights which inhere in him by virtue, of his humanity alone; and that he could not be deprived of such rights by the act of any king or ruler or (in a democracy) even by the will of a majority of the sovereign people. Justice Khanna was the first of all our Indian Judges who gave recognition to primacy of place of human rights in a country avowedly governed by the rule of law. In ADM Jabalpur the influence of his dissenting judgment has been profound – an influence transcending the limits usually assigned to judicial utterances. It is his dissenting judgement that was the inspiration, post-Emergency, for the amendment to Article 359 – an amendment that stipulated that Article 21 could not be suspended even during an Emergency. In Seervai’s great book on Constitutional Law of India the author has severely criticised the majority judgment in ADM Jabalpur. And as to Khanna’s dissent this is what Seervai has to say: “If .........the dissenting judgment of Justice Khanna has not been considered in detail it is not for lack of admiration for the judgment or the courage which he showed in delivering it regardless of the cost and consequences to himself. It cost him the Chief Justiceship of India. But it gained for him universal esteem not only for his courage but also for his inflexible judicial independence…. The conclusion which Justice Khanna has reached on the effect of the suspension of Article 21 is absolutely correct”. It is now acknowledged by all that the majority view of the Supreme Court (4:1) in ADM Jabalpur overruling the judgments of nine High Courts in the country which took a contrary view stands today as the lowest watermark in Indian human rights jurisprudence. In a book written some years ago by a famous broadcaster, Alistair Cooke, titled “Six Men” the author has referred to Edward, Duke of Windsor – the man who abdicated England’s throne to marry Wallace Simpson -- in rather disparaging terms. Alistair Cooke said that the Duke of Windsor “was always at his best when the going was good”. Justice HR Khanna showed to the people of India, with his dissent in ADM Jabalpur, that as a Judge he was at his best not when the going was good – but when the going was rough -- as it undoubtedly was during the internal Emergency of June 1975. After his dissenting judgment in ADM Jabalpur, Justice Khanna found himself in almost the same position as CJ Earl Warren. For Khanna, there were no more invitations to Head of State (our Rashtrapati Bhavan) – simply because Khanna became – like Earl Warren did - persona non grata with the powers-that-be. Khanna resigned w.e.f. March, 1977 – in a blaze of glory – on the occasion of what is now known as the ‘second supersession’ (i.e. on the appointment of Justice Beg, Judge No:3 who was appointed CJI to succeed A.N. Ray deliberately overlooking and ignoring Judge No.2 Justice H R Khanna). But as my Professor in college Nani Palkhivala always used to tell us: “God pays, but not every Saturday”. After Khanna resigned prematurely from the court having been denied the Chief Justiceship of India, God did pay! Khanna though persona non grata with the government became transformed into the people’s hero – he was invited and feted everywhere, to places in India and abroad. On one such occasion in India he addressed a gathering of the Allahabad High Court Bar Association. The occasion was to commemorate the birth centenary of Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, the doyen of the Bar in Eastern India. At this function Khanna said that Sir Tej’s contribution in the field of constitutional law and public life was that “he avoided extremes”. And then Khanna went on to say: "Moderates have an important role to play in every society and though they are often assailed by the extremists on both sides, the moderates do commendable work in eliminating friction, providing smoothness to the public life and finding a way out of an
impasse".
Of the more than 140 puisne (or associate) justices – who have sat in the Supreme Court since 1950 there are portraits of only two of them -- one of them is of H.R. Khanna’s. But it is not for his singular contribution to the doctrine of “basic structure” (in Keshavananda April 1973) nor for his being superseded as CJI (the second supersession in our constitutional history), that Justice Khanna’s portrait has been put up in Court No.2 at the insistence of the Bar. I like to believe, it is for the following reason: because at a time when by the majority decision of the senior Judges of the Supreme Court in ADM Jabalpur the lamps of liberty -- lit by brave Judges of nine High Courts in the country – (whose judgments were all overruled in ADM Jabalpur) had been diminished, it was only one senior Judge of the Supreme Court (the seniormost, Justice H.R. Khanna) who – by his dissent -- prevented the lamps of liberty from being totally extinguished! This is why I like to believe his portrait hangs where it does -- in Court No.2, the court where he sat when he tendered his resignation. We have to thank Justice Khanna for showing us – not by his speeches – but by his judgments and actions -- what one brave Judge can do in a general climate of fear. Justice Khanna is remembered for what he stood for – which was, not for any exceptional learning, but for his instant gut-reaction to an adverse situation. He is remembered not for how well he could recall apt quotations of famous Judges who had gone before him, but for thinking objectively and taking a long and liberal view of the Constitution of India (even when he was in a minority of one). He is our most famous Judge because in bad times he stood by the people and upheld the freedoms given by the Constitution. This is why we remember him and honour him on this his 101st birthday. Excerpted from Fali S. Nariman’s H.R. Khanna Memorial Lecture delivered on July 3, 2013.
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Justice H. R. Khanna (the seniormost Judge on the bench next to Chief Justice A. N. Ray) did not agree. He refused to consider Ray’s formulation as an acceptable proposition of the constitutional law. In his now famous dissent Khanna said: