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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

My comment on Roger Cohen's brazen PLUS defense that the New York Times would not accept.

I must have submitted the following comment about twenty times yesterday.

Usually the good moderators at the NYT are subtle. They put my comment into the cooler and let it out when they think  the traffic has waned  and nobody's around.

But this time, it was returned with a "Technical problems, try later."

Here it is. 

I have put in a little more than the prescribed 1500 characters, because my blog, thank heavens, does not have any issues with me.


I am astounded by Mr Cohen's gushing sentimental defense and unabashedly one sided, "politically incorrect" lament for someone  he describes as an " an honorable, talented, crusading journalist. "


Such hogwash in the face of damning evidence.


Why had these champions of  the rule of law and gender justice neglected to constitute a Visakha committee ?


It is that critical act of arrogant omission that revealed the entire Tehelka enterprise as a grotesque farce.


Cohen accuses the BJP government  of " respond (ing) with rare zeal smacking of political vendetta " but in the interest of balance he ought also to have referred to Tejpal's craven, nauseating missive to Sonia Gandhi.


Tejpal was no I F Stone, pursuing journalism as a vocation and independently 'crusading' for the public good.

The Tejpal groupies were only the front desk. Tejpal appears to have had friends in all sorts of  places. Tehelka became only one of his variegated money spinning enterprises

And they all catered to the plummy set. 

Oddly enough, for somebody who got his second wind as a wielder of spy-cams, in his latest and most ballyhooed venture, he sought to sell "intimacy" to a chosen few.

To prop up his fallen idols, Mr Cohen has sanitized the crime scene.


"An unconscionable and criminal act may well have occurred on that elevator."


Yes.


And Mr Cohen's repine like those of Mr Tejpal/Chaudhury's water bearing "friends" are unconvincing to the point of being a nuisance.


You want hounded, Mr Cohen ? I'll give you hounded.






India is a very big country, Mr Cohen  and it has a lot of people.


A lot more than your "liberal" "politically incorrect' buddies in Lutyens' Delhi.




You do them all a singular disservice.

You ought to be ashamed.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

The Wall Street Journal Finds the language of my comment objectionable. Huh ?

Mr Henninger's heart is probably in the right place - who's isn't - but his perspective is musty and cockeyed.

In this day and age, one doesn't have to jump to Africa, the moment one thinks of corruption and poverty.

There is plenty of both in the West.

The way, I read the evidence it is the  force of Western greed and moral idiocy - The Price of Offshore Revisited and Inequality Underestimated  - that has straitjacketed the rest of the world to conform just to survive.

Corruption is not just about handing out little keychains come festival time.

The forces of corruption, as anybody familiar with the work of Mario Puzo or Francis Ford Coppola will tell you, make a "reasonable" offer that may not be refused.

They say,"Take my money, or I'll have your life."

Your hosannah to the Pope - This pope, with every waking hour, cares about the shafting of the world's poor- may have warmed some powerful, old hearts, but the Pope is not the only messiah in waiting.

My own "no excuses", ultra peaceful, non partisan, individual sathyagraha against corruption and for the idea of the rule of law in India, now in its 23nd year, has seen Presidents, Prime Ministers and Popes come and go.

Your readers may want to acquaint themselves with my sathyagraha here. 1. Excellence Vs Perversity  2. The Handclap That Triggered The Avalanche

Can't say for sure, but I get a feeling you, Shri Henninger, may already be acquainted with my thoughts.

I know the tenacity and passion with which my grandfather, the late Shri T S Swaminathan, MA, FIA, FCII
resisted corruption. The Prithvi connection

He too was isolated and almost broken till his massive, versatile abilities saw him rehabilitate himself. He was professionally active till well into his nineties.

In India, one often hears of a courageous citizen, usually an "RTI activist" or officer of the government who has been butchered or put to crushing travails by the forces of corruption.

Chinua Achebe was a tireless campaigner against the abuse of power in Nigeria. I would be interested to know whether he has ever inspired the WSJ to rapture ?

The abuse of power and predatoriness is universal and pervasive, thanks to the insouciance of the West.

Till it hatches out of its narcissistic shell and gets real, I find it difficult to see any hope for the survival of the planet.

That was my reply to Daniel Henninger's latest column  Capitalism's Corruptions . 

Obviously, I had invested precious time on the exercise. Imagine my surprise when my comment was rejected with this admonition.




Huh ? 

Case closed. The marvelous moderators at WSJ appear to have seen the reason in my bafflement and have published my comment. Now, when are you sending your reporter, Editor saa'ab ?








Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Rape is only nominally a gender issue. It is substantially an impunity issue.

We pass laws. We imagine and sometimes create leviathan bureaucracies. We scream on television. Yet India and the world keeps rotting.

Why ?

Because of our casual attitude to pervasive corruption.

Because of pervasive corruption or the culture of buying impunity for a price, an entire syndrome of malevolence has materialised, an aspect of which is the worship of the monied and the powerful and a corresponding suspicion and contempt of the powerless, a manifestation of which is the casual abuse of women and children.

Corruption is the domination and control, rape, of the very idea of rule of law and makes a mockery of and cripples the authentic psychological evolution of the human race.

Corruption is fascist. And that is why, even in the 21st century, “the more things remain the same.”

Democracies have frittered away their immense moral advantage due to corruption and the people from top to bottom have all but given up on making the system function.

The problem is as humongous as the stash of illicit money reportedly circulating in India and in the planet.

This, by all credible accounts, gargantuan supply of illicit money, is the premium that helpless citizens pay for crime and insanity.

It is an awful reminder of how societies have stopped to function for you and me.

A relevant question is, can a Non Privileged Indian rely on any institution of governance, not to sell her to the highest bidder ?

How are we going to rein in this monster of impunity ?

How do we make India and the planet safe for civility and sanity ?

How can ordinary citizens demand and achieve transparency and accountability on tap, as it were ?

Only by understanding the depth, dimensions and ramifications of pervasive corruption in India and in the world.

If we are resigned to corruption as part of our DNA, then we must resign ourselves to inequality and injustice.

To a society of a few fat predators and the rest as bakras; prey.

A society in which the powerless will be reviled, hounded, starved, enslaved and consumed.

 Rape is only nominally a gender issue. It is substantially an impunity issue .

As a grateful father of a wonderful girl child - now a thriving professional woman - I have to exhort all lovers of life to not tolerate any encroachment of their right to equality under the rule of law.

There can be no question that even so called advanced countries are shot through with an almost comical patriarchial bias. But the gender is incidental.

The real issue that all humanity and all life on the planet is groaning under is the collusive impunity of the powerful.

Some of them may even be caring, charitable people. But that is cold comfort.

And hence my stand against corruption, which is now a “no excuses”, ultra peaceful, non partisan, individual sathyagraha against corruption and for the idea of the rule of law in India.

In its 25th year. 

I request your solidarity and support.

Any struggle against a predatory authority is humanity’s struggle to honour the gift of life.

You may also look in on me on @divakarssathya on @twitter.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

The Judiciary's RTI 'Quota' Fracas


At long last, the Supreme Court has let the cat out of the bag.  

It has broken the conspiracy of silence that shrouded the arbitrary and uneven administration of the Right To Information Act 2005. 'Loyal' bureaucrats being made information commissioners: SC .

Wajahat Habibullah, the first Chief Information Commissioner, is a well known courtier of the Congress party. As was CD Arha, the State Information Commissioner in my state.

I have documented how these sycophants abused their power to violate my RTI and shield the Prime Minster’s and Chief Minister’s office.

They may speak their peculiar Stephanian English and nurse their delusions, but on my evidence, these people are as much thugs and perverts as any making the news today.

The current State Information Commissioner, Jannat Hussain, was Principal Secretary to Chief Minister for six long years. He was a point man for a Chief Minister whose son is in jail, for alleged corruption.

I have met Janat Hussain repeatedly in his former office. He made sure, to not give me any reason to be favourably impressed by him.

He is just another one of those guys, who can sit in front of a person who has single handedly struggled for decades against corruption and pretend to some kind of superior authority.

But the judiciary itself has been consistently hostile to the RTI. I have recorded the depravity of the Andhra Pradesh High Court .

My understanding of the shocking perniciousness of the judiciary was repeatedly underscored by Shri Sailesh Gandhi, former Chief Information Commissioner, the highest possible authority on RTI.

The former Chief Information Commissioner has disclosed how the judiciary has elbowed its way into the territory of the constitutional office.

India’s judiciary, by and large, could use a makeover.

It has been unable to effectively counter serious allegations of corruption.

Recently the columnist Sandhya Jain observed, “In the infamous Nira Radia tapes, there is an open allusion to a particular judge being ‘fixed’ with Rs 9 crore.

When senior advocate Shanti Bhushan submitted an affidavit in the Apex court charging eight out of 16 former Chief Justices of India of having been corrupt; no one demurred and many even said it was an underestimation.”

I recently requested some information from the Andhra Pradesh High Court. The very next day, I received a reply, speed of greased lightning by the shamelessly glacial, life wrenching standards of the judiciary, rejecting my postal money order.

The Court demanded that I pay them more than the sum stipulated by the Act. Also that I had to pay through court stamps. Once again violating both the spirit and letter of the Act.

There is a post office in my neighbourhood. It costs less time and gas to make a money order.

The nearest court house is kilometres away.

Jannat Hussain, could have taken suo moto notice of this egregious violation of the law by the judiciary. He is staying cosy.

So how many layers of corruption and maladministration can you detect in this little sliver of life ?

Of course, I sent in a fresh request.

Two months have passed and I have received no response. Andhra Pradesh High Court has arbitrarily and without showing any reason, refused my request.

Under the law, the Information Commissioner must order the disgorgement of the information that I have sought and fine and penalise the officer who has denied my request.

As State Information Commissioner, Jannat Hussain is the final appellate authority.

If he does not satisfy me, I can appeal to the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

What do you think are my chances ?

Of course, known, corrupt, sycophants are being appointed Information Commissioners in the States and the Centre.

But it is difficult to believe that the judiciary is motivated by any tender concern for the proper delivery of the rights of the citizen.

Its insistence on a quota for judges in the Commission is absurd, pathetic and further shreds whatever little dignity, judges are entitled to in society.

Incidentally, the very first person that I encountered in the Andhra Pradesh State Information Commission was the Member (Judicial). He was a retired district judge.

This narcissism and serial delinquency of constitutional authorities makes life unbearable and dignity impossible for the Non Privileged Indian.

Activists who have earned much fame and fortune for having introduced this “revolutionary”
law, cannot stay oblivious to its destruction.

Alas, they have not been as zealous in holding territory as the poachers.







Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Prashant Bhushan And The Tail Of The Tiger

In the autumn of 2009, Prashant Bhushan, revealed to Tehelka ("sensation") magazine that ‘Half Of The Last 16 Chief Justices Were Corrupt’ 

Prashant Bhushan has also gone to some lengths to explain why he considered the current Chief Justice Kapadia's conduct in the Vedanta case to be "morally unsound or debased."


All this is sensational beyond description. 

Had Prashant Bhushan seized a tiger - or was it eight or nine tigers - by its tail ? 

Obviously the Supreme Court could not let this pass, so it launched contempt proceedings against this "turbulent priest".

Now the father Shanthi Bhushan, former Law Minister of India, stormed in to aid his son.

Fuel to the fire - what would the Supreme Court do ?

Very little. 

The Bhushans had compiled a secret sealed envelope and jammed it in the craw of the gasping Indian judiciary.

And evidently, the Supreme Court of India can neither, as the old Tamil saying goes, chew it up nor swallow it. 

There was a moment of bathos, when the court helpfully suggested that Bhushan apologise and "close the chapter on the contempt proceedings"

The Bhushans roared back. They were willing to go to jail but would not apologise.

Prashant Bhushan had not provoked a sleeping tiger by pulling on its tail. 

Rather this canny Delhiwalla, with the wisdom of three generations of proximity to the ways of the decadent embedded in his genes, appears to have grabbed the mangy Indian judiciary by its throat. 

A Godsend for the Indian Press.  A Tehelka in spades.

But the Indian Press, that can be safely predicted only to erupt in regular spouts of self congratulatory clamour, has stayed mute.

There have been no further disclosures. No leaks. No hidden camera stunts.

Close to three years have passed and the litigation meanders on.

But the Bhushans, father and prominent son, have gone on from strength to strength.

Prashant Bhushan does very well on television. 

I myself have found his careful, systematic articulation, his dogged pursuit of every detail , his stubborn resistance to authoritarian airbrushing very attractive. 

Was a time, when watching Prashant Bhushan on television, surrounded and responding doggedly to the suave officers of the Indian state, I have felt our blood pressures rise and fall in synch. 

Indian television has made Prashant Bhushan a most powerful Indian.

Consider this: There are 782 members of parliament. 

But the number of lawyers whose names regularly figures in the media can be counted with the fingers and toes.

And among this rare species of Indian, the Bhushans are among the most favoured.

Such is the formidable, almost unique dominance of the Bhushans, especially Prashant on the grungy contemporary judicial landscape of India.

This dominance has been questioned. 

First came a mysterious CD. Clumsy paste up job ? We will never know. 

But to Vineet Narain, hero of the Havala scam, who bravely took on the might of not one but two of the most mighty legal grandees of India,  the CD seemed credible

 He said,  “I am not surprised by the content of the CD because I have burnt my fingers with the Bhushans during my Jain Hawala crusade...controversy and suspicion had arisen even earlier on the Bhushans...after initially helping me in drafting the petition (of Jain Hawala case), Ram Jethmalani and subsequently, his associates, the Bhushans, made several attempts to sabotage the biggest crusade against corruption and finally derailed the case.”

I am inclined to believe Shri Narain.

But not everybody does. 

According to Tehelka - Advocate Kamini Jaiswal says that Narain was “a dirty blackmailer, who’d filed ugly petitions and circulated in his paper Kal Chakra that a particular judge was a homosexual.”

Then there was the conflict of interest case, when Bhushan Senior was alleged to have been favoured by the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati, even as he was litigating for the public interest against her alleged excesses. 

Once again there was some hot air on television: 




\   


This allegation too has been given "the quietus"  . 

Tehelka apologised; 

Even Mrs Sonia Gandhi conveyed her disapproval .


It was a rare chorus of indignation in favour of the Bhushans in a country in which activists using their Right To Information get swatted down like flies. 







and are carefully dishonoured afterwards.



Where honest officials get burnt alive.


Time


and again


Where journalists and their families are murdered,



and then forgotten.




Finally there was a case of  massive tax evasion by Bhushan Senior. 

Unlike the other two, this was a case in which no other VIPs were involved.

And in this case, the allegation stuck.


Hammers to a fly. Why ?

The Indian judiciary has been brazen in its extraordinary indulgence of  Chief Justice Dinakaran. 

The tortuous curial pussyfooting on the grave allegations against Ex Chief Justice of Supreme Court and current Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission K G Balakrishnan is a running sore and a grave embarrassment. 

So why is this scion of The House Of The Bhushans Of New Delhi, allying himself with another legal blunderbuss, Ram Jethmalani to, for all practical purposes, harass and stymy the career of a high court judge whose alleged misdemeanor appears innocuous, almost innocent, in comparison with the monstrous misdeeds  alleged and otherwise of his peers and superiors in the Indian judiciary ?

Why is Prashant Bhushan who flaked out of taking on the entire Andhra Pradesh High Court on its egregious misconduct against a single, unsupported citizen who had been stripped of the best years of his life for standing up for the idea of the rule of law in India, now going after a judge who even if for a brief moment and half-heartedly, lit a little light in that case ?

Is their action in the public interest ?

Is it motivated by the zeal to cleanse a diseased Andhra Pradesh High Court and restore it to a semblance of credibility ? 

Neither Bhushan nor Jethmalani can make any lofty claims. 

The Bhushans appear to have made a compelling argument that Chief Justice Kapadia or a "Amicus Curiae" Harish Salve can be accused of being  "morally unsound or debased." .

The Bhushans do not appear any less prone to abuse the judiciary to aggrandise themselves. 

Given their expedient torpor on the occasion when their considerable talents and individual consciences were more urgently required, it is fair to infer that the Bhushans are mere adventurers. 

They are mere pirates with a training in the law, backed by their ill gotten wealth and a dotty Delhi centric media, who are scavenging on India's irretrievably compromised and crumbling political establishment.

Sad. 

If there are any clean hands in India's decrepit, delinquent and depraved judiciary, they do not appear clearly visible to the naked eye.












Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Prashant Bhushan Exceeds His Brief

PIL seeks quashing of Andhra Pradesh high court judge’s appointment

Prashant Bhushan and Ram Jethmalani, two of India's most high profile lawyers are supporting a Public Interest Litigation by an advocate Manohar Reddy, seeking to quash the appointment of a Justice N V Ramana of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. The details of the allegation are in the news report.  

The allegation does not relate to any personal or professional misconduct of the judge while in office. 

However it does allege that the judge may have suppressed a material and mandated fact, that may have disqualified him to pursue a career in the judiciary. 

The report also makes it clear that while the judge may have suppressed the fact of having a minor criminal record in his application, the matter has been a subject of public negotiations for some time.

If true,  these allegations are serious. The independence of all our constitutional institutions are their life's breath and heart's blood. Our constitution comes alive in the aloof manner in which they examine, interrogate and abrade each other.

In order that they maintain their abrasive quality, they cannot hold any uncomfortable secrets. They cannot be potential targets for blackmail or seduction. They have to stay well inflated with their abrasive purpose throughout their service life.

So if Justice Ramana did withhold a 'dirty secret' and had become transparently beholden to the government to favour him with some rare kindness, I at least, will have no doubts that he has forfeited his place among his awesome, black robed brethren.

He is the proverbial rotten apple that must be quickly discarded, before he infects the rest of the basket with his disease.

And Shri Bhushan and his well funded NGO deserves the warm gratitude of all reasonable persons in society for having taken the time off from his no doubt grueling schedule of personal and private interests - does he have any ? to undertake the onerous task of ejecting a serving Indian judge from his high office.

But truth does not yield itself so easily.

If the truth was what a mystic messiah or a cabal of  high priests declared, then we would have no need for constitutions and laws, procedures and protocols, evidence and witnesses, black robes and sober miens, lawyers and litigants. 


We can dispense with books and libraries, teachers and schools, science and ethics and all the laboriously constructed appurtenances of the idea of humanity's evolution and difference and submit like our simian cousins to a place in the tribe. 



I have had a brush with Shri Prashanth Bhushan - an encounter which left me wondering whether this firebrand's legendary talent for sniffing out the public interest does not sometimes desert him.



Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The Shit Happens School Of Sociology.


Thursday, June 23, 2011

Banalising The Beautiful. Lok Satta Does Martin Luther King.

Happened to click on the Lok Satta site the other day and was confronted by an alleged quote from Martin Luther King.


I carry the music of Martin in me and this just did not sound like my beloved prophet.

So tame. So plaintive and boring. "More dangerous"! - what is this?

So I Googled.

Not only did I come up with the original melody, but also a lovely photograph, that is so typically Martin.

About ten years ago, I went to meet Dr Jayaprakash Narayan and came back empty handed.

But here you see two men traversing whole worlds.


And the quotation ?

" History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

Can you hear the passion? The conviction? Can you see the shadows of history and Martin's clear vision of the future?"

In my meeting with the good Doctor Jayaprakash Narayan - he had done a pretty good job of de impressing me.

This misappropriation of greatness, by a media anointed crusader against corruption, does nothing to raise him up in my eyes.

It gets worse. It is Malalai Joya, an activist, writer and former politician from Afghanistan to whom those words are attributed.

This is "robbing Peter to pay Paul" taken up a few notches.

This is distorting Ms Joya to dull Dr King.

Certainly not my idea of "New politics for a new generation".















Monday, June 13, 2011

Restore The Honour Of The Andhra Pradesh High Court

HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE NISAR AHMAD KAKRU (sic)
Andhra Pradesh High Court,
Hyderabad


to cjap
date Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 2:46 PM
subject Restore The Honour Of The Andhra Pradesh High Court
mailed-by gmail.com




Your honour,

If you have ever had the occasion to search for "Andhra Pradesh High Court" on the internet, then my appeal to and correspondence with your predecessor entitled "Andhra Pradesh High Court's Pernicious Rebellion Against The Law" would not have escaped your notice.

With the benefit of hindsight, that account can reasonably be read today as a stunning narration of the Andhra Pradesh High Court's slide with “minuscule” check or balance from delinquency to disgrace to depravity.

As I have detailed in my correspondence to the then Chief Justice, the AP High Court had very obviously and at every level prejudged my case, delayed, obstructed and perverted the course of justice.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court State Legal Services Authority conducted a time consuming, farcical and ultimately fruitless search for a competent counsel.

The judges in question stubbornly resisted giving me any impression that they had heard me, obstinately ignored my repeated requests for the assistance of a competent counsel, displayed no compunctions about heckling me in my defenseless state from the lofty position of the bench, took upon themselves the obligation of arguing the respondents case and produced a judgment that was completely at variance to the independent opinion sought and received by the High Court, the facts of my case and the RTI Act 2005.

The Hon’ble judge’s babble emanated despite the fact that that the only new fact that emerged during the hearing was that the Andhra Pradesh Government was forced to admit the exposure of its affidavit as a tissue of lies and brazen fabrications.

Your esteemed predecessor had an excellent opportunity and sacred obligation to mitigate this sordid situation and put the hearing back on its track.

Instead he actively participated in this rowdy violation of the principles of natural justice and due process.

Not only did he assign the hearing of my case to a judge who is shown as being one rung junior to the judge against whom I had complained, he did not respond for my request for assistance for an appeal.

With the smug tunnel vision that is peculiar to successful technicians, lawyers are often advised , "When you cannot plead the law, plead the facts. When you cannot plead the facts, plead the law'.

To this wisdom, we in India, have added a more practical, subaltern twist. “When you can argue neither the facts or the law - start a riot."

Blood may not have been shed, the courts may not have been interrupted, the television cameras may have been busy elsewhere, and our editorial class may be too cloddish to recognize it and only my life has been thwarted, but there can be little doubt in reasonable minds that the Andhra Pradesh High Court over a period of more than a year, comprehensively and at every level disgraced itself by mauling the idea of due process in order to pervert the course of the law and to thwart justice with a clear motive to let the powerful respondents off the hook.

Extremists almost reflexively accept responsibility for their heinous acts.
But despite the fact that I have complained to the President of India, that office in an act of utter depravity, has not only ignored my complaint but has gleefully elevated the delinquent former Chief Justice to the Supreme Court.

Till date, Andhra Pradesh High Court has shown no signs of the self correcting conduct that society routinely expects from erring human beings.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has not given any sign that it has recognizes and regrets its reprehensible delinquency.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has shown no rectitude, remorse or reform that will restore the process of justice.

In other words the Andhra Pradesh High Court does not appear to possess any power, procedure or compunction to recover from its woefully compromised state.

It appears to not have the conscience, character or potency to re establish its shattered independence and autonomy.

There can be no question that by recounting this rowdyism of the Andhra Pradesh High Court and Bar and its toadying, symbiotic relationship with the Executive and Administration, I have performed an extraordinary service for the cause of an authentic, autonomous and vibrant judiciary.

At a time when even a clearly compromised and cowering Rashtrapathi Bhavan has chosen to stay mute, and lawless extremisms are bubbling everywhere, I have performed a rare service to the idea of equity under the rule of law by not leaving you in any doubt about the odiousness of the earlier hyper activism and current inertness of the Andhra Pradesh High Court .
This inertness of the Andhra Pradesh High Court is clearly intended to be punitive because I continue to suffer the brazen violation of my rights, denial of information and fair access to institutions of redressal and remedy.

I now request you to kindly use your authority to take whatever action that you may consider fit to make amends for this barbarism.

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Yours sincerely,


Divakar S Natarajan

PS: Since Shri Subrahmanyam, formerly Secretary to the Legal Services cell who conducted the dubious and infructuous search for legal aid, who I understand is currently your PS, has claimed not to have received the earlier email dated May 25,2010, I am emailing you again .