Ignoarrogant Yuvraj!

The heir apparent of Congress( did i say opposite of progress?) is playing his old card of non-congress being the sole reason of backwardness of UP. It seems baba is as ill read and as misinformed as his grandma unlike great grandfather. Well that is altogether a different story.

What needs to be reminded him is that UP was, except, for last two decades, always a fortress of Congress since early independence era. UP was always under the sway of INC. Nehru, Indira, Chandrashekar, V.P.Singh, Shastri , Charan Singh (the foot lion :)), Vajpayee all these Prime ministers were elected from UP. Of these maximum times it was Con-gress which was the ruling party with PM from UP. In 40 years Congress did absolute nothing in UP if compared to 20 year rule of non-congress parties. Much needs to be appreciated of Behenjee's sarkar, although she courted controversy one after another.

It should be wonder of wonders for all economists that a land so fertile on the banks of Ganges, with plain topographical features, with no climatic extremes as in Rajasthan, which played and still plays a phenomenal role in history and its making, has ended up as major 'labor' exporter! When goons of MNS kick these poor laborers from UP, it should shame any representative of UP, not to talk about PM.

Another rant we hear from the Prince of Congress as well as from the Queen mother is "We had sent so much money from Delhi, but all has been siphoned away from the non-congress sarkar ruling UP".He forgets that money sent to UP is not from his or his family members bank account. It is our tax payers hard earned money not their family jaagir. So next time please spare us from the money-from-Delhi rhetoric. We are sick of it Mr.Gandhi!

I know Mr.Gandhi is desperate to make some mark on Indian politics and UP elections should be last attempt with Indian Politics (because after its debacle, even the Congress party workers wont accept him as their leader:)). But the media-ramp walk into Dalit family household and breaking a bread or two with them, won't cut much ice with electorate. Neither would shouting like a child "Kalavati..Kalavati!!!" in Indian parliament help.

Grow up Mr.Gandhi and stop being Amul-Baby as Mr.Achuthanandan remarked in last Kerala State election

Contempt of court and freedom of speech

Recently Kerala high court sentenced the CPI(M) party activist M.V.Jayarajan for calling the judges as “shumbhan” which means fool, idiot in Malayalam. His diatribe was in response to the HC ruling against roadside assembly of party activists for political speeches and public address. Interestingly HC did not even suspend the ruling to give him time to appeal to SC, so that sentence was immediately implemented and Jayarajan had to spend his time in jail, till the time he could file an appeal against the ruling in Supreme Court.

Was court justified in this? Certainly if one goes by law book, a resounding yes! But if we look more closely there are some difficult political philosophical questions involved. Do we actually need to empower judiciary and parliament with such contempt proceeding powers? And won’t such powers discourage healthy criticism?

Moreover should judges not be judged? Are they bathed by milk, to quote Hindi proverb? If they are not spotless, then should they be empowered with contempt proceeding powers to silence criticism? One should not forget the rampant corruption even in the judiciary. Justice Dinakaran, Soumitra sen, Y.K.Sabarwaal, and now K.G.Balakrishnan facing the charges for favouring his son-in-law out of turn! The case against Soumitra Sen as recorded by proceedings in Rajya Sabha meant that he was corrupt since the start of his career in judiciary. How did he survive with so much corruption to this extent?

Returning back to the Jayarajan episode, the learned judges interestingly remarked Jayrajan as a “worm”. Did not the judges stoop down to the levels for school-boyish fist-fight and name calling? Agreed Jayajan’s comment would be lacking intellectual force, if any, still should he be silenced? Did his comments actually change public opinion against courts?

To sum up one should be reminded of J.S.Mill’s famous quote “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”