Pairokar

Delhi is not a full-fledged state yet. The demand for full statehood has been long pending. It was only 15 years ago Delhi was given a Vidhan Subha (Legislative Assembly) but most of the important departments like Police and the DDA are still in the hands of the Central Government. Apart from it, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the New Delhi Municipal Corporation are almost independent bodies enjoying a great deal of autonomy. The multiplicity of authorities is the major reason for not having good governance in the most important city of the country. The game of passing the buck goes on and the general public has to suffer. Officials show callousness and apathy towards the public because they are not fastened with any accountability. This is the reason that despite having the highest per capita income in the country, Delhi is also the centre of mismanagement, illegalities, anomalies and rampant corruption. Name any other city in the country, where two major national parties –B

Indian railways is going to post a profit of 60,000 crore Rupees in the present financial year. Anybody and everybody will feel elated with wonderment because this is happening possibly for the first time in the history of railways after independence. Railways are leviathan and perhaps the largest employer, next only to security forces, in the country. Till recently it was considered to be an honour to be employed with Railways. Despite reporting such huge profits the Railways are the classic example of dirt, filth and squalor all around. Platforms are overcrowded and dirty. Substandard and stale eatables are sold with gay abandon, nobody is their control the violators of law. Obviously it is done in complicity with the authorities, who are responsible to maintain the order and upkeep of the railway stations. However, owing to many factors, the railways, despite huge potentialities, never reported even ‘no profit, no loss’ situation. Everybody had assumed that it was impossible to get

Proselytizing is not new to India. It has been going on for centuries. Verily speaking, the conversion from one religion to other religion can go on only in democratic and tolerant societies or countries. This is a good sign for flourishing of different religions which can compliment and supplement to one another. But the way, the Proselytizing has been done in our country for the last many centuries are reprehensible and abhorring to say the least. During the Mughal period large number of people converted to Islam mainly due to force and influence of the greedy and unprincipled landlords. The day the Mughal rule came to an end, we hardly find anybody embracing Islam. Similarly, with the advent of Britishers; the Christian Missionaries got patronage of the rulers and they started converting the people in a very discreet and shrewd manner. It must be noted here that Christianity in the coastal areas of Kerala is almost as old as in the place of its birth. It was limited to only a few hu

Religion is the opium of masses, so said Karl Marx one of the greatest modern thinkers. Be that as it may, the people across the world think the religion, an article of faith and that is why; people throng to temples, mosques, churches, pagodas, gurdwaras and cathedrals. If we took at the number of non believers or atheists we find that they pale into insignificance in comparison to believers or theists. Places of worship of some religions are found to be spick and span. If on goes there (s)he finds peace of mind and psychological satisfaction but on the contrary in Hindu religion most of the temples are the veritable picture of dirt and filth, slush and slurry. Peace of mind is robbed by Pandas and Pujaris. What is, most abominable is that these Pandas make the life of devotees hell. Some of my friends have just returned from Banaras and Vindhyachal. They were on pilgrimage to have darshan of Lord Vishwanath in Banaras and Vindhyavasini Devi at Vindhyachal in M

In the absence of ‘sunset clause’ in our legal set up, we have to often face innumerable new set of problems, which crop up due to the surging pace of technology, generational gap and growing population. Our Working Journalists Act, 1955 is afflicted with similar problems. When this Act was passed by Parliament on the recommendations of the first Press Commission headed by Justice Rajyadhyaksha, it was a revolutionary act indeed but now it has largely become irrelevant. Till this Act was enacted the word journalist was absolutely amorphous. Anybody, even with the nodding acquaintance with the press, used to claim to be a journalist. The famous editor and the founder president of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ) M. Chelapathi Rau had postulated in an article that even the reader of the newspapers or magazines could lay claim to be a journalist. The Working Journalists Act of 1955, however, cleared the mist to a great extent about who can be said to be a journalist. Th

A few years ago there was a report published in some newspapers that hundreds of crore of Rupees lying unclaimed in the Azamgarh branch of State Bank of India. On a further investigation it was learnt that most of the money was sent from abroad mainly from Gulf countries to be used for Hawala purposes. There is not an iota of doubt that fundamentalist Islamic forces are well entrenched and have deep roots in Azamgarh and Maunath Bhanjan. These forces have been active here even during the freedom struggle. At the time of partition a large number of Zamindars and middle class Muslims migrated to Pakistan. It is also true that there has always been the undercurrent of sympathy among Muslims of Azamgarh for Pakistan. This does not mean that all Muslims could be tarred with the same brush. There have been numerous among them who have been vociferously nationalist and their patriotism has been remarkably above board. Most of the Muslims of Azamgarh and neighouring districts are low caste Ans

Delhi High Court enjoys a distinct reputation among all High Courts of the country as far as the efficient functioning and the quality of the judgements are concerned. Most of the judges are reasonable, indulgent to patient hearing and judicious in handing down the verdicts. Only yesterday i.e.21st August 2008 the bench of Justice Manmohan Sarin and Justice Madan B. Lokur of the Delhi High Court has delivered a judgment which has evoked strong reaction from the Bar Associations .So much so, that the Bar Associations have gone flash strike on this issue. The High Court has debarred two senior lawyers-Shri R.K. Anand and Shri I.U. Khan-from practising for four months and also imposed a token fine of Rs. 2000/- on each. The lawyers have been found guilty of serious misconduct unbecoming of any lawyer, much less of both the designated senior lawyers. It may be recalled that Shri R.K. Anand has been engaged as a defence lawyer by Nandas in high octane BMW case and Shri I.U. Kh

Lawyers are small unrighteous souls’, said Plato long ago and this image about them is almost etched on the minds of the people all over the world. But at the same it is also true that lawyers have always been in the forefront in voicing against the corruption, exploitation and arbitrariness and vigorously fought for the establishment of rule of law and democratic rights of the people across the world. There is hardly any profession which is free from blemishes but any speck of dirt stuck on the legal community is clearly visible to the general public because all omissions and commissions of the judiciary, particularly the lawyers, have wider repercussions on the society. What prompted me to write on this controversial topic is a news item that Bar Associations of Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi have decided not to defend those who have been arrested in the cases of bomb blasts at these places. Every patriotic and right thinking person would like to see that culprits should be punished