Pairokar

Parmanand Pandey I am posting it on my blog after fairly a long gap of time. During the interregnum the momentous agitation of Anna Hazare took place for nearly a fortnight. Proceedings to impeach Justice Soumitra Sen of Calcutta High Court were conducted in the Rajya Sabha and it was passed with over whelming majority. Anna's movement got tremendous support, particularly from youth of the country. The government that was initially bluffing and blustering started shivering and shuddering a few days later. Anna came out victorious with thunderous applause all over the country. However, I am not going to write this time on Anna Hazare but on Mr. Soumitra Sen. It is undoubtedly a very sad saga in the annals of judiciary. Mr. Sen was given nearly two hours time by the Chairman to defend himself and prove his innocence after the motion for his impeachment was moved by Sitaram Yechury in the Rajya Sabha. Mr Sen waxed eloquent in his absorbing style and language. There were many members o

Parmanand Pandey Three days back i.e. on 18th of July 2011; I appeared before the Supreme Court of India as the counsel of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ), National Federation of Newspaper Employees (NFNE) and other Unions of Newspaper Employees in a case filed by Anand Bazar Patrika Group of Newspapers of Kolkata. It may be mentioned here that Anand Bazar Patrika group is a big group of newspapers, which publishes the largest Bengali daily, 'Anand Bazar Patrika', prestigious English daily 'The Telegraph' and the business daily, 'Business Standard' and one famous Bengali literary magazine. Two very famous weeklies like; Ravivar (in Hindi) and Sunday (in English) were being published from this house but their publication has been ceased for more than one and half decades. Before the independence of the country, 'Amrita Bazar Patrika' (English) and 'Jugantar' (Bengali) were ruling the roost in the West Bengal but after the freed

Parmanand Pandey 'Rule of law' is the basic and quintessence of democracy. It has to be assiduously preserved and protected by all those; who are at the helm of affairs in a democratic set-up. Without observance of the rule of law, the democracy becomes a farce and many a time worse than dictatorship. What has happened the other day at Ram Leela Maidan of Delhi to spoil the Satygraha of Swami Ram Dev was most shocking and nothing but the mockery of democracy. Anybody would be aghast to see the harrowing scene of the atrocities being perpetrated by the police on the peaceful satyagrahis in the mid of the night, when most of them were fast asleep. The government owes explanation to everybody as to why the draconian measure was adopted to disperse the Sayagrahis? Any dispensation having the semblance of civility would think at least a dozen times for taking any step to drive away the peaceful people. But, the step of the police action that was taken by the government would be unth

Parmanand Pandey A judge of Delhi, Ms Kamini Lau has suggested that the punishment to the convicts of rape case should be made exemplary and extremely deterrent. Her main suggestion, however, is that instead of increasing the period of incarceration of a rape-culprit to life imprisonment or putting him gallows, he should be chemically castrated. Such a person would find that his life has become a virtual hell for him and he would be constantly subjected to derision and ridicule of the society. This mortification will always haunt him to make him realise of his beastly guilt every moment till the last breath of his life. In fact, according to many theories of punishment, there are mainly its three objectives: Reformative, Retributive and Deterrent. The crimes have also been broadly divided into two categories: One is against individual and the other is against individual plus society. In the second type of crimes; although the sufferer or victim is individual yet, it is considered to be

Parmanand Pandey Massive victory of Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal assembly elections is satisfying, momentous and epoch making. Marxists have been blown after 34 years of uninterrupted rule in the strong gale of Mamata's popularity. Actually, it has been set in the psyche of the people for the last nearly two decades that the Marxists were invincible and it would be impossible to replace them through any democratic exercise because; they have mastered the art of subverting the public opinion by taking recourse to force and coercion and rigging the elections. In fact, the people of West Bengal have been fed up with the dictatorship and goondaism of Marxist rulers and cadres' right from the early eighties; but their anger reached the saturation point from the late nineties. If free and fair elections had been held for the West Bengal assembly, they would have thrown out in 2001 elections, if not before. Notwithstanding the huge wrath of the general public Marxists managed to win

Parmanand Pandey The precise 40 minute military operation carried out by American navy to kill Osama Bin Laden on the last May 1 at Abbottabad (Pakistan) was absolutely marvellous and breathtaking. This was really unprecedented from many angles. The operation has completely exposed the duplicity and blatant lie of Pakistani authorities for whom Osama Bin Laden was virtually laying golden eggs. What was known to everybody, although Pakistan was trying to cover it with thin veneer, yet became stark clear after the military operation that Osama Bin Laden and numerous other terrorists have been trained, fed and nurtured and sheltered by Pakistan Army. Pakistan, without doubt, is a rogue state which has been thriving on the crop of terrorists. It is the biggest exporter of terrorism across the world, be it India, USA, Britain, Chechanya or Canada. India of course, is the biggest victim, which has to bear the brunt most. It is very regrettable that western countries, particularly USA, mainly

Parmanand Pandey God-man Stya Sai Baba has passed away in the morning of 24th April. He was a divine man or God incarnate or not— I cannot say it for sure; but there is no doubt in my mind that Sai Baba certainly was an evolved person and a great human being. The work done by him in the fields of education, health and drinking water facilities to the people is phenomenal indeed. People belonging to every walk of life cutting across the linguistic, religious and national boundaries became his disciples. Although he was surrounded with many controversies in his life time like; sexploitation of many lady devotees and amassing of huge wealth etc., yet he was respected like God by his disciples. According to newspaper reports he has left behind a fabulous empire worth Rs. more than 1.20 to 2 lakh crore in scores of countries. As it generally happens, when there is no clear cut and strict mechanism to handle the financial matters, controversy, bad blood and rancour is sure to crop up and it

Parmanand Pandey An unnecessary controversy is raging these days with regard to the presence two Bhusans - father son duo— Shanti and Prashant in the Jan Lokpal Drafting Committee. Right from the day, the government accepted the demand of Anna Hazare to draft and enact the Jan Lokpal Bill with the help of the representatives of the Civil Society, a section of influential persons is not able to digest it. These people are raising innumerable objections, which are frivolous in nature but ulterior in motive. There are some publicity hungry people, who are knocking at the doors of the various courts and questioning the very constitutionality of the Drafting Committee. They say that it is the job of Parliament, which cannot be given to others under threat and duress. They are umbrage as to how the civil society can subvert the democracy and usurp the powers of Parliament. As it is was not enough, a group of people, whose interests would be hit hard after and who do not have any hesitation i

Parmanand Pandey Hail Anna Hazare. Doubtless, his victory is people's victory. Those who have been cocking the snook to the fast unto death of Anna had to eat to humble pie. The amount of spontaneous support that came for the cause of weeding out the corruption has been unprecedented in the real sense of the term. This type of movement has not been seen in Independent India. Anna Hazare's movement has brought forth at least two important features. One; almost every body in India has become the victim of the corruption. It has not only spread its tentacles widely but has dug its roots so deep that people are groaning with its pain. Two; if any sincere person starts an agitation, he or she is sure to get the overwhelming support of the people. The fast unto death of Anna Hazare has made it evident that there was no need for any publicity. Entire country would come for support as if pulled by ropes. In our country we have been talking about corruption, blaming politicians and offi

Parmanand Pandey Entire country has been in the grip of cricket fever for more than one and half months. It reached its peak at the time of semi-final with Pakistan and in the final against Sri Lanka. Cricket has obtained the status of the cult game in the country mainly because of two reasons. Firstly; it is a colonial game and is played exclusively in commonwealth countries which were the slaves of Great Britain once upon a time. The subjects of slave countries took pride in emulating the game of their Saheb masters. Thus, it became popular because of the Britishers. Secondly; the big money is involved in this game, particularly in India where the number of cricket fans is growing by leaps and bounds with every passing year. Paranoia about cricket can be gauged from the fact that so much so; a villager, who does not know about the game of cricket, suffers from a complex. Business houses and gamblers make huge money out of this game. They just capitalise the emotions of the public by

By: Parmanand Pandey I read a front paged lead story in the daily 'Mail Today' of today. The news story is based on a petition of an Advocate to the President of India. It has high lighted the nexus between some advocates and the judges of the Supreme Court. It also tells about the modus operandi of some manipulative advocates, who sow the seeds of corruption to reap the fruits later for their enrichment. The story is bound to shock the conscience of any conscientious person. It is an open secret although much talked about in the circles of legal practitioners that some advocates believe more in manoeuvring than in the lawyering. They often give the impression that justice is manageable and this is how they have accumulated fortunes. These unscrupulous advocates and the judges do not realise the damage they cause to the very institution of judiciary. In the instant story a senior advocate PH Parekh has floated an organisation for the protection of Human Rights of which he is th

Parmanand Pandey The Confederation of All India Newspaper and News Agency Employee Organisations organised today i.e. 24th March 2011 an impressive demonstration outside Shram Shakti Bhawan, situated at Rafi Marg of New Delhi for immediate notification of the recommendations of the Majithia Wage Board for newspaper and news agency employees. Shram Shakti is the headquarters of Union Ministry of Labour and also of the Ministry of Power. I along with scores of friends of newspaper industry participated in the demonstration in the capacity of the Secretary General of Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ). The Wage Board submitted its report to the Government of India on 31st of December last year. The Wage Board report is although highly flawed, inadequate and unsatisfactory for employees yet; the Government is taking inexplicably so much time to notify is really intriguing. Wage Board is constituted as per the provision of section 13 of the Working Journalists Act for the revi

By: Parmanand Pandey Alok Tomar, a well known journalist died young. Killer cancer snatched him on the day of Holi festival, which is celebrated with joy and gaiety soaked in colours. If I am not mistaken, it was the most liked festival of Alok, which gelled well with personality, affability and temperament. Alok and I were selected in the first batch of Jansatta newspaper in 1983. Both of us were in twenties; he was in early and I was in late twenties. He was a vivacious, talkative, full of energy and always impatient. Although he was a junior reporter but was the best in the reporting section of the newspaper in the sense that he had wonderful command over the language and had assiduously developed inimitable style, which was highly compelling and absorbing. No body could afford to ignore his stories largely because of his engrossing presentation. It is an altogether different matter that his stories used to be laced with heavy spicy doses. His imaginations often overtook the factual

By Parmanand Pandey The enormity of death and destruction by horrific Tsunami and trembler in Japan is heartrending, to say the least. It is worst tragedy in the known history in terms of loss of men and material. It has again made us feel that man is helpless before the nature. Every scientific development has been claimed to be a victory of man over nature. Harnessing of the natural resources has been gloated over as the feat of man. But no modern man has ever imagined that the nature can be so ferocious and furious as to humble the man in a trice. In fact, every natural calamity must spur the scientists to unravel the mysteries of the nature's boons and banes. We have been hearing for quite long time that very soon the science would be able to forecast the earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and other devastating incidents but that is still a mirage. It, however, does not mean that man should sit on his haunches and make no efforts for scientific inventions. It is said that the na

Parmanand Pandey The Supreme Court of India by striking down the appointment of the Central Vigilance Commissioner has done a commendable job in the public interest. It has retrieved the constitutional dignity to a large extent, which has been going down very rapidly in the recent years. Some people say that Mr. Thomas should have resigned long back from the post of CVC to avoid mortification to the government, particularly the Prime Minster and the Home Minister, who were the members of the appointment committee. But then that would not have set the controversy at rest. Therefore, I think that Mr. Thomas has done, although unwittingly, well by not resigning from the post and thereby allowing the Supreme Court to settle the law. The Supreme Court has also done a good job by declaring, among other points, that only (a) bureaucrats should not be considered for the post of CVC; other qualified and persons of eminence should also be taken in account, (b) that the three member committee sho

Parmanand Pandey I have always been of the view that lawyers have no legal, ethical or social right to go on strike unless, of course, something egregious has happened which has bearings on the safety, security of the people and the country. Now we hear that lawyers in Uttar Pradesh have gone on agitation for reasons which no sensible persons can justify. Let me hasten to add that I have no love for the present government in Uttar Pradesh. To be fair and frank, I have not taken any benefit as a lawyer from Uttar Pradesh government, at any point of time either by the present or previous dispensations. Therefore, I am under no obligation of any body. I have been informed from my sources that lawyers are demanding that after the age of sixty every lawyer should be given a decent pension benefit. The State in India is known as a 'Welfare State'. The duty of the state is to see that nobody suffers from hunger of deprivation. When I use the word 'nobody' it includes lawyers a

Parmanand Pandey Shri K.G. Balakrishnan, Ex-chief Justice of India and presently the Chairman of Human Rights Commission is doing more damage to the institution of judiciary than to himself by clinging on to the post without any sense of shame or remorse. Now when it has come to light that he and his relatives have amassed huge amount of wealth and property in the period when he held the office of a judge of the High Court and the Supreme Court. Inexplicably, instead of clearing the cloud of suspicion, he is maintaining mysterious silence, which is further strengthening the doubt. The conduct of justice Balakrishnan, in fact, has not been above board for quite long time. For instance; he stubbornly opposed the applicability of the Right to Information Act on the judges of the Supreme Court. This was ludicrous to say the least. Being the Chief of the Apex Court, he should have been first to welcome the idea of declaring the assets and liabilities by the judges but he resisted it to the