Why You Should Stand up for Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi

You know the latest Indian high functionary who faces allegations of sexual misconduct - it doesn't get bigger than this, at least for now. He is the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi who is accused of sexual harassment by a former woman employee of the supreme court.

Denying the allegations, the Chief Justice wondered whether a 'bigger force' might be at work to "deactivate the office of the Chief Justice of India" and he regretted that "things have gone too far". You would empathise with him if you sniff the air over India's public life and sense your conscience, keeping aside any lawyerly instincts in you.

True, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi did not quite realise an earlier attempt to denigrate the office he now holds, when Justice Dipak Misra was his predecessor Chief Justice in the same court. That was in Jan. 2018 when Justice Gogoi, as the next CJI in line, joined three other sitting judges of the supreme court to call a press conference and voice their grievance publicly against Chief Justice Dipak Misra on administrative issues. Doing that was a blatant indiscretion for a judge, apart from anything more as it could be. If you faulted Justice Gogoi for such indiscretion you did it for a higher cause - to cherish the independence and dignity of the office of India's Chief Justice. It is that higher cause that tells you now to back him and help him stand tall and uphold the prestige of his present office as Chief Justice of India. 

It should have been really hard for Justice Ranjan Gogoi to live down his image in the backdrop of that infamous press meet and then, after he became CJI, establish himself as an upright no-nonsense non-partisan head of the nation's judiciary, clearing any lurking doubts on the way. It is a transformation for the good, and now he needs and deserves our support. 

When Chief Justice Dipak Misra headed the supreme court, surely a 'bigger force' was at work against him. That was a desperate political force that tried to get him impeached but failed. Don't be surprised if the same political force has grown more desperate and is turning against the current Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi who has been straightforward and has given clear signs of independence. No marks for answering this no-brainer: which political party as of today will be most troubled by an independent chief justice leading the supreme court, and so it could be behind or alongside any move to shame and intimidate him? You’ll get it right - though you may say it or hide it depending on your political affiliation and how clean you keep your conscience.

Some clever lawyers and their tutored political clients might ask with a chuckle, "What's the proof for the 'bigger force' Chief Justice Gogoi suspects?" Well, the bigger force that rooted for Justice Ranjan Gogoi before his elevation as Chief Justice of India and applauded his joint press conference against the previous Chief Justice, does not stand with him now. That force cannot remain aloof or silent, and the only thing it should be doing now is this: work against Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, because after his elevation as the top most judge he has belied some expectations and he functions fairly and independently.

Remember the unforgettable Justice Kurian Joseph? He was one of the four sitting judges of the supreme court who appeared at their joint press meet against the then Chief Justice Dipak Misra. Quickly after his retirement, Kurian Joseph was interviewed on television and by newspapers when he dropped a bombshell. He said that he and the other three press-conference judges, as also many other unnamed brother judges and the media too, had perceived that Chief Justice Dipak Misra was under some external influence and was losing his independence. In the same breath, Kurian Joseph said with a straight face that he or anybody else could not identify that external influence and could only perceive its presence. Did any of the other sources Kurian Joseph claimed as sharing his perception on Chief Justice Dipak Misra come out to confirm his assertion? No.

Through his post-retirement interviews, did Kurian Joseph severely assault the dignity of the leader of India's judiciary? Absolutely. Did he furnish any scrap of proof? Nothing, as he owned up.  Was he, for what he expressed, in contempt of the supreme court? Yes - he was just lucky not to be tried for contempt. Did television channels and newspapers, and other prominent lawyers and critics who fault Chief Justice Gogoi at this moment, criticise Kurian Joseph at that time for his vague and flimsy allegation against Chief Justice Dipak Misra? No, not at all. Now, don't you see who the chief actors are in the 'bigger force' Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi spoke about as a real threat to an independent judiciary? India should beware, or pay a heavy price.

Let's also remember that with right objectives we have made some wrong laws, conferring excessive rights on some groups of persons and resulting in excessive disabilities on another group of persons.  We don't find any significant betterment or upliftment of the group that is given such excessive rights, but we see some mischief makers among that group uncontrollably abuse their special rights and torment their victims. One such law gives excessive rights to women, enabling them to name a man with an allegation of the widely-defined ‘rape’ or related offences but restraining all from revealing her name and identity.  Any sexual offender should be severely punished.  But there is no justification for leaving an open field for tormenting innocent men or keeping men in fear of being named and shamed - for as long as it goes - by mischievous women who could remain anonymous or by any 'bigger force' partnering with such a woman to intimidate a man who doesn't yield to that force.

       Many men would  wish they don’t  work closely with women at offices and risk false charges of any kind of sexual harassment coming at them later to settle personal scores. This is truer with men supervising women in the workplace since anybody likes to go around, not near, a suspected pitfall. Even a judge, even the Chief Justice of India, has to watch out. This is due to the nature of ordinary humans in any country, race or religion, to abuse a benefit or advantage and score over others if there is no effective check.  There is no gender bias in this view.

If you read the complaint of the former woman employee of the supreme court, you’ll find that the offence she details and describes comes close to the legal definition for the offence of rape though she has not used that term.  That’s why the media - in compliance with a perceived legal prohibition - has not published the accuser’s name, but anyone is free to mention the name of CJI Ranjan Gogoi. If you, whether a man or woman, feel he has been falsely and maliciously accused, you cannot know the identity of the dubious complainant even if you just wish to curse her for her motive. The offence allegedly took place in October 2018, the complainant later faced a departmental enquiry on some unrelated charges and she was dismissed from the supreme court in December 2018. Now, on 19^th April 2019, she has come out with a sexual harassment charge against the CJI.

As Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi remarked, "things have gone too far". And so, the complaint against him has to be prudently handled.  But surely the time has come to insulate all judges of the supreme court, as long as they are in office, from any criminal proceeding. Like the President and Governor of a State have such protection, judges of the supreme court need it for more weighty reasons. When some thirty Governors of our States, who are mostly retired politicians, are kept out of any criminal prosecution with no harm occurring to anyone, do it for all supreme court judges too.

       As we should take care in the selection of upright independent judges to the supreme court, they should not also be left vulnerable to easy threats of blackmail and intimidation when they are in office. We need a sensible balancing of the public interest, and we should fashion our laws accordingly. After all, we know what some nasty politicians and cunning businessmen are capable of, and to what lengths they may go, to subdue a judge who may be the last hurdle on their mad run. Let’s not be fake and pretentious. Let’s be real and honest.

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Copyright © R. Veera Raghavan 2019

What's Behind Rahul Promising a National Monthly Dole of Rs.6,000?

Are you in two minds - whether to mock Rahul Gandhi's poll promise of free cash transfer of Rs.6,000 a month for 5 crore poor families as a 'final assault on poverty' or to welcome it as the way out for India's poor masses? Your dilemma, if you have it, is the starting point of Rahul's trick working.

The sumptuous national dole announced by the Congress President has also been put in the party's 2019 Lok Sabha election manifesto. But questions remain, more on the misuse of the magical proposal than on its use. 

  

The Congress assumes 5 members per family receiving the dole, to cover in all 25 crore poorest Indians, and the rollout will run for ten years, as its poll manifesto shows. It entails an incredible annual outlay of Rs.3.6 lakh crores for the government. The person and the party behind this offer tell a tale of their own.

You know: Unlike in mature democracies India's average standard of living is poor, but those countries are not, like India, a haven for politicians. How is it that politicians keep phenomenally prospering in India with their least knowledge and personal attributes, but not their counterparts in developed democracies if they have similar qualifications? The answer chiefly lies in the tolerance level of our people. 

Most ordinary Indians think, "I'll be as good as I can. I am not so much worried how bad the other man is - even towards me."  Indian politicians are squatting on this popular mindset to thrive by their chicanery and misdeeds. People know this too. But they are concerned and satisfied with how good they, as citizens, could be. If you need proof on this, look at Hindus who form nearly 80% of India’s population but are coolly neglected, hoodwinked or insulted in many parts of India and yet they quietly carry on.

More than our voters, it is an enemy politician in another party who likes to see his political rival punished by courts on corruption charges. Both of them could actually be in the same boat, one just cleverer than the other in the art of survival - though cleaner politicians are getting visible in more numbers now. But still our people may welcome a convicted politician released from prison if he shows himself strong and undaunted with loads of bravado. He will succeed more if he paints himself wronged and needing sympathy. That is why you witnessed Jayalalithaa’s friend Sasikala smiling and waving to the people when she travelled to jail on conviction under the Prevention of Corruption Act. It looked that Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi were also in a similar comfort zone when they proudly walked a Delhi street in a congregation of cheering supporters as they entered the Patiala House Court, just to seek bail in a cheating and misappropriation case. Let’s remember: this democratic India is the theatre in which Rahul announced a hefty dole if the Congress wins the coming election. 

           

Indian politicians know that a majority of voters in the country are as naive as they are good. When the government gives away anything from its resources free to the people, the people look upon the politicians in power as benefactors, and many people thank the scheming politicians by giving them votes at the next election – mostly imagining a moral obligation. So, we see each party promising to voters more things free than another party, and instead of really helping the poor - which is a hard way up but can be done - it keeps playing on the poverty of the masses to get an image of doing much.  And the poor are just left to their Gods.   
     

If you take the Congress poll promise and begin enquiring, "What are its merits? What is the economic theory that supports transfer of state funds as doles to the poor of a country?", you are forgetting India, its politicians and their manoeuvres.  Practical things should come first, and economic considerations next. This is Bharat.

If the Congress promise becomes a reality, don't wait long for a clamour by opposition parties to raise the dole above Rs.6,000 so people are brought out of poverty quicker. Surely demands will arise for covering more than 5 crore families in doles because the poverty line needs to be re-defined over time. In our political atmosphere, no government and no party can resist these demands, like they couldn’t say no to increasing the percentage of reservation benefits for existing backward classes or declaring more and more caste groups as 'backward classes'. Just as the good intentions behind reservation in government jobs and college admissions are majorly overtaken by its abuse and ill-effects, the Congress-promised dole will meet a similar fate. And then, can you see at least good intentions behind the Congress promise?

Let’s be sure that once the Congress dole is out in people’s homes, it will not stop with 6,000 rupees a month or just 5 crore families. The beneficiaries will themselves begin asking for more – and here other political parties are sure to instigate the beneficiaries.

 If a promise of dole could catapult a party to power, that too a party heavily weakened in the Lok Sabha thanks to the last poll results, why will not that party retain power by giving out more? And then, why will not the opposition parties promise even more to the people as dole if that can unseat the Congress?  There is another danger too.  If a tax concession is given it means putting money into the hands of its beneficiaries, but it can still be withdrawn when the purpose is fulfilled.  But if our government gives out a dole of Rs.6,000 per month to 5 crore families, stopping it or even reducing it could have a voter backlash. It will be even more difficult to stop it if there is a change in government five years later – for then the Congress will complain that the new government is anti-people, which should click at the next elections.  

                           

Do you know – the original Constitution of India mandated reservation of seats for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in the Lok Sabha and in State legislative assemblies only for the first ten years, till 1960. But no politician wanted to let it go in 1960, and so the Constitution is getting repeatedly amended to extend that reservation for successive periods of ten years each, with the last one making it till 2020.  If we have the 6,000-rupee dole, don’t imagine it will easily go away.

Viewed from any angle, the Congress assurance has a huge disaster built into it, hitting our economy too at many spots which that party won’t even think about.

Germany rose from annihilation in the Second World War, which was an economic miracle. Japan also revived itself from a great devastation in that war.  Both did so rapidly and are leading economies and democracies too. These two nations had not provided any free cash assistance to their citizens to remove poverty from their lands, like what Rahul Gandhi proposes for India, when they were reconstructing themselves economically and politically.

Germany and Japan had suffered their worst bomb attacks around the middle of 1945, with World War II ending early September that year. India became free in August 1947.  The whole world knows how far advanced those two countries are today compared to India. Want to look at the actual figures of Gross National Income per person (PPP $) in these countries? Well, hold your breath. It is 51,760 US Dollars for a German, 45,470 US Dollars for a Japanese and a mere 7,060 US Dollars for an Indian.

How does Rahul explain that several governments of his party which ruled at the Centre for over 50 years since independence could not develop India like anything close to Germany and Japan? He can only grin in response.  A fitting answer we may find is that Indians do not have much of self-pride, self-discipline and nationalism in their hearts like the Japanese and the Germans who want to see their countries prosper like no other and are willing to do their bit. In this scenario, handing a hefty dole to 5 crore families in India could only induce lethargy in recipients and envy among others, apart from slowing the economy and boosting the morale of cunning politicians, and so it won’t really work.  At the same time, let’s realise that a nation also rises or falls to the level and calibre of its leader. With a dubious childish secretive Rahul Gandhi as prime minister – if he could really make it – people are likely to grab the dole and do nothing, while letting the rulers grab what they could. Whose country is it anyway?

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Copyright © R. Veera Raghavan 2019