Corruption

Recent politics in Karnataka made me to think and think, very seriously. Specially the people who are in the news and the people who are behind the news.

I recently received this SMS from some on my phone, which made me to think even more, the SMS which I received reads as fallows:

“ Urgent opening for CM Post in Karnataka, interested candidate may sent their resume to BJP office in Bangalore salary 100 Crors, incentives depends on the criminal record”

Few days ego I have seen a poster put all across the Bangalore by ABVP calling students to join for a protest to fight against central government and its involvement in 2G spectrum corruption. I actually stopped and re read thinking that I might have left some thing in the poster, but no I have read correctly except Central Government there is no other government names. The message was clear it was a protest against Central Government on the 2G spectrum corruption, nothing else.

After the Court thought I will go home and have lunch and take a small break from the day so I went home around 2 in the noon. These day I have almost stopped watching news channels, simply because I remember my child hood we did not had any TV in-fact the TV came to our village some time in late 80's ( and to your house some time late 90's) but we are all use to listen the news from the AIR form our radio. Some time the transmission was very bad mostly because of the place the radio placed or the antenna in which it was placed (I remember at the end of 10^th stranded I know what is the problem with the radio and how to repair it). My father never missed that news and it seems to be thats how even I have picked up to listen to the news. Mostly on that time the news use to be read out and we know what we are hearing. Today things have changed people do not read news in the electronic media and the news is fully opinionated, in addition to this for some reason they think that they are very powerful and they act as if they are clean and have no where facilitated to the facts.

Any away that apart what was happening/ is happening in Karnataka makes every one to eager to know where we are, its also because our 'Benevolent Chief Minister' and his statement makes us angry and also eager to see whats happening that's when thought let me peep in to the news channel, and thats how I put on the TV for news.

What was shocking is this guy 'Girish Mattannavar,' a Sub-Inspector of Police who was suspended for allegedly planting crude explosives in the Legislators' Home here some time in 2003 as part of his claimed fight against corruption, joined the BJP immediately in the year 2004, was addressing the press. What is said was very interesting, he is not speaking any thing against the BJP and the corruption charges his party facing but saying that he 'need to build army to fight against the corruption'. This is the other incident which also caught my attention.

Looking at what is happening in Karnataka and the statement made by their one political party worker, respectable people and people holding respectable post in the state indulging in bad, crude, unethical, corrupt political practices and talking about how to eradicate the corruption in the system makes me remember a line said in Kannada “Beline Heddu Hola maidange” This not just with our leader its also with our common people specially the urban middle class, who are suddenly woken up for the issues of corruption has no problem in paying bribe to police when they were caught up while drink and drive.

How do we see all these things non of us are ready to repair our house, non of us ready to see what mistake we are committing but we are ready to talk, debate, write, discuss, go to street to fight things outside the house not inside the house. This reminds me what Dr. BR Ambedkar said 'Fighting against the outsider is easy but fighting against the insider is not so easy'

Village School

Yesterday just when I was almost ready to wind up for the day I got a call from my village friends, they studied along with me from '0' to 7^th. They normally call me once in a while or whenever they were in this side of the town and all the time they insist that I should spend time with them and I am also very happy to spend the time but my schedule does not allow me to do the same. I hardly have time for my self then where do I have time for others. This time I made up my mind and said I will go out and have glass of whiskey with them, and I took them to North Wind near my office and it was good fun.

We seems to be speaking non stop, the questions which we did not had answer when we were kids or we did not dare to answer that time. It seems we feel comfortable in sharing and talking in what we were doing and how were doing when we were kids in school, thats were I think people say that there are lots of thing to be spoken and shared with the child friends. We were bunch of naughty (in good sense) boys, what not we have done, building gangs, contesting election to become the monitor of the class and capturing booths and inshore that we win!

This monitor post is very important in the village school. He has many powers including prosecuting fellow class-met in case if any violation of rules in the class. No child if there is no teacher in the class room keep quite, since there are gangs small fight are normal, and also talking in the class is also normal, this talking may many time lead to gang fight in the class and some time outside the class as well. That's when the monitor role comes in to picture. In case if any one talk or pickup quarrel in the class room, the monitor will have to write their names on the board or in a slip and give it to teacher. In case if the monitor write the names in chit and give to teacher we do not know who's names he has given till the teacher come and asks us to stand up. In that case their will be fight out side the school mostly in the evening or any subsequent days. Teacher was also not so keen on this because if names written in chit one actually do not know that your names has been taken or not and you will realize only when the teacher come that never use to work as a good strategy to stop the galata in the class, how much the teacher also beat the students. Getting beaten up in the class for some or the other reason is normal most of the day. The other method worked many time which is writing the names on the board. This is quite funny some time when the monitor write the name of the students on the board there will be spelling mistake that time every one use to laugh in the class this time the monitor will get beatings by the master for spelling mistake. Eventually there will be some compromise and gangs use to force the monitor to remove the names. Some time there will be difficult to compromise on that time we use to create the big galata even to the extent to physical fight with the fellow class-met, when there is a contradiction in the names written on the board and the fight is bigger the teacher normally never discriminate including the girls on that day every one will get lati taste, this is quite fun because including the monitor get the taste of Lati so every one is happy normally except monitor. He being monitor getting beaten is not good in the class!

Till 4^th standard it was only our village students so normally either me or the other one use to become the monitor, and I was either the 1^st monitor or the 2^nd monitor so it was not an issues the real competition started in 5^th stranded because for 5^th standard there were students form neighboring village as well, but that did not bother me much because I still continue to be monitor. When we went to 6^th standard the teacher decided to hold election for the monitor post, I contested it but I had lost in morgen. This is the year there were lots of gang fights happening in the class, and it is the time you do not have power and do not have strength to fight this people that is when we decided to do some thing for the 7^th standard election. This time we were actually minority but I did won the election thanks to our fellow class met for voting two time some people for three time. The teacher noticed this fact when he counted the total vote but he was not keen on inquiring and let it go.

There use to be two columns sitting one is for girls and other is for boys, my seat was in the first bench. If one count form the boy side I will be the 5^th person, if one counts form the girls side I will be the 6^th person. This is very important, because in Kannada there is some thing called meaning for difficult words, and it use to be difficult, we never know if he is going to start form girl side or boy side or back side or front side. It use to be difficult to remember the meaning for all the words so eventually we use to get beatings. I had adopted a easy logic either way I was max 6^th so I use to remember the first 10 from the top and last 10 form the top in that chapter. Now I am safe he can ask either from boy side or girl side or from front desk or back desk. It use to be difficult for them to remember the and eventually they will not answer if one fail then the next one is also fails the chain goes on so it eventually use to come to me and I use to answer. Some how the teacher noticed this and wanted to dig me in on that day he came about 6 rounds I was able to answer but the 7^th round I was stuck and got nice beating.

23.07.2011

New Prison

It’s been a while since I have actually spent time writing on the blog; both last week and this week were especially maddening. In addition to this, last Saturday, after running 14 KM I broke my leg! I could not even walk for almost two days. Finally, with the help of many people I was able to recover fast. But I did many things in those two days: I attended court, organized the party on Sunday (The Pork Party), which was pending for a long time for a few of my old friends. The party, on Sunday evening, was a lot of fun. These are also other reasons I was not able to write. At times, I think it’s just an excuse I am giving you all, but the fact is that I did not sit on my ass and start writing on the comp:). One also needs energy to write (I know this is another excuse).

But today I suddenly felt I am not writing and thought, before I step in to something else, I’d better finish what is pending; so I decided to start writing

There are lots of stories I wanted to write. Since there are too many I have to choose one for now and I thought I shall share this one with you all:

This is a case which I am handling and it’s a very interesting one (it’s actually sad). It's not a big case, it’s not a political case, nor is it some ideological case. It’s a case popped up on a simple ego clash on the street. It was very funny when I wrote the summery on the case file today “traffic offence blown out of proportion”. It is indeed a traffic offence but one really blown out of proportion; the poor guy, caught in the ego battle, ended up staying far away from his family for almost one year now, and I do not know how much longer he still has to suffer.

I suddenly remember reading 'Statement of Objects and reasons for Code of Criminal Procedure 1973,' for the purpose I quote the relevant provision which is:-

3. The recommendation of the commission were examined carefully by the Government, keeping in view, among others, the following basic considerations-
   1. an accused person should get a fair trail in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice:
   2. every effort should be made to avoid delay in investigation and trail which is harmful not only to individuals involved but also to society; and
   3. the procedure should not be complicated and should, to the utmost extent possible, ensure fair deal to the poorer sections of the community.

When this client came to me two months ago, I actually did not invest time in reading. I thought, because this person is capable of dealing with the issue and he already has a lawyer, why should I think too much about it? But the matter has been refereed by a friend of mine so I felt that I should look into the matter but still thought 'nothing urgent' because the person is out on the bail so it should be fine. He wanted to change his lawyer and he insisted for me to take up the matter and I did accept to do the matter subsequently. Later I realized that people can be out of jail but they are not actually ‘out of jail’; they are again caged in a different type of jail (which made me remember what Prof. Babaiya told me once when we did a small study on prison conditions in Karnataka, he said, “we are in a big prison but they are in small prison” ). This guy is a foreigner here on a visitor visa and his family lives abroad. He has lost his mother after he was implicated in this case. He could not go and do last rituals because the court has put a condition on his bail for him not to travel, (this condition, according to me, is not right) assuming that he gets the permission to travel he does not have money to return to India for the trial since he is not employed and he has no relatives nor friends, except a few. So, in a way, he is caged, not in the small prison but in the bigger one.

You can’t classify him as imprisoned because the condition of a prison can’t be equated to being outside? But for him, it does not matter whether he’s outside the actual prison or inside. Sure, he can go for a movie, he can go and eat in any restaurant, he can meet anyone, he can walk around, but the question remains, where does he arrange the money to see a movie, where does he arrange the money to go and eat in a restaurant? Whom can he talk to? What does he do by walking around? That’s when my thoughts went to the objective of the code of criminal procedure.

Today, I tried insisting to the judge that the case should be finished as early as possible otherwise it’s harassment for the accused. It’s been almost one year that he has been forced to stay in this country. He then suddenly showed me the long list of the file that needed immediate attention; then I told the judge that my client is on bail but for all practical purposes he is not on bail and, in effect, he will have finished a one year sentence administered by this court. What I gained from all this was a court date not one and half months away but 'just Nine Days'. I hope this is one successful step and that he will not force me to read the objective of the code of criminal procedure to him on the next date and that he understands what my client is actually going through. Maybe if I put it this way, I hope that I will be able to convince him more easily and will be able to release my client from the bigger prison that he’s confined to right now

State response to civil society resistance in Karnataka

The long saga of Karnataka being the experimental state for BJP in South India has come true in the year 2006, when for the first time JDS +BJP formed the government in the state. Just after the government people said nothing will happen but they failed to understand that the BJP and its right wing groups own agenda was spreading across the state under our own nose. The result has just started to arrive in different forms if not in the true sense it’s on the way and its coming, waiting for us to have surprise!

The impact of formation of BJP government is in Karnataka in 2 different ways.

One is that the state from being secular has turned in to saffron and let unconstitutional bodies to come in to existence and gain more and more visibility and power even-though they have done un-constitutional act.

Two, to suppress any kind of resistance systematically towards the state, and ensure that no one raises their voice/dissent towards the state, and by suppressing the resistances infiltrate the non-secular idea in to force.

Its very interesting to see how the the BJP government manage to achieve/supported the first goal,

The very few first thing the BJP government has done is to promote its ideology and boost its activists to continue their activities in a big way is to ensure that there is no prosecution against their activists. As a result assembly note withdrawn 61 cases pending against, its activists for the offences like 153(a) 295, including section 307 of IPC, but no single cases have been withdrawn against the any other people except sang parivar groups, that to even there is a note from the DOP, POLICE that the cases should not been withdrawn.

Further it continued when there was an international level discussion was happening with respect to the famous Pub attack in Mangalore by the Srirama sene activists the government decided to withdrawn 11 cases in Chikmagalore dist alone in with the chief of Sriramasene Pramod Mutalik was involved in 3 cases of 153(a). Government instead of arresting the people instead of prosecuting the people went supporting the actions of these un-constitutional bodies which were gaining power in the state.

When the state refuses to prosecute the people on one side and decides to withdraw cases filed against them on the other side, this un-constitutional elements grow in full swing all across the state, many attack took place on the churches, many attack took place where the different religions boy and girls were meeting or traveling together, including the threat to everyday and the attack which took place on every day all across the state. Home minister being the head of the state police machinery always justified what the police did or what the organization like sang parivar did.

And when any one took complaints before the police in this regard were either sent back or cases were booked against the people who came to file a case for the attack which took place against them or in the fear in which they are living. In the Western region of the state its been the plight of minority groups people, who always got beaten by the sang parivar people and when they visit police station to file the cases the police have implicated in false cases against the people who came to file the cases and beaten and sent to jails.

If any one questions this kind of activities of the police they are also being booked in number of false case and sent to jails.

There are numbers of such examples we can give almost every day these incidents are being repeated in the state specially after the formation of the BJP government.

The un-constitutional elements are gaining more and more power in the state and they are being un questionable/ uncontrollable in the state. The government is boosting them by either not booking the cases against them or by withdrawing the cases filed against them or filing the false cases against the people whom.

We have seen how unconstitutional elements have taken over the state day after day especially after this government has come into existence. This being one part, the other major impact on this instant government or earlier coalition governments has been the number of resistance movements that have existed in the state on which the state has heavily cracked down upon and crushed them to such an extent that no one should ever raise their voice against the state in any passion. From 1990, we have seen a number of people’s movements which fought against the displacement, deforestation, mining, but that took a greater shift when the issue of the Naxal movement came to light in the year 2003, the year of the famous Iddu encounter. What happened subsequently was that in the existing democratic struggles a number of existing non violent struggles have been targeted in the name of crushing Naxalites and constantly read that these non violent struggles are the frontal organizations of the Naxal movement, and denied their very existence in fighting for the rights of the people under the constitution in a completely non violent manner.

More so, this kind of treatment further gets repressed by the very existence of this government because they have their own saffron agenda which was also opposed by the left extremist group. And with a constant threat towards saffronization, it was easy for the state to target people who raised their voice against the state, questioning the state saffronization. The State reacted against them by branding them as naxal sympathizers.

People like Vittal Hegde, the President of Kudremukha Virodhi Okkoota, have been targeted a number of times and booked in a number of false cases and harassed. We all know the involvement of Shringeri Mutt in right wing saffron organizations and the commitment which they have to them, and the power exercised by them which are questioned by people like Vittal Hegde, who stays in Shringeri and strongly criticizes the Hindutva Right wing forces and is being targeted by the Right wing as well as the police with clear instructions from the State. The other known person, Mariappa was constantly harassed. He was picked up on 6^th May but till date nobody knows whether he is alive or dead. When their family members tried to contact the police, neither were given any information nor was a case of kidnapping/missing person booked.

At this juncture, it is important to also see the number of naxals arrested by the Chickmagalur and Udupi Police. The courts have discharged some of the cases against these people and in some of the cases they have been acquitted with a trial. This being a big threat the Police department and the Government has now started targeting the civilians and arresting each one of them as supporters of naxalites. Last month, the Chickmagalur district alone has seen 40+ such arrests. This is also specifically after a Chandrashekar was picked up on 14^th April 2009 by Mudigere Police and his whereabouts were not known. When the police refused to give any information, people came out on the streets to protest and tried submitting a memorandum to the DC and SP. The DC refused to accept any such memorandum but orally assured that he will direct the SP to investigate into this issue. However, the SP refused to confirm that such an arrest had happened. Only when people decided to move an Habeas Corpus before the High Court, was Chandrashekar produced before the Magistrate Home Office in the late night on 16^th April. Getting hanger on such pressure put on the District Administration by hundreds of people, now the Police are concentrating on targeting each one of them and trying to book them in false cases. So far, the Shringeri Police have arrested 10 civilians. People belonging to Matohalli village area are saying that these people are supplying food and other materials to the Naxals. The Mudigere Police also arrested four quarry workers saying that they were supplying arms and ammunition to the naxal outfits.

In the year 2008, almost all the men in the village Heberi were arrested and falsely implicated and they are still running to the courts. On the other side, a number of students and civil rights activists were also arrested by Shimoga Police saying that they were raising funds for the naxal outfits and booked them in a number of cases to ensure that they will not be released easily.

The police are also threatening the villagers in the surrounding areas that they should not raise their voice or question any arrest or detention carried out by the police and that no one should offer sureties before the court for any such arrest if bail is granted by the court. They are also threatening them that in case they go to the press about the existing situation, they will be arrested as well.

What is more shocking is the attack on advocates last year at Sirimane Falls and the response provided by the Home Minister was that when such a situation can exist towards the community which defends constitutional beliefs then what will be the normal citizen’s plight. Till date even after initiating complaints even though the police recognized the occurrence of such untoward incidents but they refused to hold the Police responsible for such untoward incidents and take appropriate action accordingly. If this is the case of the advocates then what will be the common citizen’s status?

It is also pertinent to note what happened to Advocate Naushad in Mangalore who was killed in Mangalore. Advocate Naushad was the only lawyer in Mangalore who took up controversial cases in which police encounters were involved where he has alleged in the court that accused would be killed in the name of an encounter by the police where they actually did happen in the past case. He had strongly objected to the granting of police custody in another case, and got shot dead the same evening. A very senior member of the Bar having 55 years of practice in the bar made a direct allegation that the Police were involved in his killing and filed a complaint against the police officers. However, the state has refused to comment on this issue. At least as a policy it would have been appropriate for the Government to hand over the investigation to the CBI instead of the State Police even when such a serious allegation was made on them. Even after such a huge protest, the Government continued to be silent and made no comments on it.

It is equally important for us to remember what happened to Proff Hassan Mansoor. He is and his work in the sector of Human rights in Karnataka, when he filed a case before the State Human Rights Forum for alleged harassment to the minority community in Bangalore the state human rights has directed the police to file response for which out city commissioner who was in state intelligence states

Sri Hassan Mansor is basically a teacher who later become the president of People’s Union of Civil Liberty (PUCL) which is a front organization of the left wing extremist (LWE) and the present CPI (Maoist) party. Earlier, he was also associated with the Peoples war group (PWG) a militia wing of LWE. After his retirement in 1991, he is residing at # 46, wellington street, Richmond town. Bangalore city and actively associated with the left wing extremism (LWE) activist.Sri Hassan Mansorr is a converted Muslim.

What shows from these kind of responses by the police department is that, if any tried to raise their voice against the State or try question the authority they will brand them as so on so and en shore that he /she will be isolated, branded and implicated in these factions.

Every one of us know what PUCL stands for and every one of us also know what Porf. Mansoor stands for we don’t need any character certificate from state or the Police Agencies about who. What is important for us also in if the state of Prof. Mansoor is like this and what will be the ordinary citizen and the implication of an ordinary citizen for raising the voice against the state.

What is clear is that on one hand there is a unconstitutional body taking over the State’s functions and on the other hand is the State refusing to respect the Constitution by being unconstitutional and trying to saffronize the entire state, thereby destroying any resistance which exists. Binayak Sen in one such example in Chattisgarh, a huge public figure sent behind bars for raising his voice against the State’s atrocities and in Karnataka this is being repeated in a number of such incidents including killing of people either by state directly or by sponsoring/supporting indirectly in killing the people and destroying the resistance by killing the other voices that exist. It is high time that we spread awareness across as to what is happening locally and relate these issues nationally by fighting against this kind of terrorism brought by the state.

The kind of resistance which middle class people in city like Bangalore have shown when the issue of moral policing came in to question in big way. Specially people like Mutalik and Home Minister Mr Acharya making nonsensical statement on these issue is what reminds and gives strength and there are many things for us to learn from them as well.

One section of people thinking of the kind of protest of Pink Cheddi campaign, Defend the right to love, and subsequently formation of Fearless Karnataka its equally important of the kind of the people who came out of their houses to protest and the demonstration which took place infront of Police commissioner of Bangalore and the director general of police Karntaka is such a spontaneous and encouraraging enough for number of us and a reare hope of resistance in a different.

Byatha N Jagadeesha

Constitution and the Government

We seems to be having problem in exercising/ fulfilling the obligation proscribed in the constitution, let us go through the fundamental Duties casts on each one of us by the constitution and the difficulties we are facing to uphold the sprite of the constitution.

Article 51A, of the Constitutional address the issues of the fundamental Duties of each one of the citizen, there are 11 duties constitution makes mandate on the people, the Article 51A states as fallows:- “It shall be the duty of every citizen of India:-

1. to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem
2. to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom;
3. to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India;
4. to defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so;
5. to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women;
6. to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;
7. to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures;
8. to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform;
9. to safeguard public property and to abjure violence;
10. to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement;
11. who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years.

The question is how do we fallows the duties castes on us by the constitution, for example,

Article 51A (b) “to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom,” if we literally want to implement and practice this duties, each one of us will be put behind bars. I remember Dr. Kannabiran (who is no more with us) has addressed an argument in A.P. High Court while defending the alleged Naxlite, he said “ our freedom struggle was not just a non-violence struggle it has both violence and non-violence struggle, if one accept People like Bagath Sing, Chandrasekar Azad, Subash Chandra Boss, who are the prime people in the Indian freedom struggle then what Naxlite are doing is the same respecting Article 51A(b) of the constitution which each one of us have the duties bound to do it”.

Forget that, It may be to extreme to do or implement by us in the manner stated/ interpreted by Dr. Kannabiran, what about Article 51A (g)? which says, “to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures”; can some one tell me how do we achieve this, is this practically possible in today context, what is happening in Chhattisgarh today for the Raigarh-based environmental and RTI activist, Ramesh Agarwal and Gare-based who are “For years now using the RTI to peruse documents from the union and state governments to prove that the Jindal group of industries has been violating environmental and revenue laws. The group, headed by Congress MP, Navin Jindal, owns and operates several large industries and coal mines around Raigarh, very polluting sponge iron plants and power plants. More recently Patel and Tripathi joined Agarwal’s crusade against Jindal. This led to issuing stop-order on Jindal's 2,400 MW coal-base power plant expansion plan, by the the Ministry of Environment and Forest’s (MoEF). The Plant construction was started without MoEF’s environmental clearance and on Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation’s land. Based on Agarwal’s letter written in March 2010 highlighting these irregularities, MoEF was forced to act against Jindal. Can we cay his action was in contrary to Article 51A(g) of the constitution? Or what he did is in discharging the duties proscribed in the constitution.

If government want to book false case and keep them in the custody how will they discharge the duties proscribed in the constitution?

Why only Chhattisgarh, what is happening in Karnataka, A PUCL member Prof. Hasan Mansoor who is very well know for his action and commitment for the issues of human rights are also being targeted just because he questioned the atrocities committed on the minority community people in Karnataka. He has been branded as Left Extremist Wing and a Naxlite. And cases like sedition and waging war has been booked against the another PUCL member Ms Rati Rao from Mysore for publishing the fact finding report on the police violence/ encounter killings of poor/innocent tribal who are fighting for their rights to land and right to forest in which they are living for ages now. That being the case how do we even uphold the Article 51A(g) of the constitution?, forget the Freedom guaranteed under article 19 of the constitution.

Article 51A(b) and (g) may appears to be extreme for an ordinary person, in the name of development we should not talk about the destruction of the forest, river, hills, tribal's and farmers eviction from their own land. These are part of the development plan of larger section of the people, let some people loose for the gain of the larger public. And lets us suspend the both duties stated in the constitution for now and we restrain from talking about these issues concerning the destruction of the forest, river, hills, and eviction of trible's, farmers. Are we in capable of implementing the other duties stated in the constitution?

My Answer is 'NO'.

let me take you through the two other important duties stated in our constitution:

51A (e) to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women;
And
(h) to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform;

What are we seeing in today's governance/ politicians, Nepotism, favoritism, corruption, fundamentalism. If one talk about the equality he/she branded as communist. This reminded me the statement made by the Guru Golvalkar in his book 'Bunch of Thoughts' in a chapter titled 'Internal enemies' makes 3 different groups which are 1) Muslims, 2) Christians, 3) Communist, what the government is doing is the same, propagating the RSS Ideology, and silencing the voice against the RSS Ideology, the amount of money being sent to Matt's are the example for what the government is doing I need no explanation for this.

We are all aware of what our C.M's Mr. B.S. Yeddyurappa and his campaigning to go to Manjunath Temple in Dharmasthala and swear on the god on the issues opposition is stating. Is not this is in contrary to the Article 51A(h)?

Its clear at least from the government side that do not fallow the duties stated in the constitution. If you do so you will have trouble. And at least in this the government is literally implementing in what it is preaching to people! but the only difference is that, implementation is completely in contrarily to our constitution, in letter and sprite. 

J

Cross examination

I and Harish went to Puliani and Puliani, (my regular book seller) today after the court and got few new books for our library on criminal law. I was reading the book in which talked about the Principal of cross examination, I came across fallowing example thought I will share with you all:

Q. Doctor, you say you are a practicing physician. Have you practiced your profession in the city of Chicogo for any length of time?

A. Yes. I have been in practice here in Chicago for about forty-years.

Q. Well, doctor, during that time I presume you have had occasion to treat some of our most prominent citizens, have you not?

A. Yes I think I have.

Q. By any chance where you ever called as a family physician to prescribe for the elder Marshall Field?

A. Yes, I was his family physician for a number of years.

Q. By the way, I haven't heard of him lately. Where is he now?

A. He is dead.

Q. Oh, I 'm sorry. Were you the family physician of the elder Mr. Mc.Cormic?

A. Yes also for many years.

Q. Would you mind my asking where he is now?

A. He is dead.

He then asked about eight or ten other whom the doctor once had treated, all of whom were dead. As the jury smiled, he looked politely at the doctor and said, “ I don't think it is necessary to ask you more question. Please step down.”

This reminded me when I was doing a trail for a boy who allegedly stolen most of the mobile in and around Mejastic. The witness who was deposing against the accused has lost his Reliance CDMA phone. I know that the CDMA phone does not come with an additional sim-card.

The witness was examined in chief and the Mobile was displayed in the court for marking. I noticed that the phone which was displayed in the court was Nokia 3310 and this phone is GSM phone not CDMA phone, but the witness was very proudly saying that he has lost the phone and subsequently police had found the phone and it was the same phone which was displayed in the court.

It was my chance to cross examine him, and I asked him.

Q. Can you tell me who is your phone service provider?

A. Reliance.

Q. When you have got the phone connection from Reliance you got this phone with out additonal sim-card?

A. Yes

Q. Have you ever tried using any other sim-card in your phone?

( he was quite proud that I am asking some silly question and in sarcastic manner answered)

A. Sir, sim-card is inbuilt and we cant insert any new sim-card and it does not function.

Q. I said, thank you, and now I will give you this phone, can you see if you can switch on the phone and make a call?

(now he realized that the phone which is in the court hall need sim card and did not know what to do, the battery was re-pleased now he tried to switch on and said)

A. it's asking for simcard.

I said thank you very much please come down.

Education

I am still unable to make a habit to write the blog every day, there are day and there are reasons, which makes me unable to write blog on the daily basis, but I will try my best. I must acknowledge that there are lot more things in writings and I know writing is not easy and it need more discipline and commitment.

Yesterday Janardan from Samvada called me and asked me I could come and share what I am doing in a workshop which they were organizing for the people working with youth. I looked at my schedule and said yes, but I did not know what to talk and was thinking what would be the best to talk.

Suddenly I realize post ALF I am spending time and looking back myself. It’s good but what is that I have to speak! A conversation with my advocate friends’ day before about the possible result of the Dist Judge Exam and today morning the result was out and shockingly it was same! That reminded me of my college days and the present my teaching life in SJC and the recent evaluation.

There are many issues in our education system, it’s not equal, things are been rated based on the marks we have obtained, but we have not taught equally, there are different schools and college, there are many college and schools do not even have proper teachers that being the case how does one equate their marks with the others? This question was there for me from many days.

There are many students in the rural, why only rural even in city their main job is not to study, people like me whose first job is to work in the field and then go to school, now how do I compete with the other students whose main job is to study? That apart the kind of teaching or the kind of facility/expo students get is completely different it’s not because there were weak but the facility were not given, however they were asked to compete with the other students, how could it be possible.     

So the question I asked myself is, knowing all these, did I do justice in evaluating the answer sheets? To be honest I don’t know. I might have taken 10 mints to correct a paper which is 10 to 15 pages long. It means I read those 10-15 page in the writing which I am not familiar with, but I read understood and then awarded some marks how it could be practicable possible, I may not have more time to spend because the amount fixed to do valuating of that paper is quite low so I do not have much time. Is that correct from my part, and the system which made me to work in that condition?

I have no answer for any of these questions I hope I will find answer to those questions one day.

J