[A situation is being deliberately caused largely similar to that, some twenty three years back, eventually leading to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, in open and contemptuous defiance of the Indian Supreme Court and all that.]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Wheres-the-SC-now-lawyers-taunted-me/articleshow/51032085.cms 'Where's the SC now, lawyers taunted me' Meenakshi Bhanja | Feb 18, 2016, 02.30 AM IST [Video] DELHI: On the day the Supreme Court upheld my constitutional right to report as a journalist, a bunch of 50 alleged lawyers tried to crush my fundamental right and duty. It was a day that should have witnessed smooth discharge of the court's functions in the Kanhaiya Kumar sedition case -- as professionals, we function in the belief that lightning doesn't strike the same place twice. Little was I to know that in spite of the Supreme Court ordering only 25 media personnel to be present inside the premises, what followed was a mockery of all judicial processes, as also of what the SC had the very morning upheld as the right of the media to report. Indeed, some lawyers taunted me by saying, "Ab le aao SC ko apne saath. Kahaan gaya SC iss waqt? (Now bring the SC with you. Where is the SC right now?)" As a legal correspondent for Times Now, I have a Supreme Court pass that permits me inside its premises, and am also allowed to go inside the Patiala House court to report. On Wednesday, as I reached Patiala House, I saw the same bunch of lawyers, who were instigators on Tuesday, holding a tricolor and marching towards gate number two shouting, "Bharat mata ki jai!" and "Vande Mataram!" All this while, Delhi Police personnel deployed in hundreds watched. I was outside magistrate Loveleen's court watching all this, making mental notes (cameramen are not allowed inside). Just then some lawyers from the New Delhi Bar Association began speaking to me, telling me they were trying to dissuade a rowdy bunch of lawyers from misbehaving with journalists again. Suddenly, a bunch of lawyers roaming inside the court premises with tricolors, shouting slogans, began a huge scuffle with someone for some unfathomable reason. My mobile phone was until then with me. I was using it to inform the newsroom of what was happening on the ground through text messages. Suddenly, one lawyer from the rowdy bunch began yelling at me for using my phone. As I explained to him why I needed to use my phone, a crowd of around 40 screaming lawyers with tricolors descended on me, and snatched my mobile phone and began checking its contents. One lawyer asked, "Kaun ho tum?" I said I was a Times Now correspondent. I showed them my SC pass. ***Other lawyers in the crowd snatched my SC pass and tore it up and started taunting me, "Ab le aao SC ko apne saath. Kahaan gaya SC iss waqt?"*** [Emphasis added.] The rest were shouting, "Tode phone tumhara? Format karo phone iska!" I kept protesting, saying, "My phone is essential for my reporting; it brings me my hard earned money." One woman lawyer, who suddenly appeared from this bunch, started threatening me. "Samajh nahi aa raha!" she said, egging her male colleagues to "format" my phone. I told them about the SC order passed in the morning. The woman lawyer, along with her colleagues, said, "Kahan hai SC ab? Chaliye aap hamare saath Bar Council ke office. Aap video bana rahi thhi (where's the SC now? Come with us to the Bar Council office. You were making a video recording). I told the lawyers, "Please check my phone and hand it back to me." They kept checking my phone and kept threatening me. This crowd of lawyers, including the woman, then took me to a canteen at the rear end of the court complex. They again checked my phone, all the while threatening to break it, while I pleaded with them not to. In the canteen, I was again surrounded by this woman lawyer and 10-odd of her colleagues who kept chanting, "Phone todo, phone format karo. Dikhayenge tumhe. Yahan toh aisa hi hai. Bula lo ab Supreme Court ko." All the while, this woman lawyer held me by my wrists as if I were a criminal. "Aap ke saath bahut pyaar se pesh aa rahein hain (we're treating you with love and kindness)," she said. One lawyer said, "Arre madam, yahan toh bus ab yehi hoga," dragging me by my wrists. The police stood silently, not intervening or stopping these people, as they continued to wreak havoc inside a court premise, in full daylight. I have never feared for my safety in seven years of covering courts as I felt on Wednesday, intimidated, threatened and pained at the mockery of even the honourable SC by people who call themselves lawyers but are actually a law unto themselves. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
