The Institutions of the State in India in the first decade of the 21st
Century
- the Road to Theocracy.
Yesterday the roads of Mumbai were deserted by afternoon and taxis stayed off
the road in the evening with memories of the events of December 92 and January
93 as most people were aware that a Judgment was to be delivered and that two
mainstream political parties and one regional party had made their electoral
fortunes
on the issue ably assisted by financiers and hawala money , however if bombs
were thrown .Unknown to them the much maligned Commonwealth Games came
to their rescue and the alleged "Jehadi terrorists" the " Jamaat- e- Islami"
and Hurriyat having overwhelming respect for the head of the Commonwealth
their Mai /Baap are now awaiting the end of the games at the request of the
political
leadership of various mainstream parties conveyed through the Anti-terrorist
squads
and so are the Saffron terrorists who owe the beginnings to the British Raj
and cannot
therefore insult the Commonwealth . This kind of loyalty with offerings from
the
national budget and banking industry even for take over of companies in England
of doubtful financial viability , is not to be seen in the annals of the
British Empire .
Some intellectuals seriously believe that we were hanging from the trees before
Britannia ruled the waves and that the establishment of the railways was not
for
better exploitation but an act of generosity of Imperial rule .
Even as a few lawyers were awaiting the Judgment with as much interest
as they take daily in the visuals of the Stock market in the Bar Association
which
keeps them upto date not in respect of jurisprudence but on speculation every
hour of
the working day one of them reflected and said to me " I can immediately
recognize
anyone who is a Dalit or a backward class from his face ". Astounded I
reflected on this
much traveled lawyer and how he had managed his entry into the first decade
of the 21st Century .Even as I moved away horrified by this remark which reeked
of
the ideology of upper caste "unsociability" which we imagined had been
eradicated in India he jumped up and said " The Hindus have succeeded ".
Much later that night one understood that whereas the disputed plot had
been evenly divided between three claimants , this had been done not on
the basis of law by the three Judges ;there was no law in the reasons advanced
by one of the three Judges for this distribution and not even a hint at law or
as to
why these claims were valid after the lapse of decades if not centuries with
conclusions of the Learned Judges going back at least two thousand and seven
hundred years ago in a mix of myth , legend and a few facts ;thereafter arriving
in the 16th Century and then referring to excavations on the site again
hundreds of
years ago ; still forward to the years before 1857 and then 1949.
Who was right ?The Supreme Court and the High Courts were dismissing claims
barred by the law of limitation . In certain cases even six months delay in
filling
a Writ Petition had barred a vital Petition invoking constitutional grounds ,
but in
these three Judges of the Allahabad High Court , we had 'Daniels' arriving at a
Judgment .
It was left to former Chief Justice Rajinder Sachar with his few remarks despite
serious obstructions from the anchor to convey that there was neither law nor
logic in the decisions .
If not law or logic what was the reasoning based on in all three Judgments ?
The constraints of a reactionary theocracy , we like Pakistan under the
auspices
of neoliberal economic policies of International Capital had evolved into
a reactionary theocracy . Another institution of governance stood exposed
which had not relied on law but on religious faith and beliefs .
The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas and what we were doing appeared
strangely similar .
Arundhatti Roy hasproved to be right .It was not she who is a romanticist
but those of us like myself , who still believed that we had who had taken
a different path in 1947 how could we once again fragment as a society after
the grim lessons of partition and the assassination of the father of the Nation
?
Whereas she had already pronounced judgment as to what we had become,
even as South Asia is targeted for restructuring and fragmentation
on the basis of tribe and religion even as drones fly over the region .
The silver lining is that if stones and pillars found on a site dating
back hundreds of years ago is evidence and that faith is the basis
of title, the tribal people who are in actual possession of their land
and the peasantry and other working people cannot be evicted by any
Court , as itis their faith and conviction supported by occupation from time
immemorial that they have the first right of livelihood over their
land as against Multinational Companies Indian or foreign .
The Court has implicitly upheld the consequence of violent acts
reinforcing the view of some formations in India in the Eastern
and Central Regions that violence is being sanctioned by the
institutions of the State siezing their land in favour of private
interests and that they are defending themselves .
The question remains why have successive governments not
notified the impugned disputed land for land acquisition when it had
disturbedthe peace and the claim of every single party in all title suits
had lapsed on account of limitation on one ground or another ; whereas
land being cultivated has been forcibly seized in various parts of the
country with whole villages evacuated with physical force to
subserve private interests ??????
One more institution of the State has revealed that we have become
a reactionary theocratic state with the Constitution of India flouted
even by those who have sworn to uphold it .
It is not the three way division of the plot which is the cause
for anxiety but the reasons advanced for the Judgment reflecting
the erosion of India 's Republic , the Constitution of India and
the objectives of the Indian Freedom struggle for Independence.
The destruction of justice and a legal system logically leads
to adoption of extra constitutional means of redressal. .
This is what Arundhatti Roy recognized before we
did .
Niloufer Bhagwat
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