Search This Blog

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Banalising The Beautiful. Lok Satta Does Martin Luther King.

Happened to click on the Lok Satta site the other day and was confronted by an alleged quote from Martin Luther King.


I carry the music of Martin in me and this just did not sound like my beloved prophet.

So tame. So plaintive and boring. "More dangerous"! - what is this?

So I Googled.

Not only did I come up with the original melody, but also a lovely photograph, that is so typically Martin.

About ten years ago, I went to meet Dr Jayaprakash Narayan and came back empty handed.

But here you see two men traversing whole worlds.


And the quotation ?

" History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

Can you hear the passion? The conviction? Can you see the shadows of history and Martin's clear vision of the future?"

In my meeting with the good Doctor Jayaprakash Narayan - he had done a pretty good job of de impressing me.

This misappropriation of greatness, by a media anointed crusader against corruption, does nothing to raise him up in my eyes.

It gets worse. It is Malalai Joya, an activist, writer and former politician from Afghanistan to whom those words are attributed.

This is "robbing Peter to pay Paul" taken up a few notches.

This is distorting Ms Joya to dull Dr King.

Certainly not my idea of "New politics for a new generation".















Monday, June 13, 2011

Restore The Honour Of The Andhra Pradesh High Court

HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE NISAR AHMAD KAKRU (sic)
Andhra Pradesh High Court,
Hyderabad


to cjap
date Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 2:46 PM
subject Restore The Honour Of The Andhra Pradesh High Court
mailed-by gmail.com




Your honour,

If you have ever had the occasion to search for "Andhra Pradesh High Court" on the internet, then my appeal to and correspondence with your predecessor entitled "Andhra Pradesh High Court's Pernicious Rebellion Against The Law" would not have escaped your notice.

With the benefit of hindsight, that account can reasonably be read today as a stunning narration of the Andhra Pradesh High Court's slide with “minuscule” check or balance from delinquency to disgrace to depravity.

As I have detailed in my correspondence to the then Chief Justice, the AP High Court had very obviously and at every level prejudged my case, delayed, obstructed and perverted the course of justice.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court State Legal Services Authority conducted a time consuming, farcical and ultimately fruitless search for a competent counsel.

The judges in question stubbornly resisted giving me any impression that they had heard me, obstinately ignored my repeated requests for the assistance of a competent counsel, displayed no compunctions about heckling me in my defenseless state from the lofty position of the bench, took upon themselves the obligation of arguing the respondents case and produced a judgment that was completely at variance to the independent opinion sought and received by the High Court, the facts of my case and the RTI Act 2005.

The Hon’ble judge’s babble emanated despite the fact that that the only new fact that emerged during the hearing was that the Andhra Pradesh Government was forced to admit the exposure of its affidavit as a tissue of lies and brazen fabrications.

Your esteemed predecessor had an excellent opportunity and sacred obligation to mitigate this sordid situation and put the hearing back on its track.

Instead he actively participated in this rowdy violation of the principles of natural justice and due process.

Not only did he assign the hearing of my case to a judge who is shown as being one rung junior to the judge against whom I had complained, he did not respond for my request for assistance for an appeal.

With the smug tunnel vision that is peculiar to successful technicians, lawyers are often advised , "When you cannot plead the law, plead the facts. When you cannot plead the facts, plead the law'.

To this wisdom, we in India, have added a more practical, subaltern twist. “When you can argue neither the facts or the law - start a riot."

Blood may not have been shed, the courts may not have been interrupted, the television cameras may have been busy elsewhere, and our editorial class may be too cloddish to recognize it and only my life has been thwarted, but there can be little doubt in reasonable minds that the Andhra Pradesh High Court over a period of more than a year, comprehensively and at every level disgraced itself by mauling the idea of due process in order to pervert the course of the law and to thwart justice with a clear motive to let the powerful respondents off the hook.

Extremists almost reflexively accept responsibility for their heinous acts.
But despite the fact that I have complained to the President of India, that office in an act of utter depravity, has not only ignored my complaint but has gleefully elevated the delinquent former Chief Justice to the Supreme Court.

Till date, Andhra Pradesh High Court has shown no signs of the self correcting conduct that society routinely expects from erring human beings.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has not given any sign that it has recognizes and regrets its reprehensible delinquency.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has shown no rectitude, remorse or reform that will restore the process of justice.

In other words the Andhra Pradesh High Court does not appear to possess any power, procedure or compunction to recover from its woefully compromised state.

It appears to not have the conscience, character or potency to re establish its shattered independence and autonomy.

There can be no question that by recounting this rowdyism of the Andhra Pradesh High Court and Bar and its toadying, symbiotic relationship with the Executive and Administration, I have performed an extraordinary service for the cause of an authentic, autonomous and vibrant judiciary.

At a time when even a clearly compromised and cowering Rashtrapathi Bhavan has chosen to stay mute, and lawless extremisms are bubbling everywhere, I have performed a rare service to the idea of equity under the rule of law by not leaving you in any doubt about the odiousness of the earlier hyper activism and current inertness of the Andhra Pradesh High Court .
This inertness of the Andhra Pradesh High Court is clearly intended to be punitive because I continue to suffer the brazen violation of my rights, denial of information and fair access to institutions of redressal and remedy.

I now request you to kindly use your authority to take whatever action that you may consider fit to make amends for this barbarism.

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Yours sincerely,


Divakar S Natarajan

PS: Since Shri Subrahmanyam, formerly Secretary to the Legal Services cell who conducted the dubious and infructuous search for legal aid, who I understand is currently your PS, has claimed not to have received the earlier email dated May 25,2010, I am emailing you again .