Introduction:

The Constitution of India is secular in its theology and advocating equality of all citizens irrespective of caste, creed, sex and religion. However, the secular character of the Constitution of India is highly jeopardized by clause 16 (4) and Article 335 of the Constitution guaranteeing employment and promotion for the SC/ST people, which are partisan in principle and casteism in character. The constituent assembly headed by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar made the provision for SC and ST people for a period of ten years from the 26th January, 1950 with the sole intention to see these people grow in every respect to match with the rest of the society.

The system which was to end in 1960 is getting extended every ten years and is going to continue for a few more decades to come. The reservation system does benefit politicians in their vote-bank politics and no political party dares to get rid of the support base of the system or antagonize a huge identified section. It is needless to say that the reservation system has spread its wings to education, appointment, promotion, legislature and executive.

AIIMs controversy:

The Honorable Supreme Court of India in a judgment has pronounced that reservation system in vogue at AIIMS should be scuttled forth an appointment in the future should be based on ability brilliance and knowledge of the candidates. The treatment system should be more competent and best. The best of doctors should come to AIIMS and if reservation system continues, the name and fame and the best of everything that the hospital has will doom to low.

The Honorable Court has come down heavily on Indian politicians who have no concern for the country and its people and to keep their vote-banks intact. They have been running the medical, education and legal system of the country. But, our politicians are keen on finding a way out to counter court-verdict. In 1992, the apex court had fixed a cap on the reservation system at 50% in ‘IndIra Sahani’ verdict. But, the verdict seems to be on an uneven, dwindling base as the observation of the court is favorable to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments’ proposal for enhancing the cap on appointment to 69% and 73% of reservations respectively.

Reservation vs Globalization:

Today’s globalization has made the SC, ST and OBCs to search for their identity in industrialization, urbanization, democracy, human rights and equality. They are now a new force, quite overwhelming to take on the Brahmins and the affluent non-Brahmins. The political parties have become so much vote-addict that they are unable to digest and implement the creamy layer’s verdict of the court pronounced on 16.11.1993.

The emerging youth force is now agog with the idea of ‘merit and not the caste’ as the yardstick in all matters at all places. They do not entertain a situation where a brilliant and meritorious scientist scoring a 100 is defeated by that of a person of the reserved category scoring a duck in the examination. It is surprising and horrible to be in a situation where a reserved category person with no knowledge of medicine or surgery is a doctor at a reputed hospital or a professor at BHU or a space scientist. It is high time now that our politicians realize that enough is enough.

Another perplexing factor is that the affluent among the identified class also enjoy the benefit of reservation. So, the creamy layers’ theory of the Honorable Supreme Court of India is a very valid, acceptable and brilliant concept and must be adopted by all parties. A poor Brahmin, a day laborer, a poor Muslim or a Christian need reservation as much as, though not more as the reserved category. Our politicians need to be more rational and purposeful.

The reservation system has crippled the nation, turning a vast majority of our man-power into lazy, incompetent and incapable lots. The best thing the government should do to be to impact adequate training, education, knowledge, consciousness, competence and productivity so as to make them competent to handle critical situations and higher responsibilities. With declining opportunities in government jobs, how far the private sector will abide by the government reservation policy and still stand to gain in these days of globalization.

Some positive impacts:

The government is gradually losing its foot-hold due to FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) and FII (Foreign Institutional Investors) policy and privatization. Private players are not expected to oblige the government in the matter of providing jobs to the reserve category or promoting the inefficient. Neither they nor the government or public sector undertakings should do it either in the national interest.

Yes, one action by the government certainly is commendable and pleasing subject to all constitutional parties deciding in the same line with the national interest. Spread of education, solution of the communication problem, community development programs’ implementation, facilitation of bank loans, etc. will make the reserved category of persons more competent and competitive.

Conclusion:

An able and sufficient delivery system should be in place for which e-governance and RTI are basic necessities. A vibrant reflection of ability, transparency and non-partisan philosophy should find reflection in the works and deeds of the government. The time has come to ponder over the matter and streamline a domestic policy with all politicians taking it as their primary aim to place the nation before populist politicking.

Introduction:

The two historical and landmark judgment pronounced by the honorable Supreme Court of India of 13th July 2013 on the criminals contesting elections and politicians inside bars has created a flutter in political circles. The Supreme Court pronounced that a convicted criminal loses his membership status of the legislature and a politician in jail is debarred from contesting elections. The principal political parties are appalled by the judgment because as many as 150 convicted MPs are in Parliament this time and many convicts are going to be chalked off from getting tickets.

The Supreme Court has further stated that any legislators criminally convicted in lower courts with a two-year jail term or above. He stands to lose his membership of the legislature forthwith. This has made the representatives of the People Act, 1951, clause 8 (4) which gives immunity to a legislature in case of an appeal pending in a higher court, null and void. The interim relief provided for in the act is no more available after the judgment. The Honorable Supreme Court has made it clear that the statuesque is available to existing politicians against the lower court verdicts prior to the pronouncement of the order.

Serious criminal offenders:

From a total member of about 5,000 legislatures of the country, almost 1500 of them have been charged under serious criminal offence as knew from the affidavits filed before the Election Commission of India. Of the accused, about 700 have been charged with serious criminal offences, such as rape, attempt to murder, murder, and robbery, kidnapping and forcefully extracting money. These are all cognizable offences inviting conviction.

As per the survey conducted by “National Election Watch” and “Association of Democratic Forum”, 30% of Loksabha MPs, 31% of state legislatures have criminal cases pending against them. Of the above figure more than 50% of MPs and 15% of legislatures have cognizable criminal offenses against them. Party wise, BJP has 31%, Congress has 21%, SP has 48%, RJD has 64% and JMM has 82% of MPs and legislators with criminal cases against them.
The second verdict of the Supreme Court barring persons contesting from election may be fraught with dangerous consequences and nefarious design of electoral parties of contesting their opponents by confining them in elections times, making them ineligible to contest polls.

It is but possible that false allegations by ruling parties may land an opponent in bars. Politicians launch widespread movement against government actions, inactions and policies. So, FIRs against them are filed with the police and arrests can be made under factual or false FIRs allegations. Police under the impulse of political heavy weights may be arrests and confine leaders of political parties, making ineligible for contesting elections. Besides, executive or bureaucracy may exercise its powers arbitrarily.

Supreme Court's directives:

In order to settle a score, they may send politicians to jail, depriving them of contesting elections which may ring the death knell of democracy. Such apprehensions are not vague in the face of the mud-slinging politics going on in our country. The Representation of the People’s Act, passed by the Parliament years ago, and has been flawed by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has found flaws in the above Act which are antithetical in nature. On one hand it debars people in prison having voting rights and, on the other, it allowed political parties to contest from jail. In a uniform system, the Supreme Court debars both of their voting rights.

Political parties during the past years have shown little interests in purging politics or keeping criminals, money and muscle power away from politics. As per statistics shown in the beginning, all major political parties have criminals as their MPs and MLAs. The number has risen in the recent past, endangering democracy. This is being possible because of flaws in the law. Taking advantage of the delayed process of judgment in India, political parties and criminals have been basking on money and muscle power. Little interest has been shown by the Parliament and the state legislators to change the system or change the law.

Conclusion:

The political parties or India were deaf and dumb to the demands of the social organization and the educationists so far, but one single judgment of Supreme Court has awaken them from their deep slumber with keen interest in the recent past for measures to mollify the court verdict. Now, renewed hopes of electoral reforms, keeping criminals and money and muscle power away from the Indian administrative system have been taking shape in our minds. Judiciary steps in where legislature falters.

Introduction:

There is no leisure in politics. Elections to the local bodies, to the state legislators and the Parliament all occur in phases and in a cluster including elections to fill up the gaps. Three to four state assembly elections occur in a matter of a couple years. The recently concluded Himachal Pradesh. Uttarakhanda, Kerala and Karnataka elections were succeeded by a few elections. Within a matter of three-month’ time, four more states are going to the polls. The opportunistic alliance between JMM and the Congress is only to win the next election as a Congress win has been forecast there.

One of the greatest natural disasters of recent years, the Uttarakhanda rescue has just been over, but it is no more now in the media-mind. What the media is concentrating on now is the Ishrat Jahan encounter. The CBI has already filed the original charge sheet in this case which states that the encounter was false, engineered by IB and Gujarat police jointly. This is a serious matter on which everyone has his own opinion. It is difficult to say where the enquiry leading to.

Indian Parliament is sovereign: 

Not only in this matter, but all other controversial matters, we should accept the verdict of the High Court and the Supreme Court as the best possible solution. Political parties may be having their own interpretations, but we need not be impatient when the matter is subjected in the apex court. The encounter is not confined to a particular state or region; it is occurring everywhere in India; but it comes to our knowledge because of the human rights activists in the country.

In scores of cases, innocent people are in jails and their lives are nothing short of hell. The police find the escape-route to counter the wrath of agitated people by arresting the innocent and claiming to have captured the culprit. We may expect such a situation in a case or two, but such actions by police in a number of cases are a matter of concern and fear for the gullible masses. We should be thankful to the media which brings such facts to our notice. The Indian Parliament is sovereign in our democratic set up. Nobody should stand in the way of an elected representative in taking an independent decision. Nonetheless, elected or nominated representatives want complete freedom in their works. I think, no democratic structure can work in this way in a seamless manner. An absolute power always corrupts absolutely. We experience this in administrative matters. If the CBI remains free of government shackles, then why will it be accountable in the court of law?

Rise and fall of super democrats:

We have seen the rise and fall of a super Democrat like Anna Hazare, an ascetic like Baba Ram Dev and many civil servants, politicians and bureaucrats. Numerous social activists have also closed down their rank and file to become members of a newly constituted political party. Lawlessness and anarchy rules the Indian democratic set up in a number of places with less scope for people to come out in the open to fight the system which is never wrong except the implementation part of it which eludes the citizens as they advance with the advancement of civilization.

People world over, especially those ruled by kings and autocrats are clamoring for a new democratic system as in Egypt where President Morsey was removed and replaced by military generals reducing many people dead in the streets. However, these people have not laid their lives for the establishment of a people’s representative set up. They were showing their preference of one dictatorial form of government with another. They have not thought of any alternative form of government.

True democracy:

True democracy does not come if democratic institutions do not have the required security and stability and a delicate balance among themselves. Rarely, people understood that their measures instead of establishing a democratic set up are tending towards or inviting lawlessness and anarchy. Whatever, it may be, no such chaotic thought is possible in our country as well-versed in democratic traditions for more than six decades, will find a way out of the coalition crisis and elect a solid and firm political set up to tide over the present non performance in coalition politics which pulls the rope in both ways to see that nothing moves beyond the place where it earlier was.

Indian Police Act and Attitude:

The British Pattern Indian policing system, observing the old, outdated police laws, is spelling disaster for the country with the medieval system of hitting, beating and torturing of people by policemen in police stations and outside being no uncommon occurrence countrywide. While few of the accused die of torture, a number of others commit suicide unable to withstand upset beyond a tolerance limit and commit suicide to end their lives. Notwithstanding legal provisions against such acts by policemen, the behavior and inhumanity of police people have undergone no transformation.

In Park Circus ground in Kolkata, a 25 years old youth was brutally beaten by policemen and is under critical care at a city hospital. Rafiq, the victim, was no culprit in this case, but he was not heard or believed it and was brutally beaten to a critical stare. The fact of the case is that Rafiq was asked by three people loitering there to provide them with a match box. They searched his pockets forcibly to find out if there was any. In the mean time, the patrolling policemen saw some incident happening and went to the place.

Rafiq ran in fear of policemen harassing him and was caught with kicks, blows and lathi beatings. The policemen, also, urinated on him after he fell down from the beating. His father now has filed a complaint against the policemen and the victim is in a very precarious state in a city hospital. One senior officer has stated that the policemen involved have all been identified and strict actions will be taken against him.

Conclusion:

Of all social and political systems, put to test world over, democracy has come out with flying colors due to its latent attributes of participatory form of government and attributes of capturing justice to all citizens alike irrespective of caste, creed, sex and religion for which people world over bereft of this facility have been crying and clamoring for establishment of this system, setting aside all other notions.

Introduction:

In democracy, the party in government is known as the ruling party and the party or parties constituting the rest are called the opposition creating a phobia that the opposition is only to oppose measures taken by the government, notwithstanding the merit of the measures or steps so taken benefitting the country’s population at large. This is only the literal meaning of opposition which often times reflect in letter and spirit in the center and the state legislatures. But in a true democratic tradition, on many pro-people measures, party politics should take a back seat and ‘opposition’ should perform as ‘responsible opposition’ and not ‘opposition’ in the literal meaning of the term.

After all, what politics should be about  and what the aim is to be of politics in democracy are the well being of people, sub-charged by a keen competition of political parties for giving the maximum benefits to people not draining of them their benefits and dues. Stalling the legislation is ‘the opposition power’, but letting it run is the responsibility of the ruling party as well as the opposition. With better coordination and tolerance, both the opposition and the ruling parties move forward with measures benefitting people.

Company’s Act 2013:

After all. It is for the people, by the people and for the people, both of them have come to the assemblies as their representatives and for them only should they think and work. The recent passages of the Companies Act of 1956 are a welcome step signifying tolerance and concern by the principal opposition of India for the people at large which have ended three days of acrimony and disruption in parliament. The bill has now been cleared by both the houses of parliament and is awaiting approval by the president which will come soon.

In this case, both sides have conceded something and accepted the best as all six suggestions made by the standing committee led by Mr. Yashwant Sinha of BJP were accepted and incorporated in the bill as amendments, creating a healthy democratic transition of tolerance and concern of the ruling party and the opposition alike. Now, it is but natural on our part to expect similar action, tolerance and concern for the people's representative on the coming measures contemplated by the government so as to show to the world of very high democratic values our MPs have.

Matters of public interest:

The ruling party in order to transact meaningful business in the parliament has made amends to the defense minister’s statement on the Indian soldier’s killing in the Poonch border and made a great comeback to reality in announcing that Pakistani soldiers are behind the ambush, in turn, ended the Parliament logjam by accepting Antony’s correction and allowed the passage of the company’s Bill, both sides showing that they are not politicizing on matters of public interest.

Similarly, broad agreement and consensus have been reached by the BJP and UPA government on the passage of the Food Security Bill, Land Acquisition Bill and 26 percentages permission in FDI which will come up in Parliament for legislation. It is high time that a few more bills enlisted for the parliament are dealt within a sense of accommodation and the onus is on the government and the opposition alike.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):

Now, coming to the Company’s Act of 2013, awaiting President’s approval one of the major changes contemplated is making it mandatory for companies to spend at least two percentages of their average profits for the last three years towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities provided the profits are five cores of or more? With reasoned explanations, the companies failing to comply with CSR rules can avoid action including penalty. However, companies are free to choose areas of work for CSR. The second provision of the law makes it mandatory for companies to include one-third of their board as independent directors for a five-year term with, at least, one of the board members being a woman.

The corporation must come out clean on the salaries of the directors, showing the difference between their salaries with those of the average employees. Provisions for faster winding of firms also find inclusion in the Act. Term ‘fraud’ has been well-defined in the Act and provides for a class action suit as a key weapon for individual shareholders to take collective action against errant companies.

Conclusion:

The Act has a provision for setting up special courts for speedy trial and stronger steps to put a halt to corporate ills and for transparency in corporate governance. Serious fraud investigation officers have been given more statutory powers to deal with corporate frauds. April to March of each year is now the corporate fiscal year uniformly with so much provision in the legislation; India has perhaps become the first country in the world to give a statutory tag to Corporate Social Responsibility spending.