Pseudo-Secularism

Hindu dharma is implicitly at odds with monotheistic intolerance. What is happening in India is a new historical awakening... Indian intellectuals, who want to be secure in their liberal beliefs, may not understand what is going on. But every other Indian knows precisely what is happening: deep down he knows that a larger response is emerging even if at times this response appears in his eyes to be threatening.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Incipient threat to democracy

by Balbir K Punj

Faced with a string of electoral defeats (Uttarakhand, Punjab and Delhi), the embittered 'secular' parties have launched a devious war against the judiciary. The response of the UPA Government, its allies and the Left to the recent apex court judgements and their criticism of the media, have revived the memories of the Emergency.

When the Supreme Court asked the Government to provide credible data to justify 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in educational institutions, DMK chief M Karunanidhi called for rewriting the Constitution. The court further angered him and his ilk when it ruled that the Ninth Schedule should not be used to park laws so that they are beyond judicial scrutiny, adding that it has the power to review these laws to ensure that none of them is against the spirit of the Constitution. The Congress and it allies in the UPA are now seeking to build a political consensus to wall in the powers of the apex court.

Those who read between the lines of the Prime Minister's recent statement - about what he calls judicial "overreach" - are apprehensive that this is the first warning shot from the political establishment to the judiciary that the latter's days of fearless independence are numbered. Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan has responded with the assertion that judicial review of Government's actions and laws is part of the democratic structure and the resultant tensions are unavoidable. It is a clear indication that the judiciary is not going to be arm-twisted into following the political establishment.

Before going further, one should also put in perspective the approach of the other UPA allies, the Left parties, to the judiciary. A Minister in the Left Front Government in Kerala, Mr Paloli Muhammad Kutty has publicly stated that the judiciary is being "guided by the weight of currency". This is not an isolated statement. Comrades in West Bengal are hammering the judiciary for the Kolkata High Court's ordering a CBI inquiry into the massacre at Nandigram, where a planned and violent intervention by CPI(M) cadre caused avoidable bloodshed.

The Communist parties are now floating a theory of American conspiracy both in West Bengal and Kerala. They say the CIA is funding newspapers in Kerala to malign its Left Front Government. No less than the Chief Minister of the State, Mr VS Achuthanandan, has charged that the leading Malayalam media house is getting support from the CIA to attack his Government. CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat's take on the "American conspiracy" against her party's Government in West Bengal is even more serious. She asserts that a US embassy official orchestrated the Nandigram protest against fertile land being acquired by the West Bengal Government for handing it over to a foreign industry.

That these are not isolated criticism but part of a concerted attack on the Constitution and democracy is clear from several pieces of evidence. CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has said that he has strong views about the Kerala judiciary's "behaviour" in many cases. However, he has claimed that his party's attack on the judiciary is not abuse, but criticism. That is not true as far as Mr Paloli Muhammad Kutty's statement about the Kerala High Court is concerned. His casting aspersions on the judiciary could shake the confidence of the people in the judicial system, the Kerala High Court has rightly noted.

This should be read in conjunction with the Kerala High Court's intervention in the dubious deals struck during the previous Left Front regime when a huge power equipment contract was awarded to a Canadian firm. The court has ordered a CBI inquiry into this deal much against the State Government's objection.

There is a pattern in the Left Parties' present moves against the judiciary. The Left cannot tolerate any criticism of its actions - that has been the Marxist tradition whether in Stalin's Russia, Mr Jyoti Basu's West Bengal or Mr Achuthanandan's Kerala. Calling its critics names through a Goebbelsian propaganda machinery, the Left is preparing for its critics' decimation. The developments in Kerala and West Bengal show that the target is not only the judiciary but also media.

But seeing the CIA everywhere is not a mere Leftist indulgence. Nor is the demand that the judiciary be in sync with the political party in power a weapon of the Marxists alone. The CIA phobia was the Congress's stock-in-trade in the 1970s when it wanted to suppress criticism against its political skulduggery and disastrous economic policies. Amend or even change the entire Constitution to ensure the supremacy of the 'secular' political establishment over the judiciary, was a demand last heard of in the 1970s from the Congress benches.

With the propensity of the Left parties to support the creation of a new Constitution or the amendment of the existing one in such a manner so as to assert the total supremacy of the political executive in all policy matters, the UPA allies are preparing to bury the independence of the judiciary once and for all. The consensus within this ruling establishment is not whether such a drastic step is necessary; it is only a question of when this should be done.

Since the Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh is underway, now is not the right time. For the moment, they will seek to vacate the stay of the Supreme Court on the implementation of the OBC quota. If the apex court refuses, it will add fuel to the demand to smother the judiciary's independence. The Left is honing its tactical capabilities and cadre to amplify the demand. In the 1970s, Fundamental Rights were under the siege of the Congress and the Left parties that tried to create a subservient higher judiciary.

When Mrs Indira Gandhi warned the country on June 19, 1975, that India had too much freedom, many did not read between the lines. Within a week, however, citizens' freedoms were taken away and most people were left gasping. The establishment, consisting of political parties that have made an unrestrained quota system their main political fare, would manipulate to any extent to end judicial independence. As for media's independence, the Left has already accused them of being funded by the CIA.

Some may dismiss this as an over-reaction. Claims that in the present circumstances such a scenario is impossible might be a means to reassure the liberal conscience disturbed by the attack on the judiciary in the name of social justice. "Backwards are in danger", "the judiciary is against offering backwards a share in power according to their population", "the move to extend quota to Muslims is being opposed" and other such issues may be used by the secularists to inflame passions and cause mob frenzy, leaving little scope for sane thinking. That has happened on several occasions since the French Revolution.

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