1. FESTIVALS:
Magh Purnima, also known as Maghi Purnima, the full moon day of the
month of Magh falls on February 14 this year. According to Brahma Vaivarta
Purana, Bhagwan Vishnu resides in the water of
Ganga on this day. Magha Purnima is a
bathing day as sacred as Kartik Purnima. A bath at Sangam at Prayag is
considered the most auspicious on this day. Grand festivities take place
along the banks of holy rivers like Ganga, Yamuna, Sarayu, Narmada, Tapti,
Kaveri,
Krishna and Godavari etc. Taking a holy
dip on this day in Kumbakonam, Kanyakumari and Rameshwaram in Tamilnadu
and Pushkar in Rajasthan is also considered to be very auspicious.
The 'float' festival is celebrated at
Madurai in Tamil Nadu, on this
day. The ornately decorated idols and images of Lord Sundeshwara and
Meenakshi are mounted on the floats and are taken to Mariamman Teppakulam
Sarovar which is a large sacred tank in
Madurai. The procession is
accompanied by music and chanting devotional songs. Magh Purnima is the
birthday of King Tirumala Nayak who constructed the Mariamman Teppakulam,
a few kilometres to the East of Madurai.
There is a special significance of this
day in Buddhism as well. It is believed that Gautam Buddha announced his
impending nirvana on this day.
There are religious ceremonies held at Viharas, prayers are dedicated to
the Buddha. Back
2.
SUCCESSFULL LAUNCHING OF GSLV WITH
INDIGENOUS CRYOGENIC ENGINE:
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched GSLV-D5
rocket on 5th January, which is powered by an indigenous
cryogenic engine, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
Seventeen minutes after liftoff at
4.18pm, the rocket successfully injected GSAT-14 communication satellite
into geosynchronous transfer orbit.
"The launch has been so precise that the
satellite was put just 40 metres within the 179km perigee and only 50km of
the 36,000km apogee," mission director K Sivan said.
ISRO achieved the feat after two failures
earlier. While Bharat has mastered the PSLV range of rockets with a string
of 25 consecutive successes, GSLV, which can carry heavier payloads
including humans to space, has remained a challenge.
Cryogenics, the science of extremely low
temperatures, has posed a challenge to rocket scientists across the world.
With this GSLV-D5, Bharat is joining countries like the
US,
Russia,
Japan,
France and
China which have
successfully developed their own cryogenic engines.
Back
3.
MAKAR SANKRANTI CELEBRATED:
Tens of thousands of faithfuls
on January 14 took holy dip in rivers and ponds and offered prayers in
temples on the auspicious occasion of Makar Sankranti which was celebrated
across the country with gaiety and fervour. Braving early morning winter
chill, devotees in
North Bharat bathed in sacred rivers and
ponds and made a beeline to temples to offer prayers.
The devout offered goods made of "til"
(sesame) to the poor, an act of charity believed to bring spiritual
benefit on Makar Sankranti when the Sun enters the Tropic of Capricorn.
In
Allahabad, thousands converged at the
Sangam, the confluence of
Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati, to
take a holy dip.
In
Kanpur, Makar Sankranti, also
known as Khichdi, was celebrated amid religious fervour. People
distributed khichdi among homeless and poor as a mark of charity. Around
10-12 lakh devotees took a holy dip in the Ganga on the occasion of Makar
Sankranti in Sagar, a West Bengal island considered auspicious by Hindus.
Colourful kites dotted the skyline of
many towns on the occasion with children, young and old camping themselves
on rooftops to enjoy the festival. In Pink City Jaipur, where Makar
Sakranti is celebrated as a festival of kites, enthusiasts perched
themselves on the roof of their houses at the break of dawn to fly kites.
Variously hailed as "Tamilar
Thirunal,"(festival of Tamils), "Uzhavar Thirunal" (farmers' carnival),
and "Aruvadai Thirunal," (harvest festival)" the Pongal celebrations got
off to a colourful start early in the morning in Tamilnadu. In both urban
and rural regions, streets in residential localities were decked up with
colourful ornate drawings out of flour (Kolam in Tamil). In several towns
like Agastheeswaram in Kanyakumari district, "Community Pongal" was
celebrated in which people cutting across social strata come together to
observe the festival. Special prayers were held in temples on the
occasion.
Temple elephants, now at a
rejuvenation camp in Thekkampatti on the foothills of Nilgiris district,
prostrated before Ganesha, the elephant-headed God, and they were offered
Pongal.
Lakhs Witness 'Makara Jyothi':
In an atmosphere of gaiety and
religious fervour, lakhs of pilgrims witnessed Makara Jyothi when
deeparadhana was conducted after adorning the Thiruvabharanam on the idol
of Lord Ayyappa at 6.40 pm on January 14. While waiting for the appearance
of Makara Jyothi on the eastern sky above the hill shrine, lakhs of
pilgrims were overwhelmed by the darsan of Lord Ayyappa at the Sopanam and
the atmosphere was filled with chants of ‘Swamiye Saranamayyappa’.
The Sannidhanam and the surrounding areas
of the temple, especially Pandithavalam, Saramkuthi and Malikappuram, were
thronged by the devotees.
Malikappuram Procession: The customary
Malikappuram procession, carrying the Thidambu of Malikappuram Devi on a
caparisoned elephant, was taken out at 7 pm. The procession went near the
Holy Steps at the
Lower Thirumuttam.
Magh Bihu or Bhogali Bihu in
North-East:
The entire northeastern region is a land
of festivals. All the janjatis, people inhabiting the plains and the hills
rejoice in their festivals all around the year. Magh Bihu or Bhogali Bihu
is a harvest festival which is celebrated in the month of January. Bhogali
bihu is celebrated at a time when all the cultivation works get over and
everyone has plenty to eat and enjoy. 'Uruka' is the first day of the
festival and is devoted to the God of fire, Agni.
As the name ‘Bhogali' suggests feasting,
this Bihu is a celebration of food after a good harvest and a variety of
sweets are prepared from rice, coconut and til. On the ‘Uruka' night,
community feasts are arranged by people preparing local delicacies with
fish and meat. The Gaan-Ngai festival: Similar to Magh Bihu of
Assam, the
Zeliongrong tribes of Manipur and Nagaland celebrate the festival of
Gaan-Ngai on the same days. This is the biggest post harvest festival
which was opened on January 13 this year by the Deputy Chief Minister of
Manipur Gaikhangam. Back
4.
Common man only can bring to nation its pristine glory:
Bhagwat:
RSS Sarasanghachalak Dr. Mohan
Bhagwat on January 5 made a candid statement that only and only common man
in this country can bring to the nation its pristine glory. Dr. Bhagwat
was speaking at the concluding ceremony of the ‘Sankalp Mahashivir’ of the
Mahakoshal Prant of RSS at
Jabalpur, where about 40,000
RSS activists had gathered for 3 days. He said, “Nations cannot be built
on behest of one person, or a political party or an organization. The
nation needs a motivated, dedicated, organized society for that. The
electrifying power of such an organized common man only can bring the
desired change in the society. And that is the very reason why RSS has
dedicated itself to the cause of organizing the society for the last 88
years.” RSS Sarkaryavah Shri Bhaiyaji Joshi inaugurated the Shvir on
January 3 at Vivekananda Puram Parisar located at Vijay Nagar.
Sarsanghachalak Dr. Mohan Bhagwat, senior functionaries Dr Kailash Gupta,
and others were also present on the occasion.Back
5.
RSS has
done good work towards promoting the values of dedication: Dalai Lama:
Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai
Lama on January 10 praised the RSS for its support to the Tibetan cause
and said it has done good work towards promoting the values of discipline
and dedication. Dalai Lama was talking to mediapersons at the RSS Smruti
Mandir premises after paying tributes to RSS founder late K B Hedgewar and
his successor Guruji Golwalkar at their memorials in
Nagpur.
“RSS has always supported the cause of
Tibet and hence I
always had love for it,” Dalai Lama said, adding, “RSS thinks not just for
Bharat but for the entire world.” RSS paschim kshetra sahkaryavaha Ravi
Joshi and
Nagpur mahanagar Sanghchalak
Dilip Gupta accompanied him during the visit.
Back
6.
GO-HOME LIBRARY - An Appeal:
Having 10 years experience in working
with youth library movement in Arunachal Pradesh, where there is no
facilitation for supplementary books for extra reading or libraries for
joyful reading for school going children in particular and the educated
people in general, RIWATCH is launching a massive programme called
‘Go-Home Library’. Sathyanarayanan Mundayoor who has done pioneering work
in popularizing good reading habits among children through the Lohit Youth
Library Network will be leading the programme.
“If the people don’t go to libraries, the
libraries should go to people,” with this objective RIWATCH proposes to
pack a bag of 20 books and make it reach to the doors of the reader. It
proposes to launch 100 such bags initially in two selected districts and
later spread to other districts, making it a gigantic movement to make
reach stimulating, knowledge-building and joyful reading books at the door
level of the reader. For more details please contact: vijayarunachal@gmail.com
Back
7.
Krishna Leela
spellbind audience at Kirchi Kirchi
Karachi event:
It was an unique opportunity for artists from
minority Hindu community in
Pakistan
when they showcased their talent at Kirchi Kirchi Karachi event. Krishna
Leela performed by Ajay Salok Jagarnath and his team was a showstopper at
the event. Tehrik e Niswan had this unique event of dance performance and
theatre play on January 5 in
Karachi. Tehrik E Niswan is
one of the prominent groups of theatre play and Kathak Dance in
Pakistan.
The group is mentored by Sheema Karmani. Many artists from Hindu community
showcased their talent in the event.
Ajay Salok Jagannath from
Pakistan Hindu Seva and his team presented Krishna Leela which received
big applause from the audience in the auditorium full with more than 2000
families and youngsters. Majority of the audience had come from slum areas
of
Karachi like Lyari, Korangi,
Lines Areas, orange town, kutti pahaddhi etc.
Back
8.
Reunion Initiates Major Training Project in BHARATIYA Art and
Architecture:
Reunion is a department (like a state) of
France located off
the African coast with a substantial Tamil population brought years ago to
the island. This training project is a major innovation as parts of the
Tamil population work to re-establish their Hindu faith, earlier
generations having converted to Catholicism.
On December 23, a training
agreement concerning Bharatiya crafts was signed by Daniel Minienpoulle,
president of the Reunion Tamil Federation and Bernard Picardo, president
of the government Chamber of Trades and Crafts in
Reunion. It was signed at a conference in
the presence of the Consul General of Bharat, Raju George, the director
of the government office of employment and the director of the Reunion
Island Chamber of Commerce. Daniel Minienpoulle reported that "over the
past 30 years, major renovations of Hindu temples have been made in
Reunion. In an effort to transfer the
Bharatiya know-how, given the demand in Reunion and high unemployment, it
is important for us to provide the establishment of a training facility
for Reunion artisans to learn how to do Bharatiya temple art (sculpture,
painting and decorating) in terms of maintenance and renovation."
In the early 1990's the
services of sthapatis (architects) and shilpis (skilled workers,) experts
in the art of Bharatiya temple construction, was obtained from
South Bharat. Their mission was to
renovate the Indo-Creole style wood and concrete temples and transform
them as much as possible to the South Bharatiya style.The first two
temples to see this renovation were the Colossus Kovil, inaugurated in
1995, and the
Saint-Denis temple in 1996.
Nearly twenty temples have since been rebuilt or renovated, and the
process is still ongoing with a potential further fifty places of worship
planned. Private cultural venues have also benefited from this renovation
initiative.Back
9.
Bharatiya-American named member of
Chinese
Academy of Sciences:
An eminent Bharatiya-American
scientist and president of the prestigious
Carnegie
Mellon
University in the
US has been named a
member of the
Chinese
Academy of Sciences.
Subra Suresh has been recognised for his scientific contributions in
materials science and engineering, including his work connecting nano-mechanical
cell structure to disease states, the university said.
Back
10.
Century-Old
Temple Conflict Ends:
Supreme Court ruled on
January 6, 2014 that the famous Nataraja temple in the town of
Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu will
continue to be managed by priests and not taken over the state government.
Back
11. LARGEST SOLAR COOKING SESSION:
As many as 3,484 children from over 80
schools participated in the largest solar cooking initiative Suryakumbh in
Uttan village near Bhayander, Mumbai on January 4. The event has qualified
as an entry to the Guinness Book of World Records.Back
The emergence of renewable sources of
energy as an answer to the imminent exhaustion of conventional energy
sources pushed a Bhayander NGO, Keshav Srushti, to start with the most
influential members of society, children.
“We provided each child with his own solar cooker to assemble and, later,
take home to share the knowledge with his family and friends. This
activity will help them understand the importance of solar energy and also
how it works,” said Satish Sinnarkar, vice-president of Keshav Srushti,
who claims they got more applications than the number they had allotted
for the activity. The earlier record was set last year at Jalna in
Maharashtra, where 2,200 students took
part in a solar cooking session. The children were amazed by the
construction and working of these solar cookers and were surprisingly well
informed.Back
12. PRAVASI BHARATIYA SAMMAN FOR KURIEN FROM
BAHRAIN:
A top
Bahrain businessman
has been awarded the highest civilian honour for non-resident Bharatiyas.
Varghese Kurian, chairman and managing director of Al Namal and VKL Group,
was honoured by the government of Bharat with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman
award at a glittering ceremony in
New Delhi on January 9.
Kurian, who is the largest
Bharatiya investor in
Bahrain,
received his award from Rashtrapati Pranab Mukherjee in the presence of
more than 1,000 members of the Bharatiya diaspora from more than 50
countries. He is the only Bharatiya from
Bahrain to win the
award this year and was one of the 14 global Bharatiyas to be honoured.
Addressing the gathering,
Rashtrapatiji reiterated that overseas Bharatiyas could play an important
role in the growth and development of Bharat. He said they had within them
the experience, expertise and knowledge gained as a result of their life
abroad, which could be of immense benefit to Bharat.Kurian was singled out
for his bold business initiatives that have cemented the already strong
ties between Bahrain and Bharat, and his philanthropy.
Mahatma Gandhi's
grand-daughter Ela Gandhi, Australian senator of Bharatiya origin Lisa
Maria Singh, Canada-based entrepreneur and philanthropist Vasdev
Chanchlani, France-based educationist Bikas Chandra Sanyal and Ramkrishna
Mission in Fiji were among the other 13 recipients of the award.Back
13. Hindus laud Albuquerque Public Schools for offering yoga:
Hindus have applauded
Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) in New Mexico (USA) for reportedly
offering yoga in its various schools, and have urged all
New Mexico school districts
to do the same for their pupils. According to
USA’s National
Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more
flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. About 21
million Americans, including many celebrities, now practice yoga. Yoga was
the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Rajan Zed
distinguished Hindu statesman said.
APS, largest school district
in
New Mexico and 30th largest in
USA, has
about 90,000 students, including over 5,000 homeless, in its 140 schools.
Over a third of its students come from homes where the primary language is
not English; and one of its schools has its own film studio. Martin
Esquivel is President of APS Board of Education.Back
14.
Hindu Munnani welcomes the stand of TN Government on Ram Sethu:
The Tamilnadu government has
reiterated the Supreme Court should direct the Centre not to implement the
Sethusamudram project. Sri Ramagopalan, Hindu Munnani, in a press release,
has welcomed the stand of Tamilnadu Government to scrap the Sethusamudram
Project and regard the bridge as a national monument. He also cautioned
that the Hindus will not tolerate if any action taken by the Central
Government against their sentiments.
Back
15.
SHRI VISHWA
NIKETAN: Pravas:
Shri Saumitra Gokhale samyojak Vishwa Vibhag is on a pravas to
Kenya,
Uganda and
Tanzania.
Visitors: Jagdish Sehwani - USA, Vinoo Vadher, Subodh Thacker -
UK, Vimal Chadha – Kenya, Balesh – Australia, Abhinandan
- Botswana Back
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
Let us all work
hard, my brethren; this is no time for sleep. On our work depends the
coming of the Bharat of the future. She is there ready waiting. She is
only sleeping. Arise and awake, and see her seated here, more glorious
than she ever was, this motherland of ours. – Swami Vivekajanda.Back
JAI SHREE RAM
Dr Ashok Modak
The
institution of joint family is an asset in Bharat as obvious as the
sunlight. Tragedy however lies in the fact that elite in Bharat who are
enamored by the modern life pattern in the Euro-American world rush to
deprecate this institution. They think that elderly
people dominate joint families and the members of young generations
naturally come across several impediments in the march towards modernity.
The clashes between old style and modern ways generally result in the
victory of the former, because protagonists of the ancient ethos easily
curb the aspiration of young boys and girls. We cannot of course deny that
whenever and wherever fathers and grandfathers happen to be dogmatic and
extremists, young members do find their stay in the joint family as quite
uncomfortable. And that’s why beautiful balance between old and new is a
must for the healthy atmosphere in the joint family. Overall assessment,
of course leads one to state that phase of the joint family do overcome
minuses.
As the elites in
India do
impress common masses, their imitation of the life patterns prevalent in
the Euro-American world has generated remarkable craze among ordinary
souls for rampant consumerism. Such a craze encourages naked selfishness
and equally stark pursuit to raise living standards at a fast speed. One
may here refer to the interesting comment made by
Alan Greenspan, former chief of the Federal Reserve System of
the Limited States, as it epitomizes the
American mood, reflective of the gilded age. The comment runs as follows:
“The propensity to save is a sign of backwardness”. The Americans’ rush to
implement this comment is practice has caused a great damage to the
environment. It has moreover led people there to opt for subprime loans
and to indulge in shameless corrupt transactions.
Indian elites, prone to be
Xerox copies of Americans appear to be busy in
accomplishing greed, least bothering for their relatives’ well being and
for their own rainy season. They are tempted to outsource several family
obligations and responsibilities to market institutions. Thus, cooking has
been entrusted to restaurants, child bearing has been put into surrogate
mothers, care and the parents have been sent to old mens’ houses! Here we
feel that the institution of joint family which imbibes invaluable
samskaras or imprint on the minds of family-members to thumb of others!
Indian family fully implements the Marxian dream: “From each according to
his ability to each according to his needs”. An earning member of each
family accordingly accepts the claims of all relatives over his or her
income. Thus an infant in the cradle as well as an unfortunate aunt who
has lost her husband are treated as honorable claimants over the earning
of working members. The very claimant similarly keeps aside his or her
greed and feels satisfied in accomplishing bare needs!
A genuine family-man gladly abandons or
sacrifices his personal interests for the sake of the family. In the epic
Mahabharata, Vidura rightly advised
Dhritarashtra to give a share of the kingdom
to the Pandavas and to ignore the admand
demand of Doryodhana on the ground that Pandavas and Kauravas belong to
the same family and one person must be abandoned for protecting the
family. Vidura here quoted the following shloka for justifying his stand:
त्यजेदेकं कुलस्यार्थे,
ग्रामस्यार्थे कुलं त्यजेत।
ग्रामं
जनपदस्यार्थे,
ह्यात्मार्थे पृथिवीं त्यजेत॥
(One person may be abandoned for
protecting a family, the family may be abandoned for protecting s town,
the town may be abandoned for the protection of the society and even the
earth may be abandoned for the protection of the Atman)
This shloka thus, convey to us that in
the human life the family imparts basis lessons of sacrifice for the
society. The family condemns that fellow who being inspired by the desire
of enjoying the objects of pleasure or by avarice causes pains to others.
Our Hindu ethos no doubt, asks us to treat the
whole world as family. One should not, however, forget that the
abandonment on my part of selfishness for the sake of my family is the
forst basic step necessary for climbing the ladder for reaching the
ultimate goal of वसुधैव
कुटुम्बकम ।
How can we forget the golden advice given
by Kunti to Yudhishtir
when the latter ascended the throne after the Bharati War that his mind
should always be great! “मनस्ते
महदस्तुच
!”
“O my son, may your mind be always great, be always broad”.
The role played by the mother in the
joint family is indeed basic! If we want to do away with the cruel speed
of consumerism, permissivism and philistinism if we want to create calm,
quiet and secure surrounding around us with a view to enjoying healthy,
fruitful life we must strengthen the institution of a joint family.
Philip Goldberg
Imagine you're poor and
living in a rural area. Your child gets sick. You manage to transport her
to a hospital or clinic. To your relief, the condition is treatable. But
the cost of treatment is not just beyond your means, it's beyond your
imagining. However, says the kindly health care worker, you can get the
treatment free of charge. All you have to do is renounce the centuries-old
traditions of your people and convert to a foreign religion.
Such offers are being made to
desperate people in the villages and tribal areas of Bharat.
I just returned from a month
in that country, to mark the Bharatiya publication of my book, American
Veda. In the 18 cities I visited, the most frequently mentioned topic was
the shady tactics of certain missionaries.
Not all of them, mind you.
Not the intrepid souls who work selflessly to help the poor, the
afflicted, and the illiterate, in the spirit of their savior's exhortation
to serve "the least of these." Such missionaries have been welcome in
Bharat for centuries, and the Hindus I spoke to are grateful for their
good works.
What is causing
consternation and anger is a new breed of zealots, heavily financed by
American fundamentalists, who seem driven to pile up numbers like
door-to-door salesmen racking up commissions. Determined, fervent, and
creative in pursuit of souls to save, they sound more like the snake-oil
hucksters of legend than servants of Christ.
Targeting mainly the
impoverished and uneducated, some of their tactics make the hospital
bargain I described earlier look as reputable as ordering a book from
Amazon. I was told of missionaries giving people temporary jobs in return
for converting, and then threatening them with job loss -- not to mention
eternal damnation -- if they reconvert to Hinduism. Families have
apparently been torn apart because the converts are made to disassociate
from the heathen.
I heard about missionaries
who dress in orange robes to look like swamis. Gullible and desperate
villagers are told that their traditional gods are actually corrupted
versions of Christ; that the venerable saints and sages of Bharat's past
were really Christians; that the three horizontal stripes traditionally
drawn on the foreheads of Shiva devotees stand for the Holy Trinity; that
the Upanishadic prayer that includes "Lead us from darkness to light" was
meant as a cry for Jesus to save them.
A mother is sick? A father
loses his source of income and can't feed his family? The bus filled with
youngsters suddenly "stalls" on a dangerous mountain road? Well, say the
missionaries, try praying to your Hindu gods. Hmmm, imagine that: nothing
changes. Well then, see what happens if you pray to Jesus.
Wow! Lo and behold! The
mother receives medicine. The father gets a one-day job that puts rice on
the table. The bus engine starts again! If one prayer to Jesus produces
miracles like those, imagine what converting will do!
I heard about people being
told that their misfortune derives from their worship of Hindu deities,
because the idols are really forms of the Devil; about village strongmen
being paid to coerce conversions from other villagers; about women given a
choice of walking a mile to haul water from their usual source or using
the new well conveniently dug in front of a church. The price? Conversion,
of course.
I don't know if these
egregious actions are commonplace or rarities. I do know that they are
dishonorable. They're about coercion, not spiritual conversion; extortion,
not the exchange of ideas. And, if I may say so as a non-Christian, they
are an affront to Jesus, whom every Hindu I've ever met regards as a holy
man of the highest order if not an incarnation of God. I can't help
thinking that he would be as outraged by the deception being perpetrated
in his name as he was about the moneylenders in the temple.
I told people in Bharat that
most American Christians would be appalled if they knew what was being
done by their overly aggressive brethren. I was tempted to wait until
after Christmas to test that thesis, but I decided that this season of
goodwill might be the ideal time. So, what do you think, my Christian
sisters and brothers? Is there some cosmic war for souls going on, in
which anything goes? Or are there rules of engagement that civilized
people should observe? What would Jesus say? – Huffington Post,
20.12.2013. Back
ON BASIS OF RELIGION
Arun Jaitley
The founding fathers of our
Constitution envisaged the Directive Principles of State Policy in Part IV
of the Constitution. Article 44 of the Constitution states, “The state
shall endeavour to ensure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout
the
territory of
India”. Uniform Civil
Code can only deal with rights of the citizens and not religious rituals.
However, some people misguided themselves to believe that a uniform civil
code would be an interference in their religious rights. The framers of
our laws while still permitting separate personal laws dealing with civil
rights did not make any exception with regard to criminal law. A crime is
a crime irrespective of the birth marks of the criminal. His religious
beliefs cannot determine his guilt or innocence.
The Union Home Minister,
Shri Sushilkumar Shinde, has announced that he would be writing to all
Chief Ministers to review terrorism cases against members of the minority
communities. Obviously, he has only religious minority and not linguistic
minority in his mind. He expects the State Government to set up Review
Committees to deal with cases against a category of citizens and not all
persons who have been charged for terrorism offences. This raises certain
fundamental questions with regard to the propriety and the legality of the
move initiated by the Home Minister.
The move is clearly
political. There are several persons charged with offences of terror in
Bharat. The provisions have been invoked against those associated with
certain radical Islamic groups. In the last few years there are a few
members of the majority community also who were charged in a set of cases.
Maoists have been charged in terror offences in several parts of the
country. The provisions of the anti-terror laws have been invoked against
some persons in the North-East and Jammu & Kashmir. There are pre-2004
cases pending under POTA. Subsequent cases are predominantly under the
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. A move that only a certain category
of cases would be reviewed on the eve of elections is intended to link the
otherwise uniform application of criminal law with vote bank politics.
Such a move is clearly
unconstitutional. Article 14 guarantees to every citizen a right to
equality. There can be a reasonable classification based on an
intelligible and distinctive criteria. The criteria that the facility of
reviewing terror cases would be extended to persons depending on which
faith they believe in or are born into is clearly unconstitutional. A
crime does not cease to be a crime because a criminal practices in a
particular faith. States are now being mandated by the Union Home Ministry
to review cases of only persons belonging to a certain faith. An atheist,
agnostic and believers in the Hindu faith would admittedly be kept out. A
contradiction would also be there. The believers of Hindu faith would
constitute a minority in Jammu & Kashmir and certain States of North-East.
Would they be eligible for review in these States or would the majority in
these States be treated as national minority and be eligible for review of
cases? What would happen to cases (say against the Maoists) where some of
the co-accused belong to one religion and others belong to a different
community. There can be no doubt that the criteria adopted by the Union
Home Minister is clearly violative of the constitutional guarantee of
equality since it is not based on rationale or intelligible criteria.
The power to withdraw a
prosecution is circumscribed by section 321 of the Criminal Procedure
Code. It is only a Public Prosecutor who after application of mind for
‘good reason has the power to move the court seeking withdrawal of a case.
The judge has to apply his mind to allow the withdrawal of a case.
Criminal law does not provide for any review Committee for withdrawal of
pending cases where charge sheets have been filed. Whenever law makers
have felt the need, they have specifically provided for such a Review
Committee. An extra legal review committee which substitutes the
discretion of the public prosecutor and the judge follows a procedure
unknown to law. The same is clearly violative of even the provisions of
criminal law.
The directive/advisory of
the Union Home Minister to the States to discriminate between criminals on
basis of religion is based on an improper policy. It violates the
constitutional guarantee of equality. It is violative of the fundamental
principles and provisions of criminal law. The States are not bound by
such unconstitutional directives of the Home Minister.
(Writer is Leader of
Opposition in the Rajya Sabha) — The Pioneer,
Bhopal, January 12, 2014.Back