The ayodhya verdict

 

The much awaited verdict on the babri masjid demolition case came out as a damp squib... After prolonging for almost 28 years, in a 2000 page judgement, the judge , who was on an extension for one year just to dispose of the case, has concluded that the investigating agency could not conclusively establish the accused crime! And all the accused have been accordingly acquitted! 

As a common man I can only say that it appears to be a mockery of justice when the judge maintained that in fact the demolition was done by a mob and the accused leaders actually tried to dissuade the mob from demolishing the masjid

, which should be marked as the joke of the year or the joke of the covid era!

As a layman i feel that in addition to the accused, the prime minister and gone minister of the period also should have been arraigned as accused as accomplices to the plan. Had they really wanted they could have sent the central forces there to prevent the crime from occurring.

Now, this verdict may prove to be a shot in the arm for the hindutva activists who have already started campaign to demolish a durgah in bihar claiming the place to be the birth place of krishna !

Rajya sabha imbroglio

 

In common parlance the Rajya sabha is referred to as 'house of elders' too and hence the common man expects the maturity of 'elders' to be shown by its members in general and by the presiding officer in particular . It is very unfortunate that both have failed him recently as witnessed in the house during the discussion on the so called 'agricultural bills'. While I do not want to go to the contents of the bills and it's merits and de merits i strongly believe it's deputy chairman should have been more accommodative in concluding the discussion of the bill and should have shown more parliamentary diplomacy by deferring the passing of the bill to the next day as the scheduled time of the house was over and extension of time needed the concurrence of all parties as per rule book. Instead of doing this he chose to unilaterally decide on passing of bills with voice vote without permitting the division demanded by opposition. I wonder whether  the was afraid the bill might not have been passed if put to vote given the party position in the house!.

On the part of the members, they also should have exhibited more maturity and should not have indulged in tearing the bill , throwing the rule book to the presiding officer, destroying the mike etc. There are other ways to show their objection including a walk out or boycott of the proceedings which would have definitely earned them better goodwill in the minds of the common man.

Now since the unfortunate things have already happened, the vice president who is the chairman of the house should take a practical and impartial view of the entire thing and ensure an amicable solution to the present deadlock as the opposition has declared a boycott of the remaining days of the session . Hope better sense will prevail on everybody to uphold the prestige of the house.

Postponementof elections

 

It is reported that all the political parties in Kerala have reached a consensus in asking the election commission of India to postpone the proposed bye election to Chavara and Kuttanadu seats.  I fully agree with the stand of the parties in this issue, as the general elections to the state assembly is to be held by April next year and anybody getting elected in the bye election proposed to be held in November will get hardly four months to work, the expenses incurred by the state as well as the candidates in this election will be a sheer waste of resources. This amount can very well be used for some other more.beneficial purposes .

However , the condition put forward by the UDF to support the government in the above move, viz postponement of election to the local self government institutions which is due in november too, cannot be appreciated. While UDF is taking shelter under the covid pandemic for such a demand , i am not sure whether they have considered any alternative, as the existing elected members will cease to be in office by november and after that there will be no elected body at LSG level to coordinate or implement actions for fighting the pandemic. This may lead to a chaotic situation, i am afraid.

And , if the government can successfully conduct the public examinations like SSLC,HSC, KEAM, NEET, JEE etc which involved congregation of thousands of students at one place, without much problems, i fail to understand what can be the problems in holding the elections which involves hardly a thousand of voters at each booth spread over a period of about 10 hours. If this is conducted with proper care like wearing masks, maintaining social distance , ensuring separate queues for senior citizens etc I do not anticipate any massive spread of the disease by holding the elections. Staggering of voting time for voters based on their serial numbers in the voters list also can be considered to avoid crowding in the polling stations. I hope better sense will prevail over UDF leaders and they will see reason in the issue. And in the present situation where medicine or vaccine for COVID still remain a far cry , UDF should explain when do they propose to hold the proposed postponed elections..