Whispers Forum

Modi can’t answer on Manipur, inflation, NEET. I do not agree with the views expressed by Faiz in Whispers on July 5, 2024. It is incorrect to say that BJP had allowed their Members to intervene during the speech of LOP and why aren’t the opposition members allowed to do the same during the PM’s speech. Perhaps Faiz does not watch the live proceedings of the Houses of Parliament or he watches it with one eye open only. I had watched the debate in both Houses. Whenever some Members of BJP tried to intervene, there was a signal from Jitendra Prasad to keep quiet. In fact from day 2 of the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, not a single Member from BJP benches had intervened particularly when LOP was speaking despite the fact that he was giving false statements. On the contrary, at no time, perhaps since 2014, when the PM was allowed to speak undisturbed. Whenever he rose to speak, the opposition party members raised unnecessary slogans and many times they entered the Well of the House and many times they stood in front of the PM. As regards Manipur and NEET, our PM had clearly spoken about it and the need to take corrective action. Perhaps our friend forgets that the situation of Manipur has remained equally bad in the past too and that the Government had to resort to President’s Rule in the State. There is now a need to open both eyes to see and contribute to the development of our country Bharat.
Pradeep

You may continue to spread wisdom through the RTI Column and the public information officers will continue not to follow them. The Information Commission will continue to overlook the deliberate and continuous lackluster performance of the PIO. It is shocking if the PIO does not follow the instructions of the FAA and no action is taken against him. Hail RTI Act.
Shamsher Singh
Mumbai Police very professional in dealing with crowd
Celebrations for India’s World Cup victory. We saw a huge gathering of citizens of Bharat in Mumbai yesterday (04 July 2024) at Marine Drive when our winning team travelled from Mumbai Airport to Wankhede Cricket Stadium. All had travelled to cheer our cricket team who had brought laurels to Bharat. There are two lessons to be learnt from this. One, the Mumbai crowd was very disciplined and the Mumbai Police had managed this huge crowd very well. There was no incident of stampede, like the one which had taken place in Hathras. And, two, the unity shown by the crowd. If this unity is shown by the people of Bharat, Bharat can very soon become the world’s number one country. Pradeep
Pradeep

Large number of people died in the stampede during the satsang of Bhole Baba in Hathras, UP. According to preliminary information, to prevent the crowd from reaching Baba, his personal security personnel and sevadars pushed some people, due to which they fell. It is unfortunate that despite about 60 percent literacy in the country, hypocritical babas organize such gatherings. The question is why such babas become successful in the modern era? The reason for this is that there is tension and unrest in the society due to many reasons. Apart from this, the common man of the country is struggling with basic problems. In such a situation, he easily trusts the babas. Babas exploit this innocent faith of the devotees.
Nancy Singh

The three new criminal laws: ‘Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita’, ‘Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita’ and ‘Bhartiya Sakshya Adhinium’, the reworded versions of existing fundamental criminal laws IPC, CrPC and the Indian Evidence Act (colonial legacy) as per gazette notification, will be effective from July 1, 2024. The prevailing three criminal laws have been in operation for over a century and have received interpretations from various courts including the Supreme Court. Some legal luminaries have, in a letter to the union law minister, have sought deferment of new laws beyond July 1.2024. Some logical questions arise in our minds. These merit careful consideration. These are : (a)Will the change-over reduce cost of litigation to the accused and save litigation time; (b) Will the new dispensation reduce the large backlog of pendency in the already overburdened judiciary, running into crores of cases; (c) More importantly, could the two systems of criminal justice(old and the new)operate concurrently.All pending cases, filed under old system, are at different stages of litigation (d)Could the substantive laws, IPC, India Evidence Act, be applied retrospectively; (e) The procedural laws could possibly be applied retrospectively, provided they impact the accused adversely. These are matters for legal scrutiny; (f) Could the accused live with a sense of certainty and security about their Right to life and liberty, not knowing which stream of law will govern them. Utter confusion, chaos. More litigation, more cost to the accused, more delay; (g) What will be the cost of infrastructure needed to upgrade the system of delivery of criminal justice? Has any thought been given to the above questions ; (h)Will the dichotomy, as stated above ,be able to stand the scrutiny in the Supreme court; (i)Some bright legal minds have already expressed concern about the haste in which the bills were passed in the last Parliament; (j) Could the gazette –notified new penal laws be referred to the new Parliament for further discussion, one wonders? Much will depend on the stand taken by the Supreme Court on the validity of new penal laws, the ruling political dispensation and the new Opposition. No litigant has ,so far, approached the Top court in the matter, possibly awaiting reaction of the Union of India.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

How the NDA Government should tackle corruption/ corrupt practices. Conducting General Elections at all India level or conducting all India level entrance examinations like NEET, etc. is a difficult task. The recent example of leak of papers of NEET is a blot on the part of the NDA Government. The opposition parties take advantage of such incidents and are holding the NDA Government responsible for this. After conducting such an entrance test, cancellation and re-test is a costly affair. Corrupt practices are still prevailing in India. To avoid such corrupt practices, all officers of the Ministry directly involved (right from Secretary of the Ministry to the ground level officials) should be held responsible. There should be a column in their annual confidential reports where the number of cases of leakage of test papers or corruption cases should be mentioned besides appropriate action against them, right from the ground level officials to the Secretary of the Ministry. Nowadays the higher officials go scot free when they fail in their responsibility to select appropriate officials to handle such exams. Government should rethink their punishment policy without which such incidents will take place again and again.
Pradeep