MyVoice: Views of our readers 19th March 2020

Doubts galore on Gogoi

It is doubtful whether former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi can be eulogised as a model judge (to emulate) for anyone aspiring to be an upright judge. Justice Gogoi's journey from his assumption of office as CJI to his nomination to the Rajya Sabha, mired in controversies, has left the judiciary under a cloud.

True, Justice Gogoi joined four senior most Supreme Court judges in the historic press conference to speak up for the judiciary's independence and led us to believe that he was earnestly against political and governmental interference in the judiciary. True, he openly aired his view against post-retirement jobs or benefits, or "retiral sinecures" to use his own phrase, to those who served in the top echelons of the judiciary. But then the 'protagonist' put a price on his soul - a Rajya Sabha seat.

It is now clear to even the meanest intelligence that Justice Gogoi was rewarded mainly for awarding the disputed Ayodhya site to the 'Hindu side' to build a Ram temple, giving a clean chit to the Modi government in the Rafale fighter plane deal (Bench headed by him declined a plea for a probe into the deal) and vehemently defending the NRC and CAA in the public domain. The nomination to the Rajya Sabha was a quid pro quo; it was as simple as that. BJP should be given the credit for keeping its word and making him a member of the House of Elders even before the lapse of what is called the 'cooling off period'. Justice Gogoi who was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by virtue of his 'eminence' can be now relied on to propound Hindutva and hasten India's retreat from secularism - an asset to the party (and a liability to the nation).

Sadly, Indian democracy becomes the loser when the judiciary fails to keep itself aloof from politics, maintain its independence, and uphold its majesty and command people's unflinching trust.

G David Milton, Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

Public feel cheated

It is not fair to attribute quid pro quo in the nomination of former chief justice of India Ranjan Gogoi to the Rajya Sabha by the Modi government but the case definitely creates apprehensions in the minds of people, who firmly believe that Gogoi was rewarded for delivering many controversial verdicts in favour of the BJP such as Ayodhya, Rafale, Article 370 and so on (Row erupts over nomination of Gogoi to RS, March 18) . People have lost confidence in legislature, executive and Media in recent times but still have abundant faith in judiciary. Under these circumstances, Gagoi episode is a dent on common man's belief on the autonomy of nation's judicial system.

Kshirasagara Balaji Rao, Hyderabad

Why panic unnecessarily?

Under the spread of Corona virus all over the world, people in general are so panic- stricken that most of them dare not come out of their houses. Some of the leading private organizations with a large number of employees in them are restricting their free movements within and outside their office premises and thus creating a warlike situation in their areas paralyzing the normal life as during the period of war. Those used to doing their constitutionals desist from doing them due to fear of the pandemic. When everyone is strictly observing all the necessary precautions against the spread of the virus by wearing masks, washing their hands from time to time and avoiding physical contacts with others including handshakes, hugs and what not what entails them to forgo their regular routine outdoor activities one fails to understand.

H Narayanan, Bengaluru

Rlys should intensify screening

As the Government and health authorities have enforced a complete shutdown of public places owing to rise in pandemic cases in India, the Railways too have been severely affected owing drastic cancellations of train services and passenger tickets whilst incurring huge losses. The Railways should further cancel the services of all premier Shatabdi/Rajdhani Express trains which otherwise run empty without much passenger traffic and thus incur a huge burden on ex-chequer. The cancellation of these trains is necessary on an experimental basis to discourage non-essential travel and unnecessary social contacts.

The Railways should also arrange airline like mandatory screening of both incoming and outgoing passengers across all A, A+, B, and C category railway stations which otherwise witnesses heavy crowd during the train departure/arrival. Manual and online booking of reserved tickets should be limited to essential travel bookings only until the situation becomes normal.

Varun Dambal,

Bengaluru

Follow instructions please

Our nation has pulled out all the stops as far as action on COVID-19 goes. We are moving with speed, scale and determination to contain the spread and mitigate the virus. But we as its citizens should also see that we do whatever is possible on our parts like maintaining hygiene, social distancing, getting tested etc. Neglecting suggested measures won't serve the purpose.

Sukanya Basu Mallik,

Kolkata