...And now direct attack on Constitution!

In a democracy political parties after getting the requisite mandate of the people take reins of government and remain in power as long as people want them to be. Thus, parties come and go, but the beacon light of democracy remains as bright as ever.

In our country since Independence the Indian National Congress (INC) or Congress, for short has had the privilege of ruling the country for about six decades, and rightly so, because majority of the people had voted the Congress to power. However, after the electoral verdict in 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assumed the power at the Centre. In the years to follow the BJP consolidated its position and got political power through successive victories in as many as 19 States. This change of guards has been perfectly in accordance with the Constitution and the statues made thereunder.

But the Congress which had the habit of being in power for most of the years could not digest the change. It felt like a fish out of water. Therefore, forgetting its role as a constructive opposition, it started looking for the shortcuts to regain political powers by ganging up with a handful of communal, anti-national criminal groups. All these fringe elements in cahoots with the ‘big brother’ Congress has progressively taken upon the ruling BJP and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

In fact, in a democracy the Opposition too plays a very crucial role in keeping the ruling party or parties within permissible limits by offering constructive opposition. But in the present case, the Congress-led Opposition took another most devastating route. Starting with the programme of “Award Wapsi” which really undermined the value of the covetable Awards given by the State, open support to the “stone pelting” brigade of goons in Kashmir to the shameless support to the terrorists only shows that for this Opposition gang India or its Constitution does not mean anything. The allegiance to the Constitution seems to have taken back seat and only one-point agenda of capturing political power by hook or crook apparently appears to be in their minds.

This point is amply proved by a reported incident of brazenly abusing the Governor who is the Constitutional head of Telangana State and Andhra Pradesh by the Telangana Congress leaders recently in Hyderabad. E L Narasimhan was accused of having got the gubernatorial post by doing “pairvi” as a result of which he was given the highest position in “bhikh,” if the media reports are to be believed.

Indeed, this is nothing but a direct attack on the Constitutional functionary and thereby on the Constitution itself. In undermining the State power, now convicted Lalu Prasad Yadav’s brigade is also not far behind the Congress bandwagon. His supporters had the audacity to make phone calls to the Special Judge of the CBI Court, Shiv Pal Singh, obviously with a view to browbeat him and pressurise him to show leniency towards Lalu whose quantum of punishment was yet to be pronounced. Earlier, very serious allegations have been levelled against the Chief Justice and other Judges of the Supreme Court by the cronies of ‘break India’ brigade who are hell bent upon to defame the country and belittle the ruling clan in the comity of nations.

If the democracy is to survive, if the secularism is to survive and if the rule of law is to survive, then it is time to show these anti-national elements their right place in the right earnest. Because, these “Gaddars” (traitors) have an evil design to create chaos in the country and ultimately ensure the Constitutional breakdown. Therefore, before it is too late, let the law be enforced with iron hands in its letter and spirit.

High Court’s suggestion
Enraged at “ever increasing crime against the children in the State of Uttarakhand” the Uttarakhand High Court has recommended to the State Government to enact within three months a suitable legislation for awarding death sentence to those found guilty of raping girls aged 15 years or below.

This suggestion has been made in the judgement delivered on January 5 by a division bench comprising Justices Rajiv Sharma and Alok Singh in Criminal Reference No.01 of 2017 with Criminal Appeal N. 156 of 2017.

While confirming the death sentence handed down to a man for raping and murdering an 8-year-old girl last year, the High Court noted, “In the present case, the convict took the victim along with him. He committed rape upon her. She died during the intercourse. Thus, it was a calculated, cold-blooded and the brutal murder of an eight year’s old girl by the appellant after committing rape on her” and added, ‘the act of the convict falls within the category of rarest of rare cases.’

The bench relied on Supreme Court judgment in Nathu vs.State of UP where it upheld the death sentence for causing death of a 14 year-old girl who was lured by the convict into the house for committing criminal assault. The Court also cited the case of Laxman Naik vs. State of Orissa where the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence by treating the case under the category of ‘Rarest of rare cases,’ as it was a case of calculated, cold-blooded and brutal murder of a 7-year-old girl by her own uncle after committing rape on her.

Women in Territorial Army
The new year for women aspirants who dreamt of joining Territorial Army ushered well with the Delhi High Court declaring “Women are eligible for recruitment and appointment to the Territorial Army under Section 6 of the Indian Territorial Army Act, 1948.

The Court’s decision comes on a PIL filed by Kush Kalra against what he called the ‘institutionalised discrimination’. He had challenged the advertisement calling male candidates only for recruitment in Territorial Army.

The bench held that the expression ‘any person’ mentioned in Section 6 of the Territorial Army Act, 1948 includes both male as well as female.

Dr H C Upadhyay