AIFON

In the context of  the recent ghastly murder of Gauri Lankesh a politician-journalist,  in Bangalore,  there is a discussion going on in Karnataka about whether the case has to be handed over to CBI or the State Police is capable of solving the case themselves.

There is no doubt that Police in Karnataka as elsewhere are capable enough to solve any mystery including the type of Gauri Lankesh provided they are given a free hand by the politicians who may want to take the investigation in a particular angle.

In the instant case, it is possible that a few political parties want to fix some body connected with BJP/RSS so that there would be an adverse impact on them in the next elections. Some times it is more difficult to sustain a falsehood than the truth. This may be one of the reasons that  there is no progress in the investigation or the Police may be resisting any political manipulation.

However it is very clear that the key to the investigation lies in the mobile world. Very recently, they solved another mystery assault on a women at the dead of the night intelligently analysing mobile data. Knowing the efficiency of professional police in Karnataka, by this time they would have already analyzed the mobile data of different types and traced the killers and they my be zeroing in on them if a clearance is received from the leaders.

In this background, the above name board of an “OPPO Women’s Police Station” indicates as if Karnataka Police has set up a special women’s police station to investigate mobile related crimes particularly on women,  going by what we see above. If so, it would have been most appropriate to take up the investigation of this murder.

Unfortunately however this may not be the case. It may be just that Oppo sales manager  is an intelligent marketing person who has convinced the Police that he would give free name boards for all Police Stations and the Police could have accepted the offer without thinking of  how the Boards may look like. Oppo could have offered it as complimentary so that the other Oppo boards in the city in front of mobile shops look as if they have the patronage of the “Oppo Police Stations”.

Nevertheless, it is a coup for the sales manager to have been able to get the Police accept the offer and display such prominent Oppo hoardings on the Bangalore Mysore highway which should cost them a few lakhs each month in terms of rent at market rates. I should congratulate him for his achievement.

We may observe that the board looks more like the Police Station being an Oppo property than the Government of Karnataka Property. The Board reminded me reminded of Upendra’s  Kannada film “Super”in which the hero acting as the Chief Minister of Karnataka sells the entire Karnataka state to different private companies like an IPL auction.

It appears that even before the new Political party of Upendra namely “Praja Rajya” starts its activities, his filmy concept of Government selling off the State in a privatization drive is becoming a reality.

……unless the Chief Minister of Karnataka wakes up and gets the boards replaced…without further delay….

Naavi

For the last two years since Mr Modi won the Loksabha elections, self styled opinion makers in the media like Rajdeep Sardesai, Rahul Kanwal, Barkhadutt, Nidhi Razdan and several others  were hounding Modi and Mr Amit Shah. As both stonewalled the media and went about their work,  the media stalwarts slowly were getting tired.

Now in a master stroke, Modi has simply redirected the attention of the media to Mr Yogi Adityanath. Along with the media, the politicians in the Congress and Communists also have now re-set their guns on Mr Yogi Adithynath instead of Mr Modi. At best, Modi is only a secondary target. This will provide some relief to Mr Modi even while Yogi needs to face the heat on his past statements which are being taken out of the archives of the TV studios.

Mr Yogi has been so far not providing any new controversial statements to the media and media has to only find something in his activities which they can call as “Controversial”.

Media is seriously discussing how many cows are there in Gorakhpur Mutt and what is the name of the  Bull and who takes care of it etc. I am enjoying watching and listening to frustrated tones of these journalists in trying to some how rake up the old Videos of Mr Yogi and keep asking questions.

The first administrative decision on which the media has now chosen to start its battle is  the “Ramayan Museum” proposed in Ayodhya.

This is a project completely different from the Ram Mandir and has the potential of softening the hardliners espousing the immediate building of the Ram Mandir.

The project has the potential to be a great tourism attraction when it comes up when a theme park where tourists can live through the Ramayana story can be built up.

There is no religious controversy in this project and media is trying to find one by saying why this is one of the first projects of Mr Yogi?

In the process of this Yogi bashing, the media is losing more of its waning credibility and by 2019, they would be so frustrated that many of the senior journalists of today including Mr Rajdeep Sardesai may find it difficult to remain relevant.

In the interest of the need to have a vibrant media, it is essential for the journalists to leave their negative reporting and turn to positive reporting about Mr Yogi and his work. Then after some time when Mr Yogi really makes a mistake and the media points it out, public may give some credence. Otherwise the traditional media will become irrelevant in no time.

Mr Rajdeep…are you listening?

V N Rao

One of the biggest challenges BJP will have in managing public perception about Yogi Adityanath’s CM image would be to ensure that media does not create ruckus over statements that may be put into his mouth by provoking journalists.

Today’s journalists are not “News Dispensers”. They fancy themselves to be “News Creators”. They seek out loose mouthed politicians and ask leading questions so that whether the answer is “Yes” or “No” or “May be”, it can be twisted to make headlines.  The worst lot are the people like Rajdeep Sardesai, Rahul Kanwal and some junior reporters who think they are great journalists and show their cleverness by extracting statements which can be called “Controversial”.

Yesterday when Mr Venkaiah Naidu was speaking, Yogi Adityanath was seen holding his lips tight as if to control saying some thing out of turn. Mr Naidu has told that Mr Adityanath will speak today after the swearing in and if he does not simply speak from a written text and holds a press conference, we may see a battle between the journalists and him. Given his track record to be easily provoked into giving responses even when a simple smile will do, Mr Yogi is a delight of the journalists.

Here in lies the risk to BJP of his selection opening the floodgates for a daily media discussion on the Hidutva Agenda of the BJP.

I wish Mr Yogi Adityanath takes a look at the Principle of rational decision making called “Ulysses Contract” or “Ulysses Pact” which is ideal to be followed in his case. As the legend goes, Ulysses was travelling on the sea and was to pass through an island where there were some charecters called “Sirens” who would be singing songs which would be extremely attractive and attract the travellers to change their course leading ultimately to their death. Ulysses therefore made a contract with his sailor employees (whose ears were plugged so that they could not hear the songs) that he would be bound hard and would not be released even if he orders them to do until they pass the Siren’s island. He therefore could hear the Siren’s singing but even when he temporarily turned insane and pleaded that he be freed, his subordinates did not unbind him and he survived.

This strategy is often used in “Rational Decision Making” to prevent “Irrational Decision Making” by “Self Imposed Constraint”.

I advocate that  Mr Yogi Adityanath makes an Ulysses contract with himself and his two Deputy Chief Ministers that he will keep his lips sealed in front of media and will focus only on his work while the DyCMs will take care of media interaction.

Mr Venkaiah Naidu also needs to ensure that this principle is followed by Yogi Adityanath the moment he becomes CM and should take a oath on following such conduct.

Naavi

After the recent debacle of Congress in UP and other States (except Punjab), the Congress management has woken up to the need to work early for securing its key state of Karnataka. Mr Modi has pre-empted all political parties with his call for “New India” campaign for 2022 far ahead of the 2018 and 2019 elections. Others need to catch up with his forward looking vision.

Congress has made its move which is to consolidate all “Anti Modi” political parties under one “Grand Anti-Modi Alliance” (GAMA) across India. This will be their principle poll strategy for the immediate future. Congress is banking on its position of a “Joker” which can be present in all states as a secondary partner but collectively find more seats in Loksabha than any one other regional outfit.  It is not a bad strategy but one needs to wait and see how successful it would turn out to be.

From the BJP side, it is becoming increasingly clear after the UP verdict that going without a nominated CM face is better and Modi will be the sole election face. Hence it will be Modi Vs GAMA in Karnataka for all practical purposes.

In Karnataka, pursuing the same strategy, the Congress and JDS will try to forge an alliance at the pre-poll stage along with perhaps the remnants of AAP that may be present in pockets. There will be some smaller political outfits including those related to language movements and River water movements who will need to take a stand either on the side of Modi or the GAMA.

Given Mr Amit Sha’s strategy in UP, he would not be averse to some local partnerships with small parties if there is a political advantage. The onboarding of S M Krishna is a good strategy which BJP has embraced since Mr Krishna is the architect of the IT development in Karnataka and commands respect in the Urban area as a CM who actually delivered development during his time.  BJP has other factions within itself like the Yeddyurappa faction, Eshwarappa Faction , Ashok Faction etc. Mr Amit Shah may have to treat each of these factions as a small party and BJP as a coalition of these parties so that they all work in unison. Otherwise, they may work against each other and ensure Congress victory.

Will the Congress work as much for its own coalitions as dividing the BJP within is what political observers need to watch out. Mr Digvijay Singh is being removed as the high command representative after his poor showing in Goa and one may see a different leader in charge of Congress-Karnataka affairs which will determine the strategy of Congress for the elections.

The honest but not so powerful faces in BJP who are today dwarfed by the Yeddyurappa and Eshwarappa factions need to assert themselves within the party forum and ensure that Mr Amit Shah and Modi take appropriate decisions to defeat the combined might of Congress and JDS. Left to Congress itself, despite the budgetary sops of Mr Siddaramaiah, they may find ways of defeating themselves. But JDS with its base support and strategic intelligence of Mr Kumaraswamy and Deve Gowda will add significant strength to the coalition if it comes out.

But the dilemma for JDS would be that it may actually emerge the second largest party after BJP if it fights alone or relegated to the third place if it fights along with Congress. It would therefore be interesting to see if Congress would be able to provide equal status to JDS in the coalition or ego clashes will surface even before the elections.

We shall on this platform start observing the developments and watch how the future for Karnataka shapes out.

Join me in building this observatory for the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018.

V.N.Rao

India adopted a Constitution on 26th January 1950 and every one of our politicians swear their allegiance to it. However, the same politicians for the last 66 years have abused the Constitution by every means by introducing amendments that are not in conformity with the basic principle of “Equality For All”.

In order to manage the transformation of the society the Constitution did envisage some temporary measures which were to be removed after a period of adjustment. Unfortunately, the Vote-Bank politics in the country did not allow the politicians to remove the aberrations that were meant to be temporary and actually increased the aberrations over time.

The term “Equality” for all has been long forgotten with “Preference for the Under Privileged” and “Minorities”. Unfortunately definition of who is “under privileged” and who is a “minority” has remained a point of debate and event he Supreme Court has not been bold enough to step in an correct the inequalities that has crept in because of “Religion”, “Caste”, “Gender” etc. Even the status of “Jammu and Kashmir” under Article 370 fall into this category.

I strongly believe that such discrimination in law have lost their utility and actually increase the differences and create disharmony in the society.

Now for the first time in the country there is a discussion on the need for “Uniform Civil Code” for all religions for people who are Indian Citizens. The trigger for this is the controversy on the validity of “Triple Talaq” in the light of women’s rights activists taking up the issue.

The Government has set up a Law Commission (See here) to formulate its views which has rightly placed a questionnaire before the public to elicit public opinion.

From the TV debates we are aware that a section of the Muslim population which wants to keep muslims glued to the past traditions and not modernize in their thoughts, oppose any change to the Muslim Personal Law. Hence there will be a strong opposition from that part of our population to the proposal.  However the progressive elements in the Muslim community as well as the entire Hindu and other communities in the population should support the Uniform Civil Code as a principle which is beneficial to the entire country in the long run.

We also have a hypothesis that the Hindu population in India must be more net-savvy than the Muslim population.

Hence the natural expectation is that there should be an overwhelming response from the public for the questionnaire supporting the Uniform Civil Code in India.

But we know that Hindus are lethargic and not committed to expressing their opinion forcefully unless they are pushed. Even the progressive Muslims have so far failed to force essential change in their community and it is their failure that has provided fuel to the growth of Terrorism in the Muslim community.

The “Good Muslims” out number the “Bad Muslims”. But  in terms of vocal opposition to Terrorism, “Good Muslims” are as lethargic as the traditional Hindus. Like the proverbial “Hindu Rate of Growth”, the “Hindu attitude of apathy” has been adopted even by these Muslims who have progressed in life through better education and open societal experience who have let the Muslim community as a whole to be tainted with the terrorist image.

Time has come for such lethargic persons to come out and express their views towards a “Uniform Civil Code” in India. This is a time for the “Good Muslims” to liberate themselves from the shackles of false religious loyalty and enter the new world where religion is accepted as a personal choice and will be practiced only without hurting those who follow a different faith.

I strongly advocate the Uniform Civil Code, because, such things  remove the pin pricks that prevent harmonization of the society. In due course all discrimination based on caste, religion, gender, region etc must be removed if we want one “Strong Bharath/India” that extends from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari or Kutch to Mizoram (plus the island parts in Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal).

I therefore urge all to send their responses to the Law Commission.

A Copy of the questionnaire can be found here both in PDF and Word form.

PDF Version : 

Word Version:

 I have created a word format of the PDF version distributed by the Law Commission so that you can easily download and complete it.

The completed form is to be sent by e-mail to : loc-dla@nic.in

Kindly send your views if any by commenting on this article.

Please ensure a wide distribution of this message to the public so that there is a large participation of the population in this exercise.

Naavi

Political Expediency Driving Cauvery Dispute Resolution

The recent Cauvery episode and the earlier Mahadayi river issues have clearly established that there is a serious lacuna in the political leadership in Karnataka. While Jayalalitha (born in Karnataka) leads Tamil Nadu cause more than effectively, Mr Siddaramaiah born and brought up here comes out as a leader who neither has the will nor the ability to defend the Karnataka cause. At the same time, the main opposition party namely BJP is no better.

Both the national parties have larger national interests to take into account where the 39 cohesive MPs of Tamil Nadu will always be more valuable than the 28 disunited MPs of Karnataka. Cauvery issue is therefore one issue which even Mr Modi will not be inclined to touch and resolve except in favour of TN. In India, political expediency always triumphs over what is otherwise logical or correct. Settling Cauvery issue in favour of Tamil Nadu will always be political expediency for both Congress and BJP and hence we cannot expect any justice from these national parties.

Add to this, the distinct possibility that Tamil Nadu can bribe Tribunal Members, Judges and the opposite Lawyers, the victory for TN in the political and judicial battles is assured. Karnataka is bound to fail again and again as it has been happening since 1892.

If not, how is it that Cauvery is a river which originates from Karnataka but the State has to seek the permission of TN for using the water even for drinking purpose? How is it that TN is entitled to a lion’s share of the water? How is it that the honourable Supreme Court considers that even in a distress situation, Karnataka should release water for irrigation in Tamil Nadu and risk non availability of drinking water for the ext summer in major cities of Karnataka?

Cauvery Tribunal Award is Faulty

Many learned men argue that while Israel and its neighbors can come to an agreement on river water, Karnataka and TN cannot. The reason is that international and inter state river disputes are settled on more equitable manner than what the Cauvery Tribunal tried to do. The fault is not with the neighboring States of a Country not being able to live like brothers but the fact that the settlement proposed is faulty.

Why Supreme Court is deemed to have suspended the Tribunal award

The Supreme Court which expects people to respect it as the highest Judicial authority in India and sermonizes on the need for Citizens to obey it’s orders forgets that its role is to interpret “Law” at the highest level even when no clarity is available in law with the principle objective of maintaining “Public Good”. But in the current instance, it is only behaving like a clerk interpreting what is the amount of water available in Karnataka and how much is to be released etc.

The Supreme Court first of all should have refused to exercise jurisdiction in this case which comes under the Inter State River water disputes act and it is not  expected to enter into resolution of inter state water dispute as per our constitution (Article 262 of Indian Constitution)

Refer: Interstate River Dispute Act

Once the Cauvery Tribunal award was constituted and notified, Supreme Court should consider itself out of jurisdiction.

However, Supreme Court has decided that its interference is necessary and started hearing the arguments on a expeditious manner. (Though the same urgency is never seen in hearing the appeal against Jayalalitha in the Disproportionate Asset Case..for reasons only the honourable Supreme Court can explain)

Now that Supreme Court has decided that it has the right to interfere, it can be interpreted only in one way. That is that the Supreme Court considers that its role in the settlement of Cauvery dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has not been over ridden by the notification of the Tribunal award, or in other words it is not recognizing the existence of the tribunal notification.

Hence it is deemed that the Notification of the Tribunal is suspended and the Tribunal award itself is deemed to be not yet accepted in law.

Why The Cauvery Tribunal Award is to be treated as Void

The Cauvery Tribunal award itself is considered a fraud and the award itself was blatantly unfair to the State of Karnataka. It should be challenged and quashed. This award was founded on the 1892 and 1924 British-Mysore agreements which were between unequal parties and considered “unconscionable“. The Supreme Court itself in LIC of India vs CERC  held that such contracts may be considered Unenforceable. The Cauvery Tribunal award is therefore challengeable even today and Karnataka should get it declared as illegal and void.

Since Supreme Court continues to exercise its jurisdiction, it is deemed that it has not considered the notification of the Tribunal as  final and has kept the Tribunal in a state of suspension.

Tamil Nadu is today “Eating the cake and having it too” by using the Supreme Court whenever it wants to get the advantages of the biased Tribunal award implemented. The Supreme Court is acting as if it is a lower court interpreting the tribunal award rather than exercising its thoughts on substantial points of law and public good. In the process it has reduced its own status to that of a lower Court.

It is therefore the right time for us to change our defense in Supreme Court and start arguing that the Supreme Court should declare that it is still interpreting the Tribunal award and hence its notification is considered null and void. Then let the Supreme Court constitute a larger bench to review the award and its dependency to the 1892 and 1924 contracts which are “Unconscionable” and adjudicate on whether the Tribunal award per-se was legal or not.

Nariman will Not Faithfully Represent Karnataka cause

Unfortunately, the Mr Fali Nariman who represents Karnataka does not seem to have challenged the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in taking up this TN petition and the Judges also have gone ahead and interpreting whether 15000 cusecs should be released for 10 days or 12000 cusecs for 20 days to help the Tamil Nadu save its crops even if Bangalore, Mysore and Mandya people may not have drinking water after a few months.

Mr Nariman will also not take up the issue of the above argument that Supreme Court deciding to exercise its jurisdiction is deemed to have taken up the Tribunal award itself for review and proceed to demand a complete review of the award and its notification. He has a greater allegiance to Ms Jayalalitha and has no commitment to the cause of Karnataka. His continuance as Karnataka counsel is a risk for the State.

There are some politicians in Karnataka including Mr Devegowda who still think it is not the mistake of Fali Nariman but of the Government which has not given the correct figures on rain data in the cauvery basin and hence Supreme Court was misguided by Tamil Nadu. Even BJP leaders think  Nariman is fine and mistake lies elsewhere. These are all political statements.

Mistakes may be there not only with the persons who fed information to Mr Nariman but in Nariman himself. If he has handled this case for 30 plus years, he should know better than any of the local statisticians about the state of affairs here. But this gentleman has no commitment to the cause of Karnataka. He is also representing Jayalalitha in other cases including the Disproportionate Asset Case in which he has successfully stalled the Supreme Court hearing of the appeal. He must be actually blacklisted as an unreliable advocate for Karnataka cause.

Is there a Nexus between Karnataka Politicians and Jayalaliatha?

If Mr Siddaramaiah and Devegowda as well as some BJP leaders consider that Mr Nariman is the right person to represent the State, there appears to be an unholy nexus driving them to such a view. What is this nexus? Has Jayalaitha paid of Karnataka politicians also? Only a proper investigation will expose this Jayalalitha-Karnataka Politician nexus.

I wish some public spirited lawyer files a PIL in Supreme Court that Mr Nariman has a conflict of interest and should not be allowed to represent Karnataka in the Cauvery issue.

Neither Congress CM or the opposition in Karnataka will otherwise remove him and the people of Karnataka will suffer from his unilateral actions such as filing affidavits on behalf of the State without checking with the CM.

This is the right time for a new Political party/Apolitical Front to emerge in Karnataka which represents the people’s interests in a professional manner. The agenda for agitation in Karnataka now is to get Mr Nariman removed and for appointment of a team of experts who are not relatives of Judges and Politicians but are those who are professionally capable.

I wish Mr Rajeev Chandrashekar accepts the above argument and admits that Mr Nariman is not reliable. Then he along with people like Mr Pratap Simha should start a new “Cauvery Resolution Front” that can lead the next round of Cauvery battle on a professional tack.

Is anybody listening?

Vijayashankar

P:S:  Here is an extract from the Assembly proceedings in 2013 as reported in DNA in an article which headlined.. “Sack Nariman for Cauvery Mess..demands opposition”

“Nariman has been doing an excellent job in arguing the Karnataka’s case. I have full faith in his abilities and performance so far. It will not be prudent to replace him at this juncture,”… so said Mr Jagadeesh Shettar

“Change the lawyer. Nariman is not the only one. There are better lawyers in this country”,..so said Mr Siddaramaiah

Is it ironic that the roles have now been reversed?… How can we trust these parties?

Ethics of Mr Nariman: See article in Hindu: “Father, Son and the Holy Court” ..the Court which says it is the duty of Citizens to obey its order..(!)

If Mr Fali S.Nariman has any sense of shame, he would have resigned from representing the State of Karnataka in the Cauvery issue long time back after his repeated failures. But he has not done so probably because he enjoys the plight he inflicts on Karnataka from time to time more than perhaps the Karnataka born lady J. Jayalalitha now trying to help Tamil Nadu.

Mr Nariman is often referred to as a distinuished senior counsel and a constitutional expert. He has been representing Karnataka in the Cauvery issue since the beginning and also led the team of advocates who represented the State in the Cauvery Tribunal.

In the more than 3 decades of his involvement, Karnataka’s case has been systematically destroyed and in every legal battle, Tamil Nadu has come out triumphant. The discredit for the same belongs solely to this gentleman who has represented the case of Karnataka and received fat remuneration for his failed discharge of duty.

In the recent instance it is proven that he gave an affidavit in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Government without consulting them and committed the State to release 10000 Cusecs of water per day when the State was pleading shortage of water even for drinking purpose.

It is necessary for all to remember that he also is representing J.Jayalalitha in her personal case with the Supreme Court regarding the disproportionate assets (DPA) in which Mr Subramanya Swamy had cornered her. She was bailed out by  a judge who mis totalled a simple table of figures to be able to discharge her. This blatant mistake has been appealed against in the Supreme Court but the honourable Supreme Court takes months and months to even hear the appeal while it has enough time to hear the Cauvery issue or JNU issue or all other silly defamation cases which Delhi politicians bring up from time to time.

It is evident that if Mr Nariman is seen arguing Jayalalitha at the same time against TN in the Tribunal it could attract adverse attention of the media. Hence it appears that he has managed to convince the honourable Supreme Court to delay the hearing of the DPA case as long as possible and perhaps until the Cauvery issue dies down this year.

I cannot understand how this senior counsel can be trusted by the people of Karnataka to represent their case fairly.

While it is open to Karnataka Government to sack him, for reasons better known to the politicians, the decisions favourable to TN seems to be also welcome to them and therefore they keep pampering this senior counsel. The CM of Karnataka is not interested in pursuing the appeal in the DPA case and even the opposition is cool to this delay which has enabled Jayalalitha to be the CM of Tamil nadu rather than cooling her heels in a jail.

I appeal to the good senses of Mr Fali S.Nariman, that he should recognize that the people of Karnataka have no trust in him and he should walk out of this case without further ado.

People of Karnataka need to impress upon the Chief Minister for his ouster if he does not resign himself.

This will be the first step to cooling down the passions on the street.

Vijayashankar

Also Read:

https://www.quora.com/Can-anyone-write-about-the-Kaveri-water-issue-between-Karnataka-and-Tamil-Nadu

While Karnataka observes a Bandh today expressing its opposition to the decision of the Government to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu to protect the farming activities though this may jeopardize supply of drinking water to Mysore and Bangalore, Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw sitting in Delhi created a needless controversy by her insensitive remark that Bangalore has become Bandhalur.

Certainly, she is expressing her “Freedom of Expression” and is entitled to her views. In fact I also donot like any form of protest that inconveniences general public. I am aware that there are many in Bangalore who depend on hotels for their daily food supply and many vendors who live by the day and they all will find it difficult to manage the day.

But her insensitive remark was not peppered with any explanations and therefore the presumption is that she is only concerned with the inconvenience caused to her business and not to the plight of the farmers in Karnataka and the perennial problem in the Cauvery water distribution.

Supreme Court losing Credibility

Many would point out that The Government was only following Supreme Court directive and hence there was no option for the Government but to release water.  But no body seems to remember that this Supreme Court verdict is based on an earlier Tribunal award and involves only a clerical interpretation of the award. It is therefore incorrect to provide any sanctity of a “Judicial Wisdom” involved in this verdict.

People in Karnataka have also noted that  the same Supreme Court has so far not found any time to express its judgement on the “Clerical Error” committed by a High Court Judge who acquitted Ms J.Jayalalitha in the disproportionate asset case.

How is it that the Supreme Court is quick to provide its clerical interpretation in the implementation of the Cauvery Tribunal award  while it cannot find time to total a table containing 20 arithmetic values found in a published judgement?

This situation has given an impression to the Karnataka people that the Supreme Court is not fair in dealing this Karnataka vs Tamil Nadu issue and only favours Tamil Nadu and even ignores corruption cases against J Jayalalitha because she represents Tamil Nadu. Otherwise most would have expected her to be disqualified to be the CM of Tamil Nadu. People in Karnataka think that she is still the CM of TN and raising the Cauvery issue because to the special favour shown to her by Supreme Court in not taking up her disproportionate asset case expeditiously.

I hope that this is only speculation and public perception and not the reality. But this is the perception which Supreme Court has to live with. Unless the Registrar of Supreme Court or the CJI comes up with a valid explanation for the delay, validity of this perception cannot be denied.

In view of the above, the Supreme Court verdict regarding Cauvery does not carry the required respect amongst the ordinary people in Karnataka and this sort of judgement will only devalue the respect that the highest judicial authority in the country should normally enjoy. I hope the Supreme Court understands this when it meets again on Monday for a review.

This is not the first time that Supreme Court deals with such issues where the literal law on paper may be different from the Justice that a majority of people perceive. It has happened in the Ram Janmabhoomi case as well. It has the capability to raise above clerical interpretations and go to the basis of the law on sharing of interstate river waters.

Should Mr Nariman Continue?

Now forgetting the Supreme Court judges who donot have any emotional need to support the people of the State where Cauvery takes birth, we can focus on what this Congress Government is doing and what the Opposition parties are doing.

It is stated that the Counsel of Karnataka gave an affidavit on behalf of the State that it will release 10000 cusecs of water per day in a previous hearing without consulting the Siddaramaiah Government. Based on this Supreme Court ordered release of 15000 cusecs per day. I donot understand how the Advocate could take such a decision without the tacit approval of the Government. The Government’s views cannot be relegated to the advocate without question.

Just for this reason, it would have been understandable if Karnataka Government had removed Mr Nariman and appointed an alternate counsel to take its case forward.

Failure of Political Parties

But Siddaramaiah does not seem to be concerned. He is acting like the most law abiding citizen of the country trying to follow the order of the Court though it may hurt the local people. Local politicians like Ramya and Ambarish are no where to be seen. S.M Krishna and others are also silent because they want to blame Siddaramaiah on a later day.

The opposition which participated in the all party meeting also did not come out in support of the people for their own limitations and political considerations. Mr Yeddyurappa or Ananthkumar are in no position today to do anything that may displease J.Jayalalitha because she cleverly uses her clout to reject the GST law to browbeat BJP.

Just as the Huriyat leaders are pampered in J&K, BJP keeps pampering JJ and she knows that as long as she keeps opposing BJP’s bid to get the GST through, she can blackmail the Central Government as much as necessary.

Can there be a new Political party in Karnataka?

Unfortunately there is no other political party in Karnataka that can stand upto the regional needs. In fact we need a Navjotsingh Sidhu in Karnataka who can stand up for the rights of the State and take up both Cauvery and Mahadayi river issues for the benefit of the people of Karnataka. Such a party has the potential of defeating both Congress and BJP in the coming elections. But JDS is not equipped to take up this responsibility since it has other priorities and no foot print in North Karnataka. We want one leader each from South, North, Coastal and Bellary side to come together to form a new party that can take advantage of the political opportunity that this situation presents.

Everybody however is hoping that it will start raining soon and the situation gets defused as it happens year after year as the problem lingers on.

Unconscionable Contracts have become the Basis of Justice

The discussion on Cauvery does not end without pointing out that the root cause for the problem lies in the Cauvery Tribunal Award which was faulty. It placed emphasis on the earlier two agreements of 1892 and 1924 both of which were struck in the pre independence day where the powerful Madras based British Government was negotiating with the relatively weak Mysore Maharaja.

These agreements were typical “unconscionable” contracts which can be considered as void as per the Supreme Court judgement itself.

But neither Mr Nariman nor the Karnataka Government has tried to question the validity of the Tribunal award because it was based on the two earlier agreements.

when the 1924 agreement ended in 1974 most ordinary people in Karnataka thought that they are now free to use Cauvery waters as per the rights they should be normally entitled to as if there was no prior agreements. But they were surprised when TN started arguing, we have already created so much irrigated land and if water is not supplied, our farmers would be affected.

This “Fait accompli” argument is what the Tribunal gave weight to declare that TN is entitled to more water than Karnataka. This is perceived as an injustice to Karnataka which is asking for more equitable distribution.

The Bandh therefore will have popular public support despite the voices of Kiran Mazumdar and the situation will recur in future years also.

Zero Based Rethinking on Inter State River water distribution is required

Instead of making fun of the situation, I think Ms Kiran Mazumdar uses her resources to get a comprehensive debate on how interstate river water is shared on a zero based thought process without giving weightage to the past utilization of the river waters which happened because of the inequitable influences wielded by different States.

Vijayashankar

(I take note that Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has since clarified that she only suggested a peaceful dispute resolution and did not have any intention of disrespecting farmer’s problems. The clarification is welcome.)

Recently, I attended a debate in Public TV, at Bangalore where a discussion came up on how the Social Media is growing in power and is able to influence decisions in physical space.

Some of the co-panelists highlighted how in the recent Rajya Sabha elections, BJP had to deny ticket to Mr Venkaiah Naidu from Karnataka quota because of the face book campaign. Similarly the recent happenings related to the resignation of a police official and her postings in Facebook also were in discussion all over Karnataka.

There is no doubt that today it is the Twitter and Facebook that is creating a flutter and trending news which often becomes the point for prime time debate on TV. From being a reactionary media to traditional media, Social media has emerged as the trend setter.

Intelligent media strategists have cleverly integrated the powers of the two media and brought out a synergic effect by openign a twitter handle to which viewers of a TV program can instantly respond so that an online Poll can be conducted even during an ongoing debate.

One of the reasons why Social media is increasingly becoming more powerful is the fact that traditional media is fast losing credibility due to its own preoccupations on commercial requirements such as TRP and their own political leanings.

Mr Arnab Goswami’s debates have become a subject of joke all around with Cyrus Broacha repeatedly making fun of the “Never, Ever” phrase and  “Setting the screen on fire”.  NDTV, CNN IBN and India Today have specific political leanings to Congress because their anchors are in some way or other related to politicians. The leaings of NewsX is yet to get crystalized though it seems to believe in the Arnab strategy of “Shouting to be heard”.

These political leanings also prevail in regional media particularly in Tamil Nadu where every political party has its declared TV partner. In Karnataka, it is a little more subtle but anchors some time betray their leanings when they pose leading questions to their participants or cut short the respondents when they tend to speak on uncomfortable lines.

It should also to be noted that many of the anchors feel that they can formulate public opinion not only by selecting biased debate participants of their choice but also by themselves taking a firm stand on one side of the issue and arguing with the participants. This tendency is very much evident when different political parties are represented in the panel. By this time viewers are aware that even if US senators rush to get autograph of Mr Modi after his speech, the Congress panelist will still say that the speech was meaning less and Modi has failed to deliver. There is therefore no credibility on such biased debatants some of whom come with the reputation of being foreign secretaries, advocates etc.

The effect of this biased conduct of the traditional journalists is one reason why the social media is gaining more and more popularity. The intelligent viewer of a TV program who spots the biased nature of reporting feels more comfortable to go to Twitter or Facebook and post his views or if he is more capable maintain his own blog. Since these postings find immediate expression in the Cyber space through search engines, they will have the satisfaction of having come out with their sincere opinion about the issue.

If the reporting by traditional media is fairer, many of these social media activists find it unnecessary to spend time and energy in posting their views. Hence the credit for the growing power of the Social media should be given to the traditional media and the anchors of TV channels who think that they are kings and control the minds of people.

In the process of such social media expression we find that some times  postings made under an emotionally disturbed and angry mood often create problems due to lack of moderation by a second person. This leads to the charge that Social media is irresponsible and defamatory.

In order therefore to ensure that Social media remains responsible, it is necessary that we device means to educate the social media participants to maintain some dignity in their expressions and introduce moderation wherever necessary.

Such moderation is today essential as otherwise social media postings as well as postings in WhatsApp and other messenger services could cause legal issues which could be very damaging.

I urge all Netizens therefore to device their own methods to control their postings and always retain the power to remove postings if necessary. It is also better if Netizens form themselves into self help groups so that comments can be moderated at the group level.

Naavi

In recent days the bias expressed by media in opposing whatever Mr Modi proposes, is too obvious.

I recall the following web page which says

QUOTE

When our PM expressed his vision of making India a $20 Trillion economy, our media got busy trying to falsify him. The seeming intent of the opposition (Congress) and in toe, our media, was to write off PM Modi’s entire trip as a failure because he allegedly wrongly cited the size of Indian economy as “8 Trillion” in his townhall meet with Mark Zuckerberg. The charge from the media was led by The Hindu, commandeered by one Puja Mehra.
The Hindu resorts to creative interpretations of GDP data just to prove Modi is wrong

UNQUOTE

It appears that the media bias towards leftist ideas in not unique to India. It prevails even in US. But in India, the bias is so blatant that it gets disgusting to hear the debates on the TV.

Another report states

QUOTE

There are certain traders of media in India. 

1. Hindustan Times – Shobhna Bhartia, owner and editor-in-chief of Hindustan Times is a Congress MP from Rajya Sabha.
2. Vinod Sharma, HT Political Affairs editor, is essentially a Congress spokesman on all TV panel discussions, because once his boss’ term gets over, he will be looking out for her RS seat next
3. Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi, famous Congress stooges (and intermediaries for UPA allies) who were exposed in the Radiagate scandal, and are virtual Congress spokespersons in their capacities as electronic media personalities, are the ones who write opinion and op-ed columns most frequently (once every week) on the editorial pages of HT. In return, Barkha and Sanghvi are rewarded with Padma Shris and other monetary compensation by the Nehru dynasty or Congress party.
4. NDTV’s promoters are Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy. Radhika’s sister Brinda Karat is a famous CPM leader (well known for anti-Baba Ramdev views) and Brinda’s husband Prakash Karat is the CPM Politburo General Secretary (well known for preferring Congress over BJP). And Prannoy Roy’s first cousin is the famous far-leftist pro-Maoist-Naxalite pro-Kashmiri-terrorists “intellectual” Arundhati Suzanna Roy.
5. NDTV’s Barkha Dutt’s reality has already been exposed by me in above section.
6. NDTV’s Sonia Singh is the wife of Uttar Pradesh Congress MP, Union minister and ex-princely state ruler, Mr. R. P. N. Singh, who is one of the fastest rising stars in the Congress party. If you remember, Sonia Singh is a very high-profile anchor on NDTV whose pro-Congress anti-BJP bias is legendary.
7. NDTV’s Nidhi Razdan (high-profile anchor of Left Right Centre) is the current girlfriend of J&K CM Omar Abdullah (after Omar recently divorced his wife of several years and mother of his two children, Payal). Nidhi Razdan is also famous for her legendary pro-Congress and anti-BJP bias.
8. CNN-IBN : Rajdeep Sardesai’s wife and co-promoter of CNN-IBN, Sagarika Ghose, who anchors Face the Nation and is famous journalist of CNN-IBN (well, her hubby is the owner-editor-in-chief after all) are famous Congress stooges.
9. Sagarika’s father Bhaskar Ghose was a famous sarkari babu and was made the chief of Prasar Bharati (Doordarshan) during Indira and Rajiv regimes. Bhaskar Ghose was well-known for personal loyalty to the Nehru dynasty, and now his daughter and son-in-law are rewarded with their own channel to do Congress propaganda.
10. In fact Sagarika’s extended family even consists of her aunts Ruma Pal (former Supreme Court justice and a close friend of the Nehru family) and Arundhati Ghose (former diplomat and Indian ambassador to various countries, predictably, under Congress regimes).
11. Let’s now come to another famous CNN-IBN media personality who also writes columns frequently for Hindustan Times — Karan Thapar. What you may not know is that the Nehru family itself is related, through blood and marriages, to the high-profile Thapar family. India’s Army chief during the 1962 debacle against China, Gen. P. N. Thapar, is brother-in-law of Nayantara Sehgal, the daughter of Vijaylakshmi Pandit and niece of Jawaharlal Nehru. Gen. Thapar’s son is pro-Congress journalist Karan Thapar. Gen. Thapar’s sister is Romila Thapar, a famous “top” typical JNU Nehruvian communist ideologue historian, who gets to write our textbooks and pollute them with pro-Congress Marxist propaganda.
12. The HIndu – The Worst – N. Ram, owner and editor-in-chief (till February 2012) of The Hindu, was once a vice president of the Students Federation of India. SFI is the students’ wing of the CPM.
13. P. Sainath of the The Hindu (acclaimed journalist well known for his, again, unsurprisingly, typical left-wing Nehruvian communism ideology), is the nephew of Congress politician V. Shankar Giri and the grandson of V. V. Giri, ex-President of India and famous Congress politician. Giri was especially known to be one of the first few staunch loyalists of Indira, and whom Indira fielded for President elections against her own party’s Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, and who ultimately became the cause of the first high-profile split in the Indian National Congress into Congress (O) and Congress (I) — almost all the pre-independence regional stalwarts split away to join Congress (O) or form their own state parties, and the rest including Giri (all the loyalists of the Nehru family staying on with Indira).
14. Or even what about little known News24 Hindi media channel? Owned by ex-journalist and editor Rajiv Shukla, famous Congress MP in Rajya Sabha, Union minister, industrialist, BCCI vice president and IPL chairman.
15. Or even what about little known Lokmat (and IBN Lokmat) that is Marathi newspaper (and channel) in Maharashtra? Owner and editors-in-chief are the brothers Vijay Darda (Congress MP) and Rajendra Darda (Congress MLA in Maharashtra, and minister in state govt).
16. Or even the other bigger and smaller media houses, such as The Times of India and Indian Express, where the Nehru dynasty has managed to infiltrate its loyalists such as Dileep Padgaonkar and Shekhar Gupta, who are essentially paid stooges of the Congress party.
17. Vinod Mehta – Outlook editor has been well known to take anti BJP stand.

UNQUOTE

(P.S: The above information has not been verified and quoted from the source mentioned. I would invite any body to correct the information if they donot agree with it.)

The above information suggests how bad the media situation is in India and why it is behaving in a manner that defies logic.

Naavi