The Supreme Court judgment on tainted politicians is exciting, yet half-baked!

The Supreme Court’s recent landmark judgment, which ensures that convicted politicians will now get immediately disqualified from contesting in elections or holding office, marks an end to almost a two decade long tug-of-war between political parties and the Election Commission over the right of electoral candidacy to tainted candidates. While it is surely a landmark judgment and it’s not fair to be critical about everything, yet, the board is split into equal halves in their opinion towards the SC ruling, as pros and cons of the judgment seem to weigh equally.

On the one hand, just because a case is hanging against a candidate, it is grossly unfair for the person to be assumed disqualified (due to the hyped up fear of future conviction) – as the allegation could well be fabricated. As it often happens in the political domain, a candidate could be debarred based on false allegation brought about by vested interests to stonewall him from standing in an election. It’s quite easy and simple: just file a case against him, tom tom the fact that the candidate could end up getting convicted, and he is done for good.

Morally, it’s our Constitutional right to remain innocent until proved guilty. And if that doctrine is applicable to all Indian citizens, it is only fair that the same applies to the politicians as well. It is not that the SC judgment goes against this. But the scrutiny that politicians will face now, especially the honest ones who have trumped up cases against them, could well be unfair. The attempts over the years to enforce stringent rules against political candidates has been to stem the growing criminalization of Indian politics and to debilitate the nefarious nexus of politicians with goons and unlawful activities. But I have to admit, in this attempt to secure a fine balance between being just and unjust, it is debatable how far the strings should be pulled in curbing criminal activities in politics and how much latitude should be given to electoral candidates. The fact also is that a mind-numbing high percentage of Indian politicians have got criminal cases pending against them, most of which are genuine, but they are not convicted due to their muscle power.

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Don’t see “Slumdog Millionaire”. It sucks!

A phony poseur that has been made only to mock India for the viewing pleasure of the First World!! The emperor’s new clothes! That’s “Slumdog Millionaire” for you… Five minutes into this celebrated patchwork of illogical clichés and you are struck by the jarring dialogues. The cumbersome delivery in a language which doesn’t come naturally to most of the actors sounds like someone scratching on walls with one’s finger nails; it ruins the possibility of a connection… Had this film been made by an Indian director, it would’ve been trashed as a rotting old hat, which literally stands out only because of its stench, but since the man making it happens to be from the West, we’re all left celebrating the emperor’s new clothes. The film borrows an undoubtedly interesting narrative style – from films like “City of God” – but then uses it to weave in a collection of clichés from the Third World’s underbelly for the viewing pleasure of a First World audience. The real slumdog in the movie is not ...

86% Indians fear losing their jobs due to the Pandemic as per a recent online survey. The fear has completely stopped economic activities and spending. We must remove the fear and start the economy. For that we need to guarantee everyone that jobs or no job, they will be economically secure through a minimum unemployment allowance (double of which should be the minimum wages). It requires a simple four step process: 1. Create an online database of job seekers based on their Adhaar Card number. 2. Make it totally illegal to employ anyone for any kind of job without registering his/her Aadhaar Card number. 3. The moment Adhaar Card number is fed in the list of employed, it gets automatically removed from the job seekers register and they stop getting unemployment allowance. 4. Everyone getting unemployment allowance will have to necessarily do 4 hours of social and community service as directed by the registry. Employers will also know who is seeking jobs where and their qualificat...

Never let a politician tell you which religion to follow — Arindam Chaudhuri, IIPM

Never let a politician tell you which religion to follow & never let a religious man tell you which politician to vote for— Arindam Chaudhuri https://youtube.com/shorts/g9HQfB4pZYw?feature=shared #Religion #god #atheism #hinduism #islam #christianity #daretothinkbeyond #ArindamChaudhuri #IIPM #whatweteachtodayothersadopttomorrow

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