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UPA in sunset mode; unemployment rises

Created on 30 December 2013

Doctor, why have you not lived up to your word on jobs? DECEMBER 27, 2013 (Published by taxindiaonline.com) WITH the UPA trapped in the sunset mode, the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has the last opportunity to reflect on reasons for his Government's growing unpopularity among the masses. A sincere analysis might perhaps motivate him to make a brave attempt to regain the trust that public reposed him in 2004 and 2009 polls. A major factor for UPA's downslide that PM must dissect is its lip-service to the need for creating jobs in manufacturing and service sectors and preventing lay-offs. The failure on this count is primarily due to Government's obsession with dole-outs or welfare approach as reflected in the food security bill and Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The debacle of the Congress, UPA's core, in the recent State Assembly polls has confirmed that votes cannot be won with charity.

Sedition Law Stalemate- A tip of Policy Paralysis (PP) Iceberg

Created on 24 May 2022

The Supreme Court’s order to suspend sedition provision of Indian Penal Code (IPC) is invaluable. This is because it offers the Nation an opportunity to spot and end policy paralysis (PP) across all domains during Amrit Kaal.

The ubiquitous PP would become as clear as sunlight when we consider specific instances in several areas later in this column.

Both NDA Government and its predecessor UPA failed to fulfil their ostensible intent to amend Section 124A of IPC. The duo has thus frittered away a decade of new opportunity beginning 2012 to revise this Section to facilitate rational criticism of misgovernance.

Section 124A is popularly known as sedition law (SL). It was incorporated into IPC, 1860 by British rulers in 1870 to terrorise freedom fighters.

After the Independence, SL has served as a handy tool for the ruling parties at the Centre and the States to rein in criticism against them. Accountability-seekers now-a-days perceive Section 124A as Damocles sword on their heads.

“Anybody who speaks against the Government established by the law can be booked under the sedition law,” admitted Mr. Kiren Rijiju, as Minister of State for Home Affairs, in Rajya Sabha on 16th March 2016. He was replying to supplementary queries emanating from starred question on ‘Review of Sedition Law.’

Mr. Rijiju deserves applaud for his courage to acknowledge that the sedition charge is often “found to be violative of the provisions of Article 19(1)(a) (of the Constitution), that is, the Freedom of Speech and Expression”.

Amend Constitution & Relevant Laws to Legalize Act of God

Created on 12 September 2020

The Centre’s two debt-burdening GST compensation options (GST-COs), offered to States, should trigger a serious debate on ‘Act of God’ (AoG).

India should provide constitutional and statutory protection to AoG that empowered Union Finance Ministry to contrive GST-COs. The AoG clarity on the Statute Book can help nip in the bud potential litigation in commercial contracts. It can also help arrest burgeoning trust deficit in the Centre-State relations.

Indian Constitution is outdated. It left out AoG. The name ‘God’, however, figures 13 times in the Constitution in relation to oath/swearing in of key personnel in the overall governance system.

Parliament should thus debate whether the Constitution should be amended to specify and define AoG to cap political liability of authorities. Should it be defined as exclusive privilege of the central government? Or, should all three tiers of governments have the right to renege or tweak their obligations towards the citizens? Should invocation of AoG enjoy immunity from litigation?

Statutory protection against any official decision taken in the name of AoG can be granted by taking a leaf from The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBMA), 2003.

FRBMA says: “No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against the Central Government or any officer of the Central Government for anything which is in good faith done or intended to be done under this Act or the rules made thereunder”.

It adds: “No civil court shall have jurisdiction to question the legality of any action taken by, or any decision of, the Central Government, under this Act”.

Parliament should debate laws that require amendments to empower different stakeholders of economy to invoke AoG.

A fleeting look at Indian laws show that AoG finds mention only in three laws. None of them define AoG. The AoG-carrying laws are: The Railways Act, 1989 (RA), The Mines Act, 1952 and The Indian Carriage of Goods by Sea Act, 1925.

Political NYAY Aplenty but No NYAY to Legal Justice

Created on 20 May 2019

(Swachh Office. Image Courtesy: swachhbharaturban.gov.in)

Legal justice is getting injustice in this season of political NYAY (justice). Both Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress Party have banished long overdue National Litigation Policy (NLP) from their respective manifestos.

And populism-smitten voters are least bothered about speedy justice for all. VVIP residents in Lutyens Delhi might get justice at the drop of gavel. A terror mastermind might get its appeal heard at mid-night. The hapless Aam Aadmi has, however, no option but to stand in queue for justice for decades.

Both BJP & Congress have turned deaf & dumb to the Supreme Court’s fervent appeal to launch and implement NLP. The appeal figured in two separate judgments delivered during 2017 & 2018.

“When will the Rip Van Winkleism (RVW) stop and Union of India wake up to its duties and responsibilities to the justice delivery system?”, stated the apex court in a verdict that focused on NLP delivered on 24th April 2018.

RVW is derived from Rip Van Winkle, a character who slept for 20 years in a story penned by Washington Irving. He found the world changed when he woke up.

The Court posed RVW query after making a stinging observation: “Nothing has been finalised by the Union of India for the last almost about 8 years and under the garb of ease of doing business, the judiciary is being asked to reform. The boot is really on the other leg”.