Citizen and the state

POLITICAL REFORMS - ASSERTING CIVIC SOVEREIGNTY: V. A. Pai Panandiker, Subhash C. Kashyap - Editors; Konark Publishers Pvt. Ltd., A-149, Main Vikas Marg, Shakarpur, Delhi-110092. Rs. 500.

FROM NEHRU to Narasimha Rao is a saga of dubious advance, ideological imbroglios, vicissitudinous reversal of our Constitutional values inscribed in the Preamble and a mendicant invitation, with xenophilic inclination, to Big Business to recolonise the country in the guise of double-speak, globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation. Is India, on its socialist swaraj march, or losing its economic sovereignty to rob-grab-Global Corporates? Is the Judiciary jettisoning social justice and joining the ``creamy-layer'' salariat, ever asking for more? This collective subject of grave significance forms the basis of the present thoughtful book. Obviously, the canvas is wide, the topics plural and the issues polemical. The participants are eminent and the publication timely. The well- known social scientist, V. A. Pai Panandiker, and political scientist, Subhash Kashyap, have jointly edited the book.

Dr. Subash starts off with a comprehensive introduction and Pai Panandiker concludes with a set of policy recommendations. In between, a spectrum of important themes is addressed, each of which requires slow reading and critical pondering. Freedom from colonial rule transferred sovereignty in all its dimensions from British Raj to Swaraj and We the People of India became the final political masters. Kashyap's opening observations are pregnant with meaning: ``With the adoption of democratic polity, the citizens were to function both as the rulers and the ruled. However, it is being increasingly realised that the sovereignty of the masses stands grievously eroded by the manner in which the political system and the public administration have actually worked during the last half-a- century and more.''

The citizen and the state cannot be insulated from each other. It is this mutual interaction that assures people's harmony and happiness. The comity of the trinity of constitutional instrumentalities is a sine qua non of orderly and peaceful life. The dual dimensions of federalism, as desiderated by our Constitution, necessarily needs a judiciary to keep the States and the Union within their bounds and to keep law and order in civil society, using court authority and the supremacy of the rule of law for the sovereign functions. These are elementary but entropy in society so often creates lawless injustice, savage violence, pervasive corruption, unashamed abuse of power and failure of accountability by wielders of power.

Just dissent in democracy is surely permissible but power excesses and militant terrorism may create chaos in the cosmos and plunge people in despair. So it is important that the administrative machinery is fair, functional and accessible to the humble Indian. To achieve these desiderata, the police and the judiciary need reforms when we find social justice a lost cause, the police power a perverted process. Aiding the wrong doer and instead of the victim making the judicial system dilatory, unequal, expensive, arbitrary and unaccountable, is a daily experience. So we realise how political reforms and people's sovereignty need a broad coverage and demand a larger vision of democratic ambiance.

The erudite editors, experts in the field of social science, have drawn on specialists, resources and assembled a collection of essays which are worth the time and money and intellectual with concern may care to lay out. Each contributor is a seasoned expert in his field indeed. But viewed from a radical angle, I miss avant-garde serendipity, creative originality, revolutionary metamorphosis beyond what oft has been thought but never so well expressed. No millennium magic of meliorative ideas but many progressive, though humdrum views are presented with clarity and brevity. After all, mediocrity and democracy are functionally friendly while talented thinkers with vision and mission shake up the status quo. But they are allergy to the pedestrian professionals and traditional operators in the social sciences. However, even ideas, not necessarily exceptional, may have a freshness and fragrance when presented with sound logic, elegant English and touch of authority. The book under review passes this test.

``The Judiciary and judicial reforms,'' written by a retired Chief Justice with long experience and commitment to reform, is a fine presentation with persuasive ratiocination to support his recommendations. He argues for proportional increase in judge strength based on the country's population in comparison with prosperous countries' demography. This is a common argument but is fundamentally doubly flawed, if taken literally. Already we have CATs, Consumer Courts, a miscellany of other tribunals plus plus and now fast-track courts, Rent Control tribunals, ombudsmen and numberless Curial entities often manned by retired judges. Vast masses in homeless hunger do not go to court and their numbers are irrelevant for judge-strength.

Another plea is for more perks and higher salaries. In a bankrupt country like ours it is unjust to give 200 litres of petrol, having regard to the ground realities of poverty and empty public exchequer. And, do remember, judicial power is, in itself, a great share in sovereignty worth more than countless advocates' income. They can only submit before Their Lordships who decide. The majesty of judge power cannot be mensurated by large lawyerly lucre when juxtaposed against State power. All prime ministers and presidents weighed in the scales by potential earnings of corrupt politicians or of entrepreneurs of mega-corporations? On the contrary, one criterion against judge selection should be the advocate's huge income. Riches and tears for the poor go ill together. We are in a Republic of the Third World. A carefully crafted foolproof National Judicial Commission is a felt necessity of the times. Financial autonomy for the judicature is a fair demand to make the judges independent but not unaccountable, extravagant and arrogant life-style.

Procedural procrastinations, fossil rules and dilatory venalities are judicial habitudes. This pathological, cavalier, yen, must change and then many litigations which take unconscionable years now, can be disposed of in months.

Remember, ``more judges'' often means Parkinson's Law and Peter Principle. Parkinson's law proves the functional futility of adding to numbers of officers. It means that the more the members, the more they create or expand work for themselves. Thus the logjam continues and more money is spent by litigants on judges who, not rarely, forget to deliver judgments, let alone record evidence briskly or control arguments to just brevity. We have an obsolete system of Macaulay or Sir James Fitz Stephen vintage. The Peter Principle means that each man rises to the highest level of his incompetence. Arrears and dilatory decisions are inevitable.

Technology, if applied universally, will accelerate judicial disposals. Cyber law facilitates fast track, even blitz disposals. Yet another point is the need for a legislation for making a code of ethics, conduct and performance applicable to the judges. J.S. Verma triggered the project but there is no passion to constitutionalise it by his successors or the Justice Ministry. Even Legal Aid System is a laggard. Probably, an in- depth research on judicial reform may have to be undertaken. Justice J.S. Verma's well written piece is a beginning, a good beginning, but we have miles to go to keep our promises of equal justice.

B. G. Verghese, a vintage journalist, has examined ``The citizen and civil society''. A fine piece, neat presentation but few corrective therapies or ideational unorthodoxies to make the little Indian, large in number a power in political dimension. How I wish B.G.'s last passage became a testament of truth, not an opium of the victim billion of India. Let me quote Verghese: ``The battle has been joined. The citizen is gradually repatriating some of her or his lost sovereignty as civil society comes into its own. The state is not likely to wither away in a hurry. But among the tasks before developing societies, nothing is perhaps more critical than building citizenship, investing citizens with dignity and, in the Indian context, making Bharat India. That done, civil society will inevitably emerge immeasurably stronger.''

The role of political parties, the use and misuse of the police, the VIP syndrome wasting Khaki crowds, reforming our federalism to make both the Union and the States harmoniously enjoy the dignity of larger autonomy and necessity of a strong Centre - these and other matters are packed into the 362 pages of the book.

There are many other well-written articles, each good in itself. P. P. Rao, whose ideas are familiar for me, has contributed a fine piece on the political executives. Good, so far as it goes, but more radicalism from Rao's pen is possible. He is a creative jurist with public-spirited penchant. He has regaled the reader with excellent quotes from Shiva Rao's volumes and Dr. Ambedkar's speeches.

The political executives have brought this country to terrible disaster. Rao has covered a large ground and I cannot offend him by prolixity of my own. I agree with him. ``There is pressing need for constitutional and electoral reforms, including the provisions governing defections.'' His conclusions are concrete and recommendations sound. Many other articles are from statesmen, social scientists and jurists with clear vision of the country's downtrodden economy and collapsing morale and morals.

Who can disagree with Panandiker's perfect sum-up: It is only when Indians are truly free that India is likely to succeed. The reform of the Parliament, the state assemblies, the civil service, and the judiciary must be carried out as quickly as possible to enable India and Indians perform according to the vast unutilised human resource and talent of the country.''

May I enter a caveat to obviate future shock. If our political destiny is to be fulfilled we must stand up, speak up and disprove the truth of Mark Twain's sarcasm: ``It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practise either of them.''

Alas, people's taciturnity promotes political - bureaucratic - judicial perversity. In our cyber age, the super-highway of information must reach the small human, rouse him/her to rage against those in power whom irate Churchill in the Commons (1946) called, with prophetic wrath, ``rogues, rascals and freebooters.''

V. R. KRISHNA IYER

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