Current Public Administration Magazine (MARCH 2019)

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Sample Material of Current Public Administration Magazine

1. Accountability and Responsibility

Judiciary and Hate Speech

The Delhi High Court's handling of the petition seeking FIRs against the BJP leaders for their alleged hate speeches on February 27 amounts to abdication of constitutional duty. The time has come for the nation to be reminded that judges of the Supreme Court and high courts are constitutionally obliged to “make and subscribe… an oath or affirmation according to the form set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule.” The oath inter-alia requires the person to solemnly affirm, “that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India… that I will duly and faithfully act to the best of my ability, knowledge and judgment, perform duties of my office without fear or favour, without affection or illwill and that I will uphold the Constitution and the laws.” Article 21, which every judge is bound to enforce provides, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.”

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2. Indian Government and Politics

Values of Constitutionalism

Some of the aspects surrounding the farewell of Justice S Muralidhar have no precedent. The serving of the transfer order, which was the genesis of the farewell, close to midnight, was unusual. The specific words of the order directing him to assume charge as judge were downright humiliating. The number of lawyers who attended the farewell in the main lobby of the Delhi High Court was unprecedented too. Not just the ground floor, the ramp covering the two floors of the High Court was also packed. Muralidhar's speeches, both in the main lobby as also in the more formal Full Court Reference, exceeded expectations. And there was his sage advice to young lawyers — to never enter court without being fully prepared, even if it is just for the adjournment of a case. He recounted his experience in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy case (the issue being whether interest of the amount awarded to the victims should be given to them) where, after multiple adjournments, and when least expected, the case was taken up in the SC and relief given on that day itself .

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3. Significant Issues in Indian Administration

Delhi CM In Charge of Police

Is this India's version of coronavirus? The death toll is rising every day and no sign that people are being isolated to stop further spread. Watch out that it does not break out in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar next, then all over the Hindi belt. The surprise is not that violence in Delhi broke out, but why it took so long. Why did it take
the virus of communalism 70-plus days (since the day police rushed into Jamia Millia Islamia) to claim its first victims, and that too on a day Narendra Modi would have preferred to show Delhi at its best to his friend Donald Trump? The incubation of the communalism virus rarely takes so long. It is normally sudden, unexpected and murderous. Recall 1984. It was not a Hindu-Muslim riot. It was a pogrom driven by Congress goons, erupting as news came that Indira Gandhi had been assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. Police stood by. Sikhs died by the thousands, with no ability to retaliate. The then Home Minister became Prime Minister seven years later.

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4. Current Topic

Undercutting Secular Foreign Policy

Protests over the Narendra Modi government's handling of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) peaked and the capital slipped into widespread arson, looting and murder as US President Donald Trump arrived, on a stand-alone visit, on February 24 in Ahmedabad and then went on to Delhi via Agra. The situation had simmered for weeks as Delhi had an acrimonious election, which the lost BJP badly. Happenings in the city distracted from the visit, even as glasses were raised at Rashtrapati Bhavan at the Indian President's banquet on February 25.

President Trump, known for his uninhibited tweets, read his carefully-crafted public address at Motera stadium. He referred to India as a democracy which was peaceful and tolerant. He lauded freedom, rule of law, liberty and protection of human dignity, adding graphically that where India had the holy Ganges, it also had the Golden Temple and Jama Masjid. He thereby cleverly reassured critics at home, especially in the US Congress, that he was not ignoring the values the two great democracies shared.

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5. Financial Administration

Dissent is not Sedition

At a time when dissent is being equated with sedition by too many of our political leaders it was wonderful to hear Justice Dhananjaya Chandrachud on the subject last week. While delivering the 15th Justice P D Desai Memorial Lecture at the Gujarat High Court, he described dissent as the „safety valve' of democracy. Then in an article that appeared in The Times of India, he had this to say. “The silencing of dissent and the generation of fear in the minds of people go beyond the violation of personal liberty and a commitment to constitutional values — it strikes at the heart of a dialogue-based democratic society which accords to every individual equal respect and consideration.” The Supreme Court judge's words come as a warning. They are particularly important today when those who took to the streets in Uttar Pradesh to express their dissent against what they consider a bad law have been subjected to huge fines and the confiscation of their property. How better to crush dissent than to cause economic harm to people who are being identified by facial recognition in crowds of protesters? How better to crush dissent than to start arresting actresses and poets for being seen at protests?

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