Editorial "Damming The Ganges" of 15 June 2008 issue of LAW ANIMATED WORLD

DAMMING THE GANGES

could be quite dangerous to the fragile ecosystems of the Himalayan region with calamitous consequences for the people in the Indo-Gangetic plain. No doubt there may be some immediate benefits like cheap hydro-electric power and irrigation facilities to hitherto unreachable areas but the cons unfortunately outweigh the pros in this regard. There was stout opposition to and intense agitation against the construction of the Tehri Dam earlier with the controversy even carried to the Supreme Court through PILs when finally that Court took the regretful decision to give it a green signal and put the matters to rest for the timebeing. But it seems the governments at the helm are not satisfied with the damage already inflicted but want to dam the river near its very origin – Gangotri. Prof. G.D. Agarwal, former Dean, IIT Kanpur, has taken lead now for a spirited fight against this move and has begun his protest fast-unto-death from 13 June. His reasoning is that the damming would lead to the drying up of the lower reaches of Gangaji, which offends not only the sentiments of crores of Hindus who worship the river as a mother goddess but also starts a process of desertification of considerable portions of the Gangetic plain in the near future. The vast water reservoirs created by such damming are hotbeds for tectonic quakes. The entire Himalayan region is a relatively recent geographical formation in creational timescale and it could not endure such human tampering for long. Already in this journal we had earlier discussed the pros and cons of big dams and the enlightening report of the World Dams Commission and all wisdom dictates restraint in this matter. Let the Governments not rush through such potentially disastrous dams but concentrate on less risky medium and minor irrigation works and development of alternative energy sources §§§

Editorial 'Degeneration of Democracy': LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 31 May 2008

DEGENERATION OF DEMOCRACY

There is much truth and relevance in the ancient philosopher-cum-statesman Aristotle’s categorization of and preferences for different types of states which still appeal to the present realities, especially in a dysfunctional democracy like ours. Aristotle called tyranny, oligarchy and democracy as perversions of better forms of state – monarchy, aristocracy and polity respectively, and meant some sort of constitutional elite governance by the last. He was of the firm view that because of the proneness of democracy to degenerate into license and mobocracy it is not to be preferred but of course tyranny is the worst form of state. Nowadays we also witness the same type of license and mobocracy in our country with all the noble values and principles espoused by our constitutional framers and even prior to them by the indefatigable national liberation fighters given a go-bye for narrow group interests. Curiously two glaring perversions of this sort occurred almost simultaneously – one in the North and the other in the South of India. The pictures above speak for themselves but we further say that the attack on the press freedom blatantly resorted to by a communal organization espousing the causes of the ‘most downtrodden of the masses’ bodes no good for the future of our polity. If at all they had been piqued by the innuendo of being ‘hired leaders’ they could have retorted, a la Sri Sri, that many papers too are and act like ‘daughters of Capital and anthills of lies’ and more effectively rebutted any vily propaganda against themselves than by stooping to such low levels of anarchic violence. Likewise the Gujjars better realize that craving for more backwardness never helps any community, antagonizes the rest of the society and perpetuates sloth and meanness. It is high time that individuals and communities think of the fate of the country and democracy first and their particular interests only next.

ON INDO-NEPAL TREATY AND SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH INDIA

ON INDO-NEPAL TREATY AND SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH INDIA

MALLIKARJUNA SHARMA Says: May 19, 2008 at 10:31 pm
I think the open borders should continue and it is the Nepalese who benefit most from it. Introducing visa by Prachanda will also mean Nepalese have to get visa from India too and that will affect the livelihoods of millions of Nepalese who periodically come to India to make some money and go back home. Prachanda should not be swept by national chauvinism. Likewise India and China cannot be equated. Nepal had, has and will have a special relationship with India. It is almost like a border state of India and the people there I found to be so comfortable with Hindi and relations with Indians (except of course any exploiters among them). If there are any other specific clauses and instances of injustice to Nepal those should be discussed threadbare and sorted out in a spirit of friendship and mutual cooperation. Of course a review of the treaty and subsequent arrangements there should be.

Editorial of LAW ANIMATED WORLD, Vol. 4: Part 1, 15 May 2008, No. 9 issue

LAW ANIMATED WORLD
A world law fortnightly published from Hyderabad, India.
Editor: I. Mallikarjuna Sharma
ADVISORS: Dr. Lakshmi Sahgal (INA Colonel), V.R. Krishna Iyer (Former Judge, SC), B.P. Jeevan Reddy (Former Judge, SC), P.A. Choudary (Former Judge, APHC), Surendra Mohan (Ex-MP), Prof. R.V.R. Chandrasekhara Rao (Politics), Umesh Chandra (Senior Advocate, Lucknow), Ravi Kiran Jain (Senior Advocate, Allahabad), Colin Gonsalves (Senior Advocate, Delhi), K. Subba Rao (Senior Advocate, Bangalore), K.G. Kannabiran (Senior Advocate & National President, PUCL), Ms. Chandan Ramamurthi (Advocate, Delhi).
Volume 4: Part 1 15 May 2008 No. 9
C O N T E N T S
1. May Day Message 1
2. Law News: $1.4 trillion Indian ‘Black Money’ in Swiss Banks 2
3. Lakshmi Bai: Rani of Jhansi 3-4,by I. Mallikarjuna Sharma 73-74
4. Ashoka Kumar Thakur v. 5-32,Union of India (IND-SC) 45-72
5. RTA v. Grand [AUS-HC] 33-44
6. May Day: Made in America 75
7. May Day Poems Walter Crane and Alfred Hayes 76
Pictures: Left to right: 1. May Flowers; 2. Militant worker; 3. Labour Armed.
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MAY DAY MESSAGE

It is not only a jolly holiday for workpersons all over the world but is also their fighting day and as rightly stated by Old Al, it is the workingman’s New Year’s Day. It is also a day for dedication of all democracy and liberty lovers to the cause of labour and the general welfare of the masses. However, we find that the situation of the working classes in our country is quite bleak and though we have a high-sounding Constitution and some labour welfare statutes too, in reality there are no proper institutional safeguards and remedy mechanisms to quickly resolve their disputes. So much so that while the better placed, status-holding government employees walk away with several monetary, statutory and other benefits from time to time, the ordinary workpersons are deprived of even the basic remedy of knocking a labour court directly, except in cases of unjust termination. The superior courts are also not paying due attention to their weals and woes, and in these days of fast progressing LPG economy, they are prone to lend more attentive ears to the employers. Writ petitions by needy employees in various High Courts lie pending for years together without even minimum interim reliefs granted. The cosy airconditioned environment perhaps makes them forget the blistering conditions of the working people for whom the ultimate justice may be too late when, if at all, it reaches. We are not able to understand why workmen should be barred from directly going to a labour court for the many grievances they have, when the more comfortably placed Government employees can directly approach an Administrative Tribunal for all and sundry causes. Needless to say, it is only a militant upsurge of the working classes for quick remedial justice that can win them their just rights but are the Indian workers in a position to rise up and agitate? §§§

Yearning for Independence - Editorial in 30 April 2008 issue of LAW ANIMATED WORLD

YEARNING FOR INDEPENDENCE






was quite evident among the Tibetan diaspora all over the world, when, following the bloody demonstrations inside Tibet in March this year, spirited demonstrations were held in various cities of the world to stall the march of the Beijing Olympics Torch. Though Tibet is recognized as an integral part of China by many countries of the world, including India, several European countries and even USA, it is also true that there has been widespread sympathy among democracy lovers in the world towards the Tibetan national movement, mainly emanating from Dalai Lama, the spiritual cum temporal head of that community, taking refuge in India since 1956. Although it is also true that China has more valid claim to the ‘title of Tibet’ than India has for Kashmir or Nagaland, the scenarios are different in the two countries. Unlike in our relatively open democratic setup, in the closed state socialist, or state capitalist, system of China it becomes extremely difficult to gauze the actual situation in the contentious territory. No title deed however valid can hold against the express aspirations of the inhabiting communities of a territory. It seems that this time the protests inside Tibet have been far more widespread, and the Tibetan national sentiment more acute and articulate than ever in the past. Up to the Eighties the Chinese themselves used to stress that “Countries want independece; nations want liberation and people want revolution,” which saying may be more true nowadays. As such it would behove well for the Chinese regime to quickly take remedial steps to protect the Tibetan national identity and also for some real devolution of power to assure their autonomy. And for that the Chinese should immediately start negotiating with Dalai Lama and other leaders of the Tibetan national movement §§§

Once again Notice and Warning and intimation of another e-mail address for correspondence

Earlier this notice and warning was posted. We repeat it here:
NOTICE AND WARNING
All the readers of and correspondents to LAW ANIMATED WORLD are hereby informed that the e-mail account malliksharma@yahoo.com which we have been using till now has been hacked by some miscreants and we are not able to open it even. Moreover, fraudulent messages that this editor, namely MALLIKARJUNA SHARMA, had gone to Nigeria, lost all his belongings and even his mobile and requests confidentially the recepient of the message to send 3000 dollars are being sent to each and every earlier mail recepient from that e-mail account. So many friends and well-wishers have anxiously enquired from this editor the real state of things and were shocked to know about this fraud. It seems some coterie among Yahoo employees who operate or use the servers or some other very versatile miscreants are behind this fraud. We do not know for what other dirty purposes too they may be using this e-mail account now. So we have decided to trash that e-mail account since all our efforts to at least open it once to at least copy the erstwhile address book in it have miserably failed and our earlier complaints to Yahoo Administrators have gone futile. As such each and every one of the readers, well wishers and acquaintances of the LAW ANIMATED WORLD and its editor are hereby warned not to use that e-mail account ever again. We will not be responsible for any anxiety, tension or loss that may incur such persons who disregard our warning or who have already unwittingly done so. We will intimate our next e-mail account through this blog and also print it on the next issue of the journal but till then the readers, acquaintances etc. may use the account mksharma55@gmail.com to correspond with us through the net. Sorry for the trouble and thank one and all.I. MALLIKARJUNA SHARMA, Editor, LAW ANIMATED WORLD.

So none may henceforth use the hacked and discarded-by-us e-mail address (malliksharma@yahoo.com) but use this gmail address (mksharma55@gmail.com) only. Further we have printed another new e-mail account on the front and back title pages of the journal in recent issues - mani.bal44@gmail.com - which may also be used by readers of the journal or this blog for correspondence with us. Thank you - I.M. Sharma.

Victory for Republican Democracy - Editorial in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 April 2008 issue

Victory for Republican Democracy

The curtain is almost down on the historic Constituent Assembly elections 2064 B.S. in Nepal and by all indications it is the cause of socialist republican democracy that ultimately triumphed there. Belying all adverse psephological prognoses the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) led by Prachanda and Bhattarai has registered a resounding victory and would have even gained comfortable majority in the CA but for its own earlier insistence (a correct and proper one though) for proportional representation system. However, a point for exultation is that the combined vote of the different communist parties and groups, undoubtedly the more progressive sections among the populace, exceeds even 55% of the total. Viewed in the light of the general pragmatism and flexibility displayed by the communist movement in Nepal which at one time rallied unitedly around the late Comrade Manmohan Adhikari, the Bhisma Pitamaha of Nepal politics, in the wake of the 1990 Jana Andolan that spelt the doom of absolute monarchy and brought the beginning of constitutional democracy, it may not be unrealistic to expect similar statesmanship now from the tested leader Prachanda, who is talking and acting sensibly and we hope his commitment to mutiparty democracy and people’s welfare would get better over any narrow sectional (rigid party) interests. The need of the hour is to work for the immediate abolition of the monarchy, to wage a concerted war on poverty, health afflictions and illiteracy to overcome the acute backwardness, guard against the usurpations of the LPG economy, establish friendly relations with neighbouring countries while continuing the special relationship with India, and catapult the country into the comity of fast developing nations in the world §§§