The entire world was stunned on January 12, 2010 when Delhi High Court Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah ruled that the Chief Justice of India (CJI) comes under the RTI ambit in matters of disclosure of assets. Earlier, on a PIl filed by one very sane Agrawal, a single-judge bench had given a similar verdict to everyone's delight. The Supreme Court Registry appealed to the Delhi HC for a larger bench hearing. So, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice AP Shah heard the case along with Justices Vikramjit Sen and S Muralidhar to rule conclusively that the CJI is not above the law of the land. A rattled Supreme Court had no option but to appeal to itself for an all-judge bench and eventually a majority sided with the Delhi HC order.
History was made and Justice AP Shah became a demigod among the judges. The entire legal community basked in glory. No wonder, Shah was never inducted into the Supreme Court as a judge. This very fact revealed how gross injustice could be meted out to the people. Only days ago, incumbent CJI Justice Dattu has vehemently declined to make public the medical expense details of the superior judges. The information seeker never asked for information on diseases, which is a private matter.
People are of course in a state of shock with this appalling decline by the supreme upholder of justice and democratic rights of the people. As per the rule and norms, no individual or entity has any right to seek 'why' or 'how' of any judicial ruling. But the ordinary citizens have a right to know everything about the administrative affairs of the state which includes the public exchequer's expenditure. The judges are public functionaries and their salary and perks are paid by the people.
There is nothing wrong in knowing who is given how much public money to remain physically fit. When it comes to others including the political parties' coffers, the apex court rules in no uncertain terms that the parties have to make open what money they have collected and how.
n Pay Commissions have invariably been a pain in the public neck. There are only 1.82 crore Government employees enjoying the comfort of decent, nay lately fat, salaries for the abysmally small contribution most of them make to make the masses happy. There is not much accountability even in case of dereliction of duty or terribly poor delivery of services. The higher-up bureaucracy, being truly smart for acquisition of practical skills of statecraft over the years, is too used to getting away with every error and ethical misconduct.
But unfortunately, they cry every half decade for more and more pay. The populist and less informed political masters constituting the executive give in to their invariably unreasonable demand for salary hikes by permitting yet another Pay Commission routinely headed by retired judges or bureaucrats. Political masters, despite measurable perks with hefty salaries, let the Pay Commissions have their fanciful calculations come true like dreams do. India has a population of 1,220 million people out of which a mere 18 million would corner the lion's share of the public exchequer. No Government on record has ever thought compassionately about the suffering bulk of the country that grants political creatures chance to rule, ironically to be cheated by the servants at the first opportunity.
The standard earning of an ordinary Indian is a miniscule 5,500 rupees a year. The Sixth Pay Commission has given away a fortune to the negligible community of only 18 million employees incalculable money from the public exchequer. A police constable, the lowest official on the police hierarchy, starts with at least 20 thousand rupees a month. They keep harvesting nonstop even after saying goodbye in retirement by way of a pension fund which is astronomical too. And with longevity having been beyond 65 years, the burden on the 1,200 million helpless masses is simply impossible to bear.
At the same time, the self-protecting farmer providing food, keeps giving away blood and sweat, apart from sacrifice on the fronts of recreation and family life only to guard the plantation and make sure they live to mature and yield food for all. Even in the age of RTI, most of the so-called activists keep chasing rotten issues without using head. The majority of social activists consume precious time in screaming against projects and policies which they don’t ever weigh or assess logically.
Whenever there is talk of the Seventh Pay Commission coming up with its mad recommendations, ordinary masses with functioning heads start having sleepless nights as a big number of horribly undeserving Government employees would pocket their money only because they have the power of influencing policymakers primarily because they are the entities that guide top decision takers. The political monsters have now demanded a bigger pay as if what they get today is too little! So, the political masters and the administrators are hands-in-glove to benefit each other without groaning even once. Pay Commissions in a poor country like India must be approved by a referendum; the people must be consulted on such 'public robbery issues' as the servants may face fiercest trials to be punished beyond belief. Pay Commission hikes are not mere pilferage; they amount to robbery as the victim is without any weapon of defence.
Most painfully, the media remains grossly irresponsible on these critically contentious issues; maybe because they fail to figure out the grave ramifications or they are kept happy clandestinely with favours doled out by unscrupulous politicians and top administrators. No surprise that most of the media houses have been corporatised so badly that ethics and moral standards do not count at all for them.
n lastly, back home to Odisha only to give the last hurting pinch. The Nabakalebara is over and the big public show is to happen only after a week or so. The Daita menace has been most talked-about. But a terrifying funeral procession was witnessed in Cuttack on the July 3, which all leading TV channels including the Doordarshan broadcast in details: the Puja Committee and the Sahi Mukhias of the great city, who had most adorably made massive material contributions to the Daitas during the Daru transport, carried effigies of the leading Badagrahis along with that of the non-Badagrahi coir guy called Tikipua (Ananta Sayana displayer aside the Minister lying shamelessly next to him) on cremation biers with people of all ages kept hurling choicest ineffable abuses at them for having duped the entire Hindu community to rob and loot them.
The scenery was amusing the same way as Mussolini was treated while lying in kind of a state. People, men, women and kids, stood in a long, long queue to kick, pinch, peck, prod and land blows on the dead body before burying him most unceremoniously. Such was the fury of the masses for having been tortured beyond endurance by the heartless fascist.
The Jagamnath Temple Committee is headed by the Gajapati Maharaja. But the one called the Chief Administrator, a people's servant, occupies a throne-like tall swivel chair with cover at the head of the large, long table during the committee meetings with the most revered Gajapati sitting in an ordinary chair next him as if he were the master and the lord's principal servitor, also known as the 'deity incarnate' his slave. While the picture was being telecast by the Doordarshan, at least five frantic calls were made to watch and make appropriate comments. The insensitive media can spend fortunes on te Daru transport and inflate greedy Daitas’ ego sinfully but would not point out a most arrogant display of irreverence for the Gajapati Maharaja, after whom most of our socio-religious and cultural life is designed.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)