The Chief Administrator of the Jagannath Temple of Puri has done a splendid job of putting the Car Festival broadcasting rights on auction. Most TV channels, knowing too well that the proposal was a lawfully perfect one, happily put their biddings in sealed cover because they make good money from advertisements and endorsements.
The OTV, the wealthiest, offered the highest amount because it cross-sells live content to others at a good profit. But some members of the public along with a few pinhead servitors broke down weeping as if they were coughing out the money.
One temple committee member said the committee had not been told about it at all, knowing little that administrative decisions need not be placed before the policy making body every time. For most administrative decisions, the chief executive is fully empowered to take call as he deems fit. One hyper-inspired guy even knocked at the door of the High Court to get an order against the pro-public proposal.
Meanwhile, the Chief Administrator, having been disgusted with the unfortunate development, gave up the idea and flung open the floodgates so as to enable all to rush in and telecast free as before.
The literate, sane and conscious people of Odisha and elsewhere have not liked the protest by a miniscule few. A great opportunity thus got lost. The protesters acted foolishly perhaps to remain in news. The loss, though only notional now, is actually a great one for the public.
*There is hurting news about a newly-inducted Minister performing ‘house entry puja' in his Secretariat chamber as if the allotted room is inherited from parental holding. Minister
Padmanav Behera, obviously Constitution-illiterate and grossly ignorant of basic rules and norms, brazenly brought in his wife to sit beside him at the messy event that had fire-hazard rituals and generated half a quintal of litter in the otherwise tidy interiors. The Minister with no sense of decency, prostrated at the feet of the performing priest, wife aping him like crazy at the concluding moment and walked out as if all the divine blessings did come pouring in from the countless Hindu gods and goddesses.
India is a secular state which proscribes any particular faith to be highlighted or preached in public glare. Such acts can happen only in private properties or personal ownership interiors without attracting public ire and criticism, even at the official residence where the wife is allowed to live as the first lady.
The Minister is the boss of a State department and the wife only a commoner like any other ordinary citizen. The media had a good time telecasting the stupid act of the Minister nonstop and provoking conscious citizens to suspect if the boss can ever deliver any good as he is so terribly ignorant of the conduct fundamentals. Thus, it is understood that the standard politician is often erratic and bizarre in public behaviour.
*Now to some national events of interest: Despite tall claims by the saffron bosses that every ordinary citizen is safe and sound and empowered enough to have a free voice of dissent or criticism when public officials turn errant, the UP police have been after a journalist who made viral the amusing news of Yogi Adityanath’s alleged involvement with a woman. Incidentally, a lady had appeared in public to claim she has an affair with Yogi Adityanath.
She could be wrong due to deranged mind. And Yogi, being the ruler, should have taken great care to ensure she was treated well and pacified and sent back home or to a lunatic asylum. The Chief Minister, as the monarch of a State, is duty-bound to help any distressed citizen.
As soon as the strange news about the alleged relationship gained ground, Yogi seemed to take offence and he believably organised some sycophantic police fellow to lodge an FIR against the mediaperson who made the news viral on a Twitter handle and got it telecast by some television channels. The police fellow, as if he were a Constitutional court judge, did a suo motu FIR job, slapping such IPC sections as to have the media guy arrested. The reporter had only shared some emotional outpourings of the hapless lady to indicate that Yogi had probably endorsed the relationship she claimed both had developed lately. Obviously, all hell broke loose as a ‘monk' Chief Minister was shown in unacceptable light as Yogis are expected to be lifelong celibate and remain away from women and worldly enticements of any kind.
The UP police got into fierce action. They picked the media guy and detained him to interrogate as they liked with the intention of putting him behind bars. The whole media community rose in solidarity and put up a brave battle against the mighty police. “Whatever the accuracy of the woman’s claims, to register a case of criminal defamation against a journalist for sharing it on the social media and airing it on a television channel is a brazen misuse of law," the Editors Guild of India said furiously in a statement.
They knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear in a most unprecedented manner as such cases are heard below. “We order immediate release of the petitioner from jail," Justice Indira Banerjee said in her order despite a lawyer for the State Government arguing that the journalist's post was highly inflammatory.
Justice Banerjee further reprimanded the State Government for being heavy-handed in its response to the journalist’s post. "We can understand that the tweets should not be made. But arresting was grossly unlawful,” she had firmly said. The Supreme Court has rightly slammed the State agencies that cause growing concerns over free speech and media freedom. The apex court be hailed on that score!
*A very reassuring trend is being marked in South Asia: Howsoever bad the political executive or the military ruling class in the region, the judiciary across the expanse is functioning commendably! The super active Pakistani judiciary has impressively emboldened the people’s bodies to raise voice against errant politicians and rulers, no matter how big or mighty.
The judiciary there has been pulling up the ruling class on several matters of public interest. They had even passed orders to ensure that the filthy rich are refrained from wasteful wedding events by restricting number of food items to only three or four at pompous wedding feasts.
Accordingly, the Pakistani administration has come of age, as it appears, particularly in matters of corruption prevention and prosecution of the errant officials. Just a couple of days ago, they nabbed Zardari, a former President of Pakistan, for corruption.
The carefree widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Zardari had spent eleven years in jail on corruption and murder charges before becoming President in 2008. Pakistan has an enforcement agency called the National Accountability Bureau which swooped in on Zardari for fake bank accounts and money laundering.
Zardari was popularly called ‘Mr 10 per cent' because, during his infamous tenure, he had organised for himself a ten-per cent cut on all contract deals and jobs. It is certain that Zardari, who laughably claims to be innocent, will most certainly have a tough ruling against him at the law courts. The Pakistani judiciary has already proven its sanctity over the years.
From all that we have seen and heard, it is safe to conclude that the judiciary is nearly infallible; the bureaucracy seldom commits grave errors because it knows the rules of the game; but the populist political class can merrily err on all fronts and will fail to know why things go wrong. This truth will prevail at all times.