The whole world knows the bane of unstoppable social media. Terrible Facebook postings have broken marriages, taken innocent lives, maligned women and spoilt youth with obscenity. Countless filthy pictures of celebrities morphed by wickedly crafty brains are being posted off and on. The only way to keep cool is ignoring the crap and registering the good stuff. Only a couple of days ago, Punjab Minister Sidhu, a wealthy cricket-television funster, told such lewd jokes in a cheap comedy show as a decent citizen can bear to remain calm amid family members. Reportedly, someone has already had him booked under law.
In 2012, the Press Council of India had passed a resolution to amend the council law to bring the electronic media within the purview and rename it as The Media Council. The resolution specifically referred to the social and broadcast media. The unregulated electronic media is playing havoc with the lives of people. The council had rightly dismissed the assertion of the broadcast media that their own self-regulatory measures are sufficient and any further governmental oversight would amount to an attack on the freedom of the Press.
The Bhadrak incident in Odisha, like many others across the country, is one example of gross abuse of social media. Some creep posted objectionable pictures of Hindu deities and the heavens came crashing down. The town has a visible size of Muslim population and long glorified for being a centre of laudable communal harmony.
Hinduism is not exactly a strict faith. Its real name is ‘Sanatana dharma’ broadly meaning ‘eternal order’ governing a happy, disciplined life. The guiding principles are based on absolute tolerance to all diverse communities irrespective of their traditions and practices. Hence, Hinduism is a way of life. The Hindu founders believed in the formlessness of God and universal brotherhood and happy coexistence. Even beef ban is not mentioned in any known scripture. For that matter, among the ten Incarnations of lord Vishnu, there is a ‘fish’, a ‘tortoise’ and a ‘wild boar’ which are all popular table stuffs for most Hindus. The Bhadrak posting by the foolish creep should have been ignored like thousands are every day. The dominant Hindu community should have only alerted the police and other authorities to deal with the culprit as per law. The district administration too failed to fathom the ramification of the social media post and took the issue lightly. It is strange how magistrates permit religious processions with blasting loudspeakers and how the police choose to remain callous to the distress sound pollution causes among people. The Hindu guys who reacted violently have done the great community irreparable damage by proving it is not a tolerant one as described in the scriptures. The greatest blunder by the administration was to permit the minority group to take out rallies across sensitive locations allegedly screaming anti-India slogans, which is of course a crime. lastly, the reactive protesters ended up gaining nothing as rioters comprising mostly thugs, robbers and gangsters took over and had a great time rampaging to carry loot home as property worth millions were set on fire to leave behind not much proof of the grave crime by non believing, thieving hoodlums. Even Gandhi, just after the partition was finalised, insisted on the Constitution authors never to incorporate cow slaughter as a crime.
The Odisha Government authorities have rightly, though a bit belatedly, sent notices to six IAS officers for having deceitfully availed more than one DQ (Discretionary Quota) plot or house in the same city. Much has been said about the provision of the DQ in the hands of the executive. Some more focussed clarity may do good to all including the courts. IAS officers, expected to be masters of the rulebook and apply the same everywhere including guiding Ministers that head executive wings, have cheated the public and need to be punished exemplarily. This single move will boost the image of the Naveen regime no end.
Justice GS Singhvi of the Supreme Court had declared that the state could not act in an arbitrary manner to grant favourable land allotments without following principles of public policy so as to grant equal opportunity to all the citizens without inviting other similarly situated persons, organisations/institutions to participate in the process of allotment, which is contrary to Article 14 of the Constitution and is an act of favouritism and nepotism. The state is only a regulator and provider of different kinds of services and benefits to the people like jobs, contracts, licences, plots of land, mineral rights and social security benefits. The state should be viewed just as a service corporation. As per modern jurisprudence, the state is a community “organised for action under legal rules”; it is no more than a mutual insurance society. The Constitution enumerates fundamental rights, many of which are akin to the basic rights of every human being. The Directive Principles of State Policy are fundamental in the governance of the country, and it is the duty of the state to apply these principles while making laws. The state shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to sub-serve the common good. Parliament and legislatures of the States have enacted several laws and the Governments have, from time to time, framed policies so that the national wealth and natural resources are equitably distributed among all sections of people so that have-nots of the society can aspire to compete with haves.
The Government in a welfare state is the regulator and dispenser of special services and provider of a large number of benefits, including jobs, contracts, licences, quotas, mineral rights, etc. The laws enacted by Parliament and State legislatures have to facilitate establishment of an egalitarian society. The political entities and officials entrusted with the task of providing different services and benefits to the people would naturally have an element of discretion, which is required to be used in larger public interest and for public good. In our Constitutional structure, no functionary of the state or public authority has any unfettered discretion which is totally incompatible with the ‘Doctrine of Equality’, and an antithesis to the rule of law. Discretion power meant for public good can be examined by the courts like any other discretionary power vested in the executive.
The court has long ago discarded the theory of unfettered discretion in the matter of SG Jaisinghani v. Union of India AIR 1967 SC 1427, wherein it was emphasised that ‘absence of arbitrary power’ is the foundation of rule of law. The Government is not free as an individual in selecting recipients for its largesse. The allotment of land by the state or its agencies/instrumentalities to a body/organisation/institution is not only contrary to the idea of a Secular Democratic Republic but also is constitutionally impermissible. Incidentally, the abuse of discretionary quota has been gross when private gain is the objective by the agent of the executive including political considerations or by way of favouritism or nepotism with a view to nurturing the vote bank.
Some of the IAS officers of Odisha trapped had cut a niche for themselves as holier-than-thou characters. It’s only now that the people get to know they were only wolves in goatskin. The Naveen administration will gain immensely in popularity if the Satans masquerading as saints are fittingly punished and dispossessed of their ill-gotten property. Kautilya had emphatically professed that the ordinary citizen-offender has a right to be forgiven, but persons with authority be dismissed or exterminated if found guilty robbing the common masses by abusing power and stifling voices of protest by guile and wicked tricks. Erring judges too, both retired and serving, be hauled up as they are even bigger sinners than bureaucrats as they are expected to protect laws of the land, not violate them even once. But if the greedy, deceitful public servants are let off by any chance, the people will start losing faith in the system. The golden opportunity should not be lost by the Naveen Government.
God instil in the administration the required divine political will to cleanse the public system and gain people’s trust more than ever before!
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)