THE RULE OF THE ROAD

Kerala High Court order banning wayside public meeting is quite laudable as it is for safeguarding the right of the citizens guaranteed by the Constitution of India. It is a great relief to the common man whose movements are restricted by road meetings and demonstrations.These meeting are virtually held encroaching the roads curtailing the free movement of the people thereby encroaching on their fundamental rights. But the poor people have no alternative other than suffer silently.

Whether this judgment infringe on the right of the people to assemble? NO. It does not in anyway. Why?

Remember A.G. Gardiner? One of the most popular essayists of 20th century. Most of the people, studied in school might have read his essay “RULE OF THE ROAD” ( from ‘Leaves in the Wind’). He presents a lady who was walking down the middle of a street to the great confusion of the traffic saying

‘I am going to walk where I like. It is my liberty.’

Is it correct? No. She simply forgets the basic thing that she has the liberty but her liberty should not touch anybody else’s liberty.

The situation is similar here. People have right to assemble on way- side but their right should not come in the way of the right of other people to walk freely on the road.

“A reasonable consideration for the rights or feelings of others is the foundation of social conduct”

TRIVANDRUM GOLF CLUB

Supreme Court verdict in Trivandrum Golf Club case proved once again, like Mullaperiyar, that even Government can win cases if it has a strong will. This case was by a group of wealthy and hence influential people for continuance of occupancy and possession of Government property of 25 acres of prime land in the heart of the city for their private use, to drink and make merry under the label of golf club. It is an elite club where ordinary citizens cannot afford to make entry due to exorbitant fees. The members are  rich that the club could have easily managed 6 or 60 crores collecting from its 600 members  and made their own golf club somewhere else leaving the encroached land. But they preferred to manipulate things to make false claims and unashamedly fought to wrest control of the public land to enjoy at the cost of the poor people, dragging the case up to the Supreme Court.

 

The determination on the part of the ministers was crucial here as it scared detractors, at the same time gave a fillip to the honest officials of the bureaucracy who enthusiastically initiated action and had put up a proper and systematic presentation of facts before the courts which paved way for the Golf Club coming into Government custody. Taking a cue from this success the Government should move forward confidently to evict legally all those who have encroached public land in the name of club, resort etc.

Golf is a lousy game invented by the westerners to get some sun in their cold climate. The poor Indians  imitated it and considered it as a status symbol. How many of the golfers from Trivandrum Golf club representated in any of the tournaments? Forget tournaments, how many know to play well?

BHOPAL TRAGEDY-II

Twenty thousand people died and thousands still suffering. That was the infamous Bhopal Gas Tragedy. And justice came after a long 25 years in the form of 2 years imprisonment to the culprits. They did not have to go behind bars even for one minute as they got bail for Rs. 25000/-. The main culprit Warren Anderson is enjoying life in US untouched, not even made accused in Bhopal killing.The whole world will be laughing at India. Had the incident been in US, the home of the company, Union Carbide would have been bankrupt and closed down by now paying billions of dollars compensation to the victims. But it is India and the victims were Indians. The life here is so cheap like that of pigs or dogs. So the company has thrown some peanuts to us, some paltry sum to the victims and escaped. It is a shame for us that we could not do anything to the company which has killed many of our people.

Hundreds of years of slavery, first under the Muslims and then under British made our rulers' mindset as that of a slave and still feel inferior to the white colored brutes.Union Carbide might have spent millions of dollars to manipulate things in their favour. Unless and untill we find pride in our tradition and rich heritage we would not be able to keep our head high. It is time for an introspection and discussion where we faltered in fighting the US company which killed our people with their callous acts and the contemptuous attitude still they keep towards us.