Nation’s moral fabric is in peril

Justice Yashwant Varma, who was recently transferred to the Allahabad High Court amid a cash stash row, has claimed that someone placed the money in the outhouse of his official residence in Delhi in order to frame him. It must have been a very rich person who had planned to frame the judge. Only Justice Varma would be in a position to name him!

A fire was reported at the judge’s residence during his absence last month. The police and, of course, the fire brigade were at the scene promptly. Wads of notes were recovered from the outhouse. Some of them were charred, making it difficult for the first responders to count the money — Rs 15 crore is what the public has learnt. It is the figure bandied around on the grapevine, but there is no official take on the amount nor how the money got into the outhouse.

The Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court was informed before others. He informed the Chief Justice of India (CJI), who, in turn, ordered an in-house inquiry by a committee of three judges of different high courts. The CJI has decided to be open about the facts as and when they are reported to him. It is obvious that the CJI wants to hide nothing since he knows that if rumours based on conjectures are allowed to proliferate, the damage being done to the integrity and good name of the institution would harm the very essence of the judicial process system in the country. In fact, much harm has already been done.

The armed forces and the judiciary are the two institutions that the people still respect. The other two pillars of any democratic polity, the legislature and the executive, have gone for a toss. The media, too, has largely capitulated. It no longer performs the task of acting as the eyes and ears of the people which it was wont to do earlier. The judiciary is our sole protector at present. If the judiciary, too, goes the way of all flesh, we as a nation are doomed.

There is an advocate in Mumbai named Raju Z Moray. He writes books on his experiences in courts of the city, including the high court. In his latest book, Tales of Law and Laughter, he makes the reader laugh at the foibles of the stakeholders he meets in the HC corridors. But he also subtly hints at the decline in the quality of judges and, worse, the standards of integrity that they were known for earlier.

It is very, very sad that the very concept of honesty is under assault in all departments of the government and public life. When our Prime Minister proclaimed that he would not touch tainted money and would not permit others from doing so, many took him at his word. I do not doubt that he has kept to the first part of his promise. The second part should never have been included in the first place. Corruption at the ground level has bested all records. The PM is helpless to combat the menace. He knows it and so do the people.

Entrants to the IAS, the IPS and the judiciary, the three Services which matter the most to the people, primarily used to be men and women of merit and integrity. The subordinate ranks respected them and followed their example to a major degree. Three decades later, electoral battles have become so intense that demands to expand the scope of reservation and relax the age of the candidates for the All-India Services and the Central Class I have led to a situation where someone like Puja Khedkar could walk into the premier Service and that, too, in her home state, even though she was ranked 800-plus in the order of merit! In 1952, when I competed, only 41 were taken into the IAS/IFS and 37 in the IPS.

If the need to win elections eclipses the need to ensure justice and good governance, there will never be any light at the end of the tunnel. People will have to be content with mediocrity and the insidious corruption that they experience in daily life. It becomes even murkier if justice is dispensed on payment in courts of law.

One of my first postings as an assistant superintendent of police was in Nasik. The district judge, for some reason, took a liking to me. When my superior was on leave and I was temporarily in charge of the district police, a policeman on duty in the tribal area of Surgana raped a woman at a fair. The commotion that followed required the presence of a senior officer to calm tempers. The sessions judge and I were in the Officers’ Club when the news reached us. He advised me to leave every other matter on hand and proceed immediately to the scene of the disturbance, which I did.

All sessions judges in the districts where I served were men of great integrity. Our social interaction rested on shared values and a firm belief in justice and the rule of law.

Things have changed drastically in recent decades. All Services that cater to the public have experienced a steady deterioration in standards. The real sufferers are the citizens of our great nation. The irony is that they do not know what has hit them and how the tsunami originated.

We do not know as yet if Justice Varma accepted money. A fair inquiry should reveal the truth. What is certain, however, is that there has been a steady decline in morals and values in public life. India may rise to the rank of the third-largest economy in the world, but if that is achieved under the shadow of corruption, the self-esteem of our citizens will remain low.

The writ of the Supreme Court on bulldozer justice, for instance, is being openly flouted by the executive in BJP-ruled states. A form of terrorism has taken shape. The State has become a terrorist. In classical terrorism, citizens do not know who is going to be the next victim. The uncertainty keeps him or her on edge constantly.

On the outskirts of Mumbai, a ‘patriot’ passing by a Muslim house when an India-Pakistan cricket match was being played in Dubai thought he heard a boy raise anti-India slogans. That was enough for the bulldozers to perform their task of destruction as punishment for a crime the boy may or may not have been guilty of. The Supreme Court’s diktat was peremptorily ignored!

Where is our beloved country heading? Will we be governed by the rule of law?

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