Beware! A New 'Baba' Is Born!

With many States turning into the election mode during the current year and early next year, the political parties have launched many political agendas to fool the gullible voters.

A gimmick in the name of religion which is usually adopted by different parties is through a godman, known by different names such as, baba, priest, father, maa, pir, maulana etc., depending upon the targeted religious group for wooing.

The history has been replete with fake godmen some of whom have been cooling their heads in prisons now. Some of the godmen were lucky to get conditional bail while a majority of others were not so lucky.

These godmen are used by the parties to garner votes of their blind followers who believe them blindly. Unfortunately, the followers of godmen are often blissfully ignorant about the quid pro quo of godmen with their political parties. The large following of such godmen is the basis for alliance of political parties with them. Apparently, the godmen are not fools,to forego their pound of flesh from the political parties.

Showcased as vibrant and largest democracy in the world by almost all parties to rest of the world, the dark spot of our political system is the lack of accountability, particularly financial transparency. Of over 3,000 registered parties, just about half a dozen national and regional parties have funds ranging from Rs 100 crore to Rs.5,000 crore. These parties are not required to disclose the sources of funds and how such huge amounts are spent. Further, since it helps all the parties whether in power or out of power, no questions are asked in the constitutional bodies or a proper mechanism to ensure transparency in financial matters is even attempted to devise.

Obviously, such lack of a mechanism to ensure transparency in financial matters enables the parties, godmen, filmdom and others rolling in unaccounted money to play peacefully the game called, elections despite several restrictions imposed by the sacrosanct Election Commission.

Seen in this context, the phenomenon rise of just 26-year-old Pithadhipati Dhirendra Krishna Shastri of Gadha in Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh Baba Bagheswar temple and getting a huge support of lakhs of people including some Central government's ministers, Members of Parliament, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra and overt and covert support of the state government machinery are just not about propagation of Sanatan Dharma as young Baba claims. This new Baba too, like some Christian and Muslim godmen, makes tamashas of some people from the audience going in to trance and crying , rolling on the floor and doing all sorts of incoherent things. He also claims to have blessings of Lord Hanuman or Balaji Hanuman upon him who gives solutions to the problems of his Bhaktas.

Indeed, there is nothing wrong in propagation of a religious faith because that is the Constitutional right given to every citizen of India, but if this very important right is misused to convert the gullible, suffering and needy people into a vote bank for a political party, that is not acceptable. In fact, the track record of almost all important parties in this regard, is to say the least, dismal. Instead of joining hands with godmen, parties should refrain from even going near them so as to send a loud and clear message to the countrymen and the world at large that in India the democracy is really vibrant.

SC ON S.27 OF EVIDENCE ACT

A division bench of the Hon'ble Supreme Court comprising Justices B R Gavai and M M Sundresh reiterated the essence of Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act in the recovery of the evidence related to the offence committed by the accused. The judgment was delivered in Boby v/s State of Kerala where the apex court reversed the judgment of the Kerala High Court and converted it to acquittal and observed: "In the present case, there is no statement of Boby (accused No. 3/appellant herein) recorded under Section 27 of the Evidence Act. We are, therefore, of the considered view that the prosecution has failed to prove the circumstance that the dead body of the deceased was recovered at the instance of Boby (accused No. 3/appellant herein)".

CHARGESHEET NOT A PUBLIC DOCUMENT: SC

In an important judgment, the Supreme Court has held that the investigating agencies like CBI, ED etc., are not bound to upload the charge sheets for the free access of the public as they are not public documents. The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar while dismissing the PIL cited as Saurav Das v/s Union of India, observed that charge sheet is not akin to FIR and hence the accused cannot be entitled to the copy of the same and if charge sheets are made available to public then they are likely to be misused.

ACRIMONY BETWEEN BCI & SC

Not happy with the Tarikh per Tarikh in the apex court over the issue of allotment of a plot of 1.33 acres of land behind the building housing the Supreme Court to house the chambers of advocates, despite the matter being listed, the Chairman of the Bar Council of India (BCI) senior advocate Vikas Singh recently lost his cool before a bench headed by the CJI, D Y Chandrachud. In a letter addressed to the CJI, Singh reportedly asked the CJI whether the lawyers should take the route of protests in this matter since it concerns their bread and butter.

Reacting to this, the CJI who is better known for his calm posture, strongly replied that he will only decide the rules of practice in the apex court. However, the fire is yet to be doused.

PROF VINOD KUMAR'S BOOK RELEASED

At a glittering event held on January 12, the book entitled, Lectures on Criminal Procedure Code, by Prof Gali Vinod Kumar, Dean, Faculty of Law, Osmania University was released. Former Judge of the combined Andhra Pradesh High Court, Justice Chandraiah along with other dignitaries released the book. Senior Professor G B Reddy rendered a comprehensive review.