THE PURANIKOTI DIARIES [2] -- SEASONAL VISITORS

    By the middle of June this year I knew I had to do a Mohammad Bin Tughlaq i.e leave Delhi; not for Daulatabad ( in present day Maharashtra) where the Emperor went , because I'm mortally afraid of bumping into Arnab Goswami or Kangana Ranaut there. I decided instead to head for Puranikoti in the mountains before the Prime Minister came up with another of his surgical strikes which the patient rarely survives. Not only had Mr. Modi got it wrong again, the fourth time in a row, and failed to win his Mahabharat against the corona in the promised 21 days, but the other signs were ominous too.

   There were no serviceable pots and pans left in the kitchen because we had beaten them to a pulp at the Prime Minister's frequent calls to do so. The Hon'ble Mr. Athawale had just announced a national audition for the hit song GO CORONA GO!. I was apprehensive that they might pick me for I have a fairly powerful castrato voice with a high range, especially when I receive a notice from the Income Tax chaps. Neerja had taken social distancing to a new level and had moved into the guest bedroom. The WHO, which was worse than the Corona virus, had just revealed that flatulence could help in spreading the virus, thus cramping the Indian male's style, if you know what I mean. Mr. Kejriwal, who gets a new idea ( usually of the unimplementable variety )every time he goes for Vipassana was rumoured to be planning to impose a " karo na " tax on sex in order to ensure social distancing ( no refunds for failed encounters). The Chinese had moved into Ladakh, promising to introduce a more inclusive CAA there: nobody would be denied any citizenship, in fact every Ladakhi would automatically become a Chinese citizen from May 2020 ! My pension had been frozen and the Finance Minister had promised another stimulus package: problem was, the package was likely to provide more stimulation to the Ambanis and Adanis than to us ( the first package had almost doubled their wealth ). You get the picture, I hope; as the Tughlaq might have said if he had thought of it before me: if the mountain cannot come to Mohammad then Mohammad must go to the mountain. ( With his Aadhar card, E pass, covid negative certificate and Fast Tag, of course). In other words, I had better hot-foot it to the mountains while I still had the dough to buy fuel for the car and pay Mr. Gadkari's highwaymen at the toll plazas.

   As I soon found out, Covid turned out to be a blessing in disguise in this respect at least. Owing to various constraints, in the last ten years we had never been able to spend more than a few weeks a year in Puranikoti; this was the first time we have stayed here for five months, and counting! It has also been the first time since 2006 that the whole family has been together, including our adopted Indie dog who is now on first name terms with the village dogs. The latter prove beyond any doubt that English is the preferred first language in schools in my panchayat: all the dogs are named Tommy, Blackie, Johnny or Tiger. The Hon'ble Union Education Minister may please note while finalising the new education policy.

   What has been particularly fascinating to observe here has been the change of seasons. In a metro like Delhi there is only one season- Simmer. Consisting of the heat, humidity, the abrasive Delhi-walla attitude, dust and pollution. In Puranikoti we have lived in, and through, summer, monsoons, autumn and are now preparing to welcome winter which, at 7000 feet, has to be given due respect. We have seen the agriculture crops change from maize to cauliflower and cabbage to peas to potatoes. We have seen horse chestnut and chinar bloom and then turn a golden hue and shed their fiery leaves with a promise to return in the spring. The weeping willows, which were a sonata in green earlier, are now living up to their name with their needle like leaves dropping like copious tears.

   With the foliage gone and the cold going up a notch everyday, the bird life in the village is also changing: the sparrows, tits and bulbuls are leaving for warmer regions, the jungle fowl and the khalij pheasant easily spotted by the early riser as they emerge from the undergrowth to soak in the warmth of the rising sun. If we are lucky we can see the occasional wedge of cormorants high up in the azure sky, flying from north in a  south easterly direction, perhaps for the wetlands of Bharatpur and NOIDA ( if they can locate them through the smog, that is! ) A troop of rhesus monkeys has taken up residence at the edge of the forest; they have not yet entered the village, perhaps intimidated by the number of bureaucrats here. I have no doubt, however, in a couple of years they shall lose their fear of the babus, as the politicians have done, and democracy shall prevail in Puranikoti as it does in the rest of India. The monkeys will rule.

   I'm not much of a birder or ornithologist and my knowledge of birds is very limited. I know, for example, that a humming bird hums because it doesn't know the words of the song, and that an ailing eagle is an illegal, and that owl is well that ends well, but not much more. Much to my egret-sorry, regret- I cannot even identify most birds. But thanks to my son, Sidharth, who stalks the forests with his camera all day, I now know that there is a hidden wealth of bird life in our area, and they come and go with the changing seasons. And thanks to my old friend and colleagues in the Forest department I have been able to identify them. Given below are images of some of these feathered splendours of nature, captured in Purani Koti itself:

[ From top: Red Kite, Greater Barbet, Rusty Cheeked Scimitar Babbler, Himalayan Magpie, Blue Whistling Thrush, a wedge of Great Cormorants. Photos by Sidharth Shukla. ]

Driving back from Mashobra one evening after picking up our monthly ration of Blender's Pride ( our substitute for the anti-covid drug Remdesvir, and just as effective ) Sidharth was lucky enough to spot a rare mammal, the Yellow- throated Marten, which nobody in our village has seen before, at least not in a sober state of mind:

                  [ The highly elusive and shy Yellow- throated Marten. Photo by Sidharth Shukla. ]

   And so, even as mankind desperately tries to rediscover its old lifestyles in the throes of this pandemic, here in the midst of nature the rhythms of life carry on unconcerned  as they have done for aeons. And while Mr. Modi in Delhi poses with his (caged) parrots and ( primetime) peacocks I am even more privileged to watch their wild siblings come and go with the changing seasons. There surely is a blessing in this somewhere, if only I could count. 

KUNAL KAMRA AND THE ELASTICITY OF JUSTICE

  The question goes like this:

  Question: what is contempt of court?

  Answer: A joke.

That's literally true in the India of today: three jokes on the Supreme Court, posted on Twitter by stand up comedian Kunal Kamra, are likely to attract contempt of court proceedings against him ( and, technically, against the 20000 people who retweeted the jokes and the lakhs who liked it !). That in fact is the learned advice of the Attorney General who, just a couple of days earlier, had opined that accusing a sitting SC judge of favouritism and of trying to topple a state government did not amount to contempt! ( It should surprise no one, of course, that in this case the worthy concerned was a Chief Minister allied to the BJP ). The elasticity of justice in this country is indeed astounding, and on the same footing as the economic principle of elasticity of demand. The latter states that the higher the price of a commodity the lower its demand ; the former provides that the more influential a person is the more benevolent the law and its gate keepers. 

  Kunal Kamra is a comedian, for God's sake ( and a damn good one too !), it is his job to crack jokes and pull people down a peg or two. It is his constitutional right to practice this profession, and he does a better job of it than most judges do of theirs. In fact, one writer has described him as the Laughing Gandhi, for his courage to hold a mirror to the powerful, albeit with a dash of caustic humour. Why should their lordships get so infuriated by a couple of sallies targeting them- he spares no one, not even the Prime Minister or his pit bull anchor. Kamra  belongs to a hoary tradition of court jesters- recollect Akbar and Birbal, Patch Sexton in the court of Henry VIII ( who inspired Shakespeare's fool in King Lear )- whose job was not only to amuse the King but also to remind him of a few home truths. Comedians are important sounding boards for all rulers, and our legal Czars would do well to revisit history if not the Constitution. Calling the Supreme Court a joke is just a joke, your honour, unless you feel in your heart of hearts that it is more than that, that it could be a terrible truth. In which case it is not the court's honour which is at work here but a guilty conscience.

  And, by the way, this is the Supreme Court we are talking of here, not King Arthur's court or Kublai Khan's court. This is a court of a democratic country, created by a Constitution framed by we the people, paid for by the same citizenry who have no access to it. Criticism of this court, if there is no malice or ulterior intention behind it, cannot be a ground for the Attorney General or judges to term the critic a contemnor. Pomposity and pride do not go well with honest and equal dispensation of justice. Humility might be a better substitute.

  I am reminded here of another humorous incident. A senior Justice of the US Supreme Court had gone to his old Law University as chief guest for a function. Meeting the Dean, he remarked in a lighter vein: " Dean, do you still teach your students about the pomposity and bluster of judges ?" The Dean smiled and replied: " No, your Honour, we let them find that out for themselves."

  Are we now finding out for ourselves, with so much time and energy spent by the court in pandering to its aggrieved pride by hauling up alleged contemnors? Should this time ( paid for by the tax payers ) not be better spent in some introspection by our judges, to try to find out why exactly is the ordinary citizen so incensed by the manner of the court's functioning of late, to honestly consider why social media is full of derision against them ? To ruminate on whether praise from the likes of Arnab Goswami and hosannas from BJP spokespersons are really the certificates of good conduct they prefer over the appreciation of millions of ordinary, law abiding, unconnected citizens?

  It appears to be reigning contempt these days, which of course is another joke, considering that important matters which have a bearing on our federalism, electoral funding, liberty of citizens, access to the internet and freedom of speech never find mention in the cause list. But if contempt is the flavour of the day then one wonders: why is the court not initiating contempt against the Chief Secretary and DGP of Jammu and Kashmir, whose administration had sworn on oath that Ex- MP Saifuddin Soz was not under detention, whereas the very next day the police were caught on video forcibly preventing him from leaving his house or talking to reporters? Does Kamra's tweet constitute a greater danger to the republic than the open defiance and illegal actions of the J+K government ?

  As a common citizen owing no allegiance to any political party I have much to be disturbed about our legal system , which appears to be getting more opaque, unaccountable and biased every passing day. One which has abdicated its primary function- to act as a check on a powerful and majoritarian executive. The rule of law is getting replaced by the jurisprudence of the sealed cover, the fait accompli and the adjournment. It's not just about Arnab Goswami and his over the counter bail, when hundreds similarly placed , their bail petitions being repeatedly rejected or hearings postponed, have been behind bars for months. It's not just about a judgment that denies public places to citizens protesting against a government. It's not even about an order that does not allow an Opposition Chief Minister to take action against defectors from his party who are hell bent on toppling his government. These are symptoms of a creeping infection against which we , and not just Kamra, must speak out before it consumes the entire judicial framework. Before we descend into what Pratap Bhanu Mehta in an article in the Indian Express of 18th November describes as " democratic and judicial barbarism."

  Notwithstanding the honorifics attached to their names, our justices must realise that they are not celestial beings , the Constitution does not give them their extraordinary privileges and protection because they embody some kind of divinity. It does so because they are expected to perform a difficult job- confront the government and hold it accountable whenever it crosses a constitutional red line. That is no longer happening since the last three CJIs at least, as Mr. Prashant Bhushan had pointed out in his now famous tweet. In a democracy there is no judicial teflon, and there is no "lese majesty" when there is no majesty left in an institution. Sriram Panchu, senior advocate in the Madras High Court puts it devastatingly in a brilliant article in the Hindu ( 16th November ): " Power ( of the Supreme Court) comes not from Articles 32 or 226 but from the public esteem and regard in which you are held, and that proceeds from the extent you act as our constitutional protector. In direct proportion. Sans that , there are only trappings. "                                                                                                                                   Cases which may embarrass the govt. are not being heard for years, without any explanation. The Collegium appears to have completely surrendered to the govt. in matters of appointment and transfer of judges ( how can we forget the midnight transfer of Justice Muralidharan of Delhi High Court when his questioning of the Delhi police in the riots case threatened to expose their mischief ? ) Application of the law has become so arbitrary, and capricious, that at times one wonders whether one is in a court or a casino. Goswami gets bail in one hearing, others are asked to approach High Courts or trial courts. An 83 year old priest who suffers from Parkinsons disease and cannot hold a glass, applies for a sipper or straw: he is given a date three weeks later for hearing the case! An eminent academic and poet, who should never have been in a jail in the first place, suffers from Covid, dementia, incontinence and severe UTI; his bail applications are repeatedly rejected and he is shuttled from one hospital to another. Our courts are losing not only the sense of justice but also that of simple humanitarianism. The law is supposed to be strict, not cruel and barbaric- how does one explain it to our judges?

  Far from reigning in the govt's excesses ( which is what its constitutional duty is) the higher judiciary appears to be encouraging it by its silence, selective orders and even acceptance of post retirement sinecures and appointments. Many years ago a Chief Justice, when told by the then Prime Minister that he looked forward to a " cordial" relationship with the Supreme Court, had the integrity to retort that the relationship between the executive and the judiciary should be " correct " and not cordial. It is impossible to even conceive of this kind of rectitude today. Such an amalgam  of courage and principles, unfortunately, is to be found in the pages of history only, and that too only till the time the Education Minister revises the syllabus !

  In the hands of the present government at the center and in some of the states, the law is running amok and the SC appears to be reluctant to stop this arbitrariness. Application of laws is no longer based on accepted general principles ( as it should be ) but is subject to individual interpretations. Even repeated rulings of the Apex court are no longer binding on lower courts, it would appear. Examples are the laws on sedition, free speech, criminal defamation, abetment to suicide: inspite of the Supreme Court narrowing their scope and application to prevent their misuse, lower courts continue to throw people into jails or lock-ups just on the say so of the police, without even examining the evidence- or lack of it- before them. In fact, these laws have become major tools of persecution in the hands of the executive. Similarly, the oft cited homily " Bail is the rule, and jail the exception" is just that- a homily which it takes a lot of faith to believe, like the numerous high sounding, sanctimonious obiter dicta delivered by Justice Chandrachud while overruling the Mumbai High Court in the Arnab Goswami case. One would have expected that the SC, both as the superior court and the administrative head of the judiciary, would have done something to ensure that its rulings and decisions are observed and respected. It has not, and we are descending into some kind of legal wasteland

  And it is not only the likes of Kunal Kamra who are increasingly giving expression to their misgivings and frustration at this state of affairs- concerns are being voiced by eminent retired judges of the SC and High Courts, senior members of the legal fraternity, sections of the media which still retain a spine, retired government officers, academia, frustrated litigants and relatives of those trapped in this dystopian legal system. Even international organisations associated with human rights and the judiciary have openly criticised us and have called for reforms.

   How many contempt petitions will you list, sirs ? A joke repeated too often is no longer funny and loses its punch. Listen to Kamra, your Honours and my Lord the Attorney General. His is the voice of an increasing number of people. Like all comedians he perhaps exaggerates a bit, but not by much, I can assure you.

FROM PENNSYLVANIA TO PURNEA -- THE WIND THAT DIDN'T BLOW.

   The American elections have engendered a flood of memes and witticisms, somewhat breaking the tensions of the wait for their results. One of my home-grown favourites is " Agar Kamala Harris to kaun jeetis ?" ( From my home state of UP naturally). Before this could be answered the US results were declared, and then Kanpur asked: " Kamala Harris bhi aur jeetis bhi ! Yeh kaise?"  The answer to this, of course, lies with Nitish Kumar who embodies harris and jeetis both ! But the really brilliant one was the acronym that connected the American election with our own hustings in Bihar, which was also proceeding apace at the same time. You may remember this one, it goes like this: BI den+ HAR ris = BIHAR.

  I thought this particular one was very insightful, for the parallels between the two elections- or at least between the two leading personalities involved- are difficult to miss.  Another hilarious but apposite connection between the USA and Bihar was made by an RJD spokesperson on a TV debate the other evening; I am paraphrasing what he said: " There are winds of change blowing from Pennsylvania to Purnea and from Nevada to Nawadah !" Blow they did in the USA, but unfortunately died out somewhere over Hong Kong, long before touching our shores.

  The state from where the Mahatma started his non-cooperation movement at Champaran, and which was the birth-place of Jayaprakash Narain's revolt against Mrs. Gandhi, decided to go belly up this time. It would appear that this is kiss and make-up time for Bihar. Forgive Mr. Modi for all the sufferings of the lockdown and forced migration, the economic distress, the decimation of the  handicraft sector, the highest unemployment rate in India. Forgive Mr. Nitish Kumar for the pandemic failures, the shameless opportunism of joining the BJP two years ago and betraying the anti-BJP mandate he had received in the 2015 elections, the shocking HDI indicators in his state,  excise policy which has bankrupted the state but made many more crorepatis out of people of his ilk, the lakhs of poor people in jail because they paid twice the normal price for a tot in the evening, the farmers who are getting half the promised MSP for their produce. 

  Perhaps it is this large heartedness which makes Bihar one of the most backward states in the country. It may be divine to forgive but it's sheer stupidity to forget the past few years, or to ignore what is happening next door in UP. For all its other blemishes, of one thing at least Bihar could be justly proud: the virus of communalism and religious intolerance has not been allowed to enter the state, either during Lalu's time or Nitish Kumar's fifteen year reign. All that is now about to change. Mr. Kumar will be nothing more than a puppet on a saffron string henceforth and will be kicked upstairs to Delhi in a year or two, the UP experiment (now that its human trials are over with the brutal suppression of the anti-CAA protests )will be replicated in Bihar, and its voters shall then have something more to forgive come the next elections.

  THE ACHILEE'S HEEL   

  I'm afraid there is no polite way to say this: the Mahagatbandhan lost the elections because of the Congress. With a miserable 19 seats out of 71 its strike rate is not much better than Mr Owaisi's who won 5 out of 20. If the Congress had even retained its previous tally of 27, the NDA would have been shown the door. But what can one expect when its de-facto President was "resting" in his sister's Mashobra house when the NDA's leaders were in the thick of campaigning for every single vote in the dust and miasma of covid in Bihar? When its most charismatic female star did not even deign it worth her while to go on the campaign trail? When the hubris of past history and the greed of making huge bucks by selling tickets made it bite off much more than it could swallow- the insistence on 71 seats when it should have insisted at most for 40 ?

  The Congress should accept that it is no longer a national party- it has only three states on its own. It is a regional party now and should behave like one, shedding its arrogance and pretensions to royalty. It should learn a lesson from the BJP which gives regional players their due where it cannot make it on its own ( even though later it cannibalises them, as the Shiv Sena, TDP and Akali Dal- now known as kali dal in Punjab after its delayed support for the farmers' agitation !- found out ). Mr Gandhi and his advisers should learn to play second fiddle in states where their own strings are not tuned properly. For the emerging truth is that, increasingly, not only is the Congress not able to add value to the anti-BJP forces in the states, it is fast becoming a liability for other opposition parties, a dead weight which they will not carry any longer because it is pulling them down. If even 25 of the seats from the Congress quota in Bihar this time had been given to the Left parties we may well have seen a completely different result.

MR. OWAISI COMES TO THE PARTY

For me there have been two salient developments in the Bihar elections, which can be potential game-changers in the future. The first is the remarkable revival of the communist parties: their 16 seats reassures me that ideologies and principles are not yet extinct in these opportunistic times. The second is the phenomenal performance of Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM. The five seats it won in the Seemanchal region may well mark a watershed in the Muslim politics of 180 million people.

   For far too long has Mr. Owaisi been treated as a pariah by the Right, Left and the Center. The Right considers him anti- national, and the other two think they can best represent the interests of his community without his extreme views and militant idiom. And so the community has historically been persuaded to outsource the protection of its interests to parties like the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the RJD, the BSP and so on. Problem is, this hasn't worked. These parties have never had the real interests of the community at heart, have done little for them in substantial terms, used them as pawns in their electoral battles, at times misled them ( the Shah Bano case or the banning of Salman Rushdie's book), even betrayed them ( the opening of the Babri masjid at night and installation of the deity's statue). If at all they have done anything for the Muslims, it has been to support and encourage the most criminal and fundamentalist sections among them , again with a view to elections only. The community has merely been thrown a few crumbs from the high table and asked to trust these parties without any questions.

  This out-sourcing has got the community nowhere, as the Sachar Committee report unambiguously establishes. To add to this, the external environment has also changed drastically for them over these last six years: it's almost as if the state has now turned against them. The namby-pamby, now on- now off, anemic protection offered them by the centrist and left parties is no longer seen to be enough. The Muslim voter has begun to realise that he now needs a party of his own, as muscular ( extreme, if you will), articulate, aggressive and unapologetic as the forces ranged against him. Enter Mr. Owaisi.

  It is amusing, and disgusting, to see how the Congress, non-BJP parties and sections of the media have been attacking Mr. Owaisi and holding him responsible for the Mahagathbandan's defeat: taking away 5 sure- fire seats and effecting the results in at least 10 more. These parties are simply trying to cover their own thoroughly exposed backsides. Did they not know that Bihar has at least 39 constituencies where the Muslim population is more than 30% of the electorate? Do only the Congress or RJD have the god- given right to contest from these seats? Why could they not have entered into an alliance with Mr. Owaisi ( as he had asked ) and given him some of these seats? Come to think of it , the Mahagathbandan would have done much better if it had had an alliance with the AIMIM rather than the Congress!

  AIMIM and Mr. Owaisi have every legal, moral and logical right to contest elections on behalf of their community. The Akali Dal does it for the Sikhs, BSP does it for the SCs/ STs, SP does it for the Yadavs, BJP and Shiv Sena do it for the Hindus, and the Congress does it ( badly ) for everyone else. Why grudge Mr. Owaisi his right? For the fact is, he and his party are here to stay and to acquire a pan national profile in the days to come, and it is about time the Opposition sat down with him over some biryani and began to work together. The onus is now on them, and not Mr. Owaisi, to ensure that the Muslim vote is not split. He has already announced his intention to contest in UP in 2022 and in Bengal next year. I hope Ms Mamata Banerjee is paying attention to the Bihar results- with 130 seats out of the total 293  having a Muslim population of 30% or more, she cannot afford not to.

  It's an ill wind that blows no good, and maybe the gusts from Pennsylvania may yet reach Purulia, even if they have bypassed Purnea.

  

ARNAB GOSWAMI IN JAIL : RIGHT PLACE, WRONG REASONS.

   In the game of chess a pawn has only one use: to protect the king. It is totally expendable. Arnab Goswami has probably realised this in his Raigad cell, or will soon when the other cases catch up with him. Oh, to be sure, some of the BJP's medium artillery has come out in his support- Messers Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Smriti Irani, Javadekar- revealing once and for all the nexus between the party and this charlatan journalist. But their's are xeroxed pro-forma statements, ritualistic and meaningless. Mr. Goswami is now of no further use to them, his credibility demolished, his TRPs suspect, his legal options uncertain, and they shall lose no time in finding an equally pliable and conscienceless  surrogate for him from among the other channels and anchors who have made the nation's gutters their homes.

  Arnab's arrest itself was nothing short of a burlesque, like one of his prime time shows. The performance of the Mumbai police was most unprofessional, taking them almost twenty minutes to apprehend an accused; another few minutes and he might even have been released on anticipatory bail, given how accommodating the courts have been to him of late! Mr. Goswami's supporters might think his swan song performance was masterly- he held forth for fifteen minutes on his rights, his injuries, his innocence, the need for family consultations- incidentally, a privilege which he never allowed to the persons he mercilessly traduced, vilified and condemned on his programmes. But in reality his conduct was craven and cowardly, without any dignity, as he had to be dragged by four policemen from his flat. In those few minutes his bravado, rodomontade and posturing were exposed. Also in evidence were his over weening arrogance and bloated sense of entitlement, fully displayed in his recent foul mouthing of the Chief Minister and Commissioner of police.

  Notwithstanding the fulminations of the BJP and even the cautious statement issued by the Editor's Guild ( a balanced compromise among differing factions, I suspect, rather than a protest carrying any conviction ), Arnab Goswami is not a journalist, he ceased being one years ago when he hitched his wagon to the BJP. It doesn't matter why he did so, whether out of ideological affinity, an out sized ego, a yearning for power and fame, an intrinsic amorality and lack of any principles and abiding values. Whatever the reason, he does not possess a shred of journalistic ethics or values, he had become a digital mercenary and, ironically, best fitted the description of his likes by a Minister of the same government he had sold himself to- a " presstitute " The truth has an awkward way of revealing itself. For the truth is, he should have been in jail a long time ago.

  But not for the offence for which he has now been arrested, or the manner in which it was done. I am not on the merits of the charges against him ( that is for a court to decide ) but on the process. An FIR once closed by a magistrate cannot be reopened for investigation by the police without the order of a competent court- it does not appear that such an order was obtained. The Raigad police have not revealed the nature of the new evidence ( including the suppression of old evidence by the Fadnavis govt earlier, if any ) which could justify the reopening of a closed case. Why was Mr. Goswami not served a notice, or summoned and questioned, to hear his side of the story before arresting him in unholy haste ? And how was he remanded to judicial custody for two weeks by a judge when the Chief Judicial Magistrate himself was reported to have said that the reopening of a closed case was illegal and that there was no evidence to connect him with the " crime"? This episode shows the Indian criminal justice system at its worst, and frankly, no observer of the state of affairs in the country would be surprised at the events on display here.

  Because, over the last few years, the freedom of speech and of journalists has been subjected to persecution, vindictiveness and the gross misuse of state power relentlessly. One of the more successful initiatives of the BJP, it has been quickly emulated by all parties and governments. More than 55 newspersons have been reportedly arrested just during the pandemic period and many more have had FIRs lodged against them, including eminent editors and columnists. Not for revealing state secrets, but for reporting on the shortcomings of governments, states and central. They have been lumped together with terrorists and charged with sedition, inciting disaffection and revolt, causing enmity between communities, even offences under the dreaded UAPA which should have no place in even a half-democracy ( as Chetan Bhagat would no doubt put it ! ).  And when they cannot be accused of these offences directly, charges unrelated to journalism are brought against them, such as defamation or laundering of money or whatever else the febrile imagination of the I.O. can conjure up. The case against Goswami appears to be one of them. It is not without reason that India is at the 146th spot in the global index of journalistic freedom, and going further downhill rapidly.

   The apparent vindictiveness and  precipitate action of the Mumbai police and government in arresting Goswami post haste can only be a harbinger of worse times for Indian journalism. It will set off a chain reaction in BJP ruled states where the police have been hounding independent news persons with a feral ferocity not seen before. Journalists perceived to be either anti government or pro Opposition will now become the fodder for their vengeance. Even worse, the line between legality and illegality will become further blurred, and an already rampaging police will be emboldened to push the envelope even more. And all this just because the Mumbai police couldn't wait to do a more thorough job in nailing the editor-in-chief of Republic TV.

  For Arnab Goswami's rightful and deserved place is in a jail. He has, almost single handedly, shrunk the space for value based and independent journalism in the country, and his "success' has spawned a whole mob of dopplegangers who have practically taken over the media space. The fourth estate has become the fifth column of our democracy. Apart from the Deadly Duo he has been the one man who, with his reach, aggressive style and financial support from rapacious corporates, has done the maximum damage to the country's social and moral fabric. He has spread hatred and communalism on a huge scale, instigated our basest instincts that lead to lynch mobs, destroyed reputations and careers without any evidence, demonised one particular community shamelessly, intimidated government agencies into doing the wrong things ( such as the arrest of Rhea Chakrabarty). He is, in short, a danger to the community and should have been locked up a long time ago on any of a whole host of offences. But the validity and legality of the present arrest may not hold. It is an abuse of the law and just as two wrongs do not make a right, two abuses do not make for justice. Goswami should get his just desserts but it cannot be vindictive or outside the limits imposed by the law.

[ As of the date of writing this piece Mr. Goswami's petition for quashing the FIR against him or his bail application is yet to be adjudicated upon by the Mumbai High court. ]