If you are faced with or wish to initiate against someone a criminal prosecution

More often than not, life brings to you situations where you felt that someone should be criminally charged for one or the other action but don't know what to do or how to start with. Then there are situations which life brings to you in though unfortunately when you have been charged rightly or wrongly with some criminal offence. In both the situations, the info given in the following paras will come to your aid.

Hon'ble Supreme Court dealt the above in great detail in

H.S. Bains, Director, Small Savings-cum-Deputy Secretary Finance, Punjab v. State (Union Territory of Chandigarh) 1980 (4) SCC 631 and stated thus:

It is seen from the provisions to which we have referred in the preceding paragraphs that on receipt of a complaint a Magistrate has several courses open to him. He may take cognizance of the offence and proceed to record the Statements of the complainant and the witnesses present under Section 200. Thereafter, if in his opinion there is no sufficient ground for proceeding he may dismiss the complaint under Section 203. If in his opinion there is sufficient ground for proceeding he may issue process under Section 204. However, if he thinks fit, he may postpone the issue of process and either enquire into the case himself or direct an investigation to be made by a Police Officer or such other person as he thinks fit for the purpose of deciding whether or not there is sufficient ground for proceeding. He may then issue process if in his opinion there is sufficient ground for proceeding or dismiss the complaint if there is no sufficient ground for proceeding. On the other hand, in the first instance, on receipt of a complaint, the Magistrate may, instead of taking cognizance of the offence, order an investigation under Section 156(3). The police will then investigate and submit a report under Section 173(1). Oft receiving the police report the Magistrate may take cognizance of the offence under Section 190(1)(b) and straightaway issue process. This he may do irrespective of the view expressed by the police in their report whether an offence has been made out or not. The Police report under Section 173 will contain the facts discovered or unearthed by the police and the conclusion drawn by the police therefrom. The Magistrate is not bound by the conclusions drawn by the Police and he may decide to issue process even if the Police recommend that there is no sufficient ground for proceeding further. The Magistrate after receiving the Police report, may, without issuing process or dropping the proceeding decide to take cognizance of the offence on the basis of the complaint originally submitted to him and proceed to record the Statements upon oath of the complainant and the witnesses present under Section 200 Criminal Procedure Code and thereafter decide whether to dismiss the complaint or issue process. The mere fact that he had earlier ordered an investigation under Section 156(3) and received a report under Section 173 will not have the effect of total effacement of the complaint and therefore the Magistrate will not be barred from proceeding under Sections 200, 203 and 204. Thus, a Magistrate who on receipt of a complaint, orders an investigation under Section 156(3) and receives a police report under Section 173(1), may, thereafter, do one of three things: (1) he may decide that there is no sufficient ground for proceeding further and drop action; (2) he may take cognizance of the offence under Section 190(1)(b) on the basis of the police report and issue process; this he may do without being bound in any manner by the conclusion arrived at by the police in their report: (3) he may take cognizance of the offence under Section 190(1)(a) on the basis of the original complaint and proceed to examine upon oath the complainant and his witnesses under Section 200. If he adopts the third alternative, he may hold or direct an inquiry under Section 202 if he thinks fit. Thereafter he may dismiss the complaint or issue process, as the case may be.

Again in Abhinandan Jha and Ors. v. Dinesh Mishra, (supra) the question arose whether a Magistrate to whom a report under Section 173(1) had been submitted to the effect that no case had been made out against the accused, could direct the police to file a charge-sheet, on his disagreeing with the report submitted by the Police. this Court held that the Magistrate had no jurisdiction to direct the police to submit a charge-sheet. It was open to the Magistrate to agree or disagree with the police report. If he agreed with the report that there was no case made out for issuing process to the accused, he might accept the report and close the proceedings. If he came to the conclusion that further investigation was necessary he might make an order to that effect under Section 156(3). If ultimately the Magistrate was of the opinion that the facts set out in the police report constituted an offence he could take cognizance of the offence, notwithstanding the contrary opinion of the police expressed in the report. While expressing the opinion that the Magistrate could take cognizance of the offence notwithstanding the contrary opinion of the police the Court observed that the Magistrate could take cognizance under Section 190(1)(c)'. We do not have any doubt that the reference to 'Section 190(1)(c)' was a mistake for 'Section 190(1)(b)'. That appears to be obvious to us. But Shri Kapil Sibal urged that the reference was indeed to Section 190(1)(c) since at that time Section 190(1)(c) included the words 'or suspicion' and the Court had apparently taken the view that the Magistrate could take cognizance of the offence not under Section 190(1)(b) as if on a police report but under Section 190(1)(c) as if 'on suspicion'. We do not agree with this submission. Section 190(1)(c) was never intended to apply to cases where there was a police report under Section 173(1). We find it impossible to say that a Magistrate who takes cognizance of an offence on the basis of the facts disclosed in a police report must be said to have taken cognizance of the offence on suspicion and not upon a police report merely because the Magistrate and the Police arrived at different conclusions from the facts. The Magistrate is not bound by the conclusions arrived at by the police even as he is not bound by the conclusions arrived at by the complainant in a complaint. If a complainant States the relevant facts in his complaint and alleges that the accused is guilty of an offence under Section 307 Indian Penal Code the Magistrate is not bound by the conclusion of the complainant. He may think that the facts disclose an offence under Section 324 Indian Penal Code only and he may take cognizance of an offence under Section 324 instead of Section 307. Similarly if a police report mentions that half a dozen persons examined by them claim to be eye witnesses to a murder but that for various reasons the witnesses could not be believed, the Magistrate is not bound to accept the opinion of the police regarding the credibility of the witnesses. He may prefer to ignore the conclusions of the police regarding the credibility of the witnesses and take cognizance of the offence. If he does so, it would be on the basis of the Statements of the witnesses as revealed by the police report. He would be taking cognizance upon the facts disclosed by the police report though not on the conclusions arrived at by the police. It could not be said in such a case that he was taking cognizance on suspicion.

In case you wish to clarify any of your doubts in connection with the above, let me know.

Are you in hurry to get a divorce?

Divorce, a thing which was almost unheard of a decade ago and the pursuing parties used to be looked down upon then, has become so common these days that marriage as an institution seems loosing its importance in India. Marriage at one time considered to be an union of two souls to be continued for seven lives gets broken in India at the drop of a hat. Equanimity between the partners has become too remote a thing in today's era of only accumulation and no experience.

Believe you me, I have cases where exceptionally better off and intellectually sound people part ways on too insignificant developments which would have been OK between two friends and such cases sadden me. My approach to every case so far has been to reunite the couple if the differences have not taken them too far and is not beyond bridging. A good number of divorce cases I have succeeded to kill them right in my chamber and sent the couple back happy. But then there are the ones where keeping the parties together would only bring in more damages to them individually as well as to the people around their lives and these are the cases where amicable separation is to be advocated.

There are two legal ways of obtaining divorce viz. contested and mutual.

Contested is too painful a process to go through and should be better avoided but cases where parties are not willing to cooperate and have declared war on each other, there is no other way.

Mutual is most respectful way of amicably settling the issues and separating with dignity intact.

Fortunately or unfortunately, even mutual takes minimum six months for the divorce to come through though it is way far better than 5-6 years of a contested divorce suit in getting decided.

Prior to a 2009 judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court, the six months, statutorily provided period to separate the two motions of a mutual divorce case, the court used to be willing to waive off if the parties could be shown living separately for a longer period but post 2009 judgment of Apex Court, this possibility is no longer available except with the Apex Court itself.

Since this holier-than-thou discretion the Apex Court reserved it for itself, people, wealthy and in hurry, seeking divorce use ways and means to utilize this discretion available with Hon'ble Supreme Court. One such instance I came across in the following case. In case you can't make out what I am hinting at please feel free to write to me.

Priyanka Singh Vs. Jayant Singh on 10 November, 2009

Bench: Harjit Singh Bedi, J.M. Panchal

CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION

TRANSFER PETITION (C) NO.400 OF 2009

Priyanka Singh ...Petitioner Versus

Jayant Singh ...Respondent ORDER

1. This is a petition for transfer of Divorce Petition No.1118 of 2008 titled Shri Jayant Singh vs. Smt. Priyanka Singh pending in the Court of Civil Judge (Senior Division), Gautam Budh Nagar (U.P.) to District Court, Koderma (Jharkhand).

2. While issuing notice, this Court stayed further proceedings of the divorce case. On 15.5.2009, the parties appeared in person and presented a joint application for grant of decree of divorce by mutual consent. However, as the averments necessary for making out a case under Section 2

13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (for short `the Act') were not made in the application, the case was adjourned with a direction to the parties to file an appropriate application. Thereafter, the parties jointly filed I.A. No.3 of 2009 with the prayer that their marriage be dissolved by granting a decree of divorce by mutual consent. They also filed an application (I.A. No.4 of 2009) under Section 13B of the Act for dissolution of marriage by a decree of divorce by mutual consent by stating therein that due to temperamental incompatibility, the parties have not been able to live together as husband and wife; that they have been living separately since 12.3.2005 and that the marriage is irretrievably broken down. It has also been averred that there is no chance of reconciliation between the parties and after due intervention of the family members and other relatives, they have decided to seek a decree of divorce by mutual consent. Both the I.As are supported by the affidavits of the parties.

3. We have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record. Keeping in view the fact that the parties are living separately for last more than 4 years and 6 months and there is no chance of reconciliation between them and also the fact that they have agreed to dissolve their marriage by mutual consent without any coercion or undue influence, we deem it proper to accept the prayer made in the two 3

applications for dissolution of marriage. Accordingly, Divorce Petition No.1118 of 2008 titled Shri Jayant Singh vs. Smt. Priyanka Singh pending in the Court of Civil Judge (Senior Division), Gautam Budh Nagar (U.P.) is transferred to this Court and marriage between the parties is dissolved by granting a decree of divorce by mutual consent in terms of Section 13B of the Act.

4. The transfer petition is disposed of in the manner indicated above. ........................................J.

[R.V. RAVEENDRAN]

......................................J.

[G.S. SINGHVI]

New Delhi

November 10, 2009

One India, One Flag, One Law

An Interesting Conversation, held on FaceBook, on various aspects of spirituality and philosophy

Yogesh Andlay:“That man is richest who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal, and by means of his possessions, over the lives of others.”

“Economic change is driven by individual ethical choices, not rational material interests.”

- From 'Unto this last' by John Ruskin published in 1860, a book that had profund impact on Gandhi ji

Somnath Bharti: Yogesh, interestingly of which almost all Indians are unaware of, Gandhi had his inspiration coming from Tolstoy, Ruskin and Thoreau. Strange that he found no Indian philosophers or Indian Philosophy worth inspiration!!!

Yogesh Andlay: Not entirely correct. Needs to be explored further....

Anil Bhatnagar: Somnath ji, I am aware of Tolstoy's influence on Gandhi ji's formative years but Gandhi ji was also influenced by various scriptures like Gita and Bible.

Somnath Bharti: Yogesh, an immediate proof of what I said is available in the book "Gandhi: the man, his people, and the empire By Rajmohan Gandhi". On page 182 Rajmohan writes "In his preface of the English Version (of Hind Swaraj), Gandhi writes that he has 'endeavoured humbly to follow Tolstoy, Ruskin, Thoreau, Emerson and other writers, besides the masters of Indian philosophy'. He names the Westerners, not the Indians, he refers to." Read the last line again.

Anil Ji, he was greatly influenced by Bible from where he picked up "offer the second cheek" concept, though he never mentioned of it anywhere. His work no where reflects Gita. Recently I got hold of M O Mathai's (PS of Nehru) book (banned in India) and I was shocked to read about the fraud played upon India and its people by Gandhi and his team.

Anil Bhatnagar: Gandhi ji mentioned that for him there was not much of a difference between Bible and Gita as he could derive from the other. One could not have claimed so with so much conviction unless one obviously was a student of both Gita and Bible. However, having said so, I personally feel it is not important which source our goodness comes from so long as it comes. His Holiness Dalai Lama says that the best religion is the one that brings out the best in us. Many people during my workshops do not like my reference to western sources. They are more interested in the source than in the values themselves. I think all great people like Gandhi are just the opposite: they are more focused on imbibing the right values irrespective their source. A vedic verse inspires us thus:" Let wisdom come from all directions".

Somnath Bharti: Anil, I am entirely in agreement with you but only with a rider. The freedom as to the source of the good/wisdom for an individual is worth a discussion as long as both are readily and equally made available but where one (Indian Philosophy) has been deliberately destroyed while the other (western philosophy) has been enthusiastically promoted, freedom of the individual is hardly a parameter. Lord Macaulay and his latest Avatar Kapil Sibal are hell bent on destroying Indian literatures. Are we giving our kids a free choice of Indian and Western? I am afraid that we are manufacturing our kids in a way that they will appreciate western thoughts and values only. The harm by this is not only to India and its rich civilization but to western too as generations there will never know the riches of Indian Civilization.

Yogesh Andlay: Just finished reading 2 of 3 chapters. Once you start reading it, you can't stop.... @Somnath: Here is the linkhttp://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/RusLast.html

Somnath Bharti: Anil, also on HH Dalai Lama, I had driven down to Dharamshala to meet him in person but returned without meeting him when I came to know that he eats meat in his lunch. For me, meat is to do with compassion rather than a food choice. The argument given by his followers was that they eat and not kill. Buddha's followers is exploiting one incidence of Buddha's life and teachings. I don't value much what HH Dalai Lama says because in my opinion he is one of those people who doesn't understand the basics of spirituality. Just by a following, no one becomes great whether it be Gandhi or HH Dalia Lama. In fact no one by following any one have ever become great. Christ was not a Christian and neither was Buddha a buddhist. One has to die to go to heaven.

Somnath Bharti: Thanks Yogesh for sharing the link. It is indeed great reading Ruskin.

D Rshobha Dani-arora: one doesn't agree with other person's opinion, he agrees with his own opinion expressed by someone else. If this is true, you reflect your fine personality in the quotes, Yogesh!

Anil Bhatnagar: Somnath ji, I am in complete ageement with you regarding your comment that meat eating is not just a food choice. I think it is indeed cruelty towards innnocent animals. However, are u sure about him eating meat in lunch? I once heard him confessing he used to do so in his childhood (which I presume meant that he does not do it now).

I agree that earlier invaders systematically destroyed Indian scriptures and today we are doing little to make our heritage be known to our children.

I also agree with you that having followers doesn't necessarily make one truly a leader. However, I have been reading HH Dalai Lama's books on spirituality and they make lot of sense to me hence while loving you for who you are and respecting your views about him, I have difficulty accepting that he does not understand the very basics of spirituality...this appears to be an exaggerated judgement we can do without (By the way I am not his follower. He is only among the many I have read).

Shailendra Jain: I am joining the discussion late. Gandhi read and internalized Gita. I have read Gandhi's commentary on Gita. Gandhi engaged in a very spiritually rich dialog with a Jain monk Raj Chandra (published in several languages).

Gandhi was heavily influenced by Bhakti Marg Saints such as Nanak, Kabir, Tulsidas, Raidas and others.

Shailendra Jain: Is Indian philosophy and literature less accessible or relevant now? May be.

During my thirty-three years of living in the USA, I see an increasing influence of Indian thought. This is happening not only in intellectual circles but also in popular media. Star Wars series of movies created by George Lucas had key concepts of "force", Jedai, and one-on-one coaching by "yoda" from Indian scriptures.

Lately, I am seeing Patanjali quoted more often.

Anil Bhatnagar: I agree with you Shailendra ji. Even in Management we find stalwarts like Stephen Covey quoting from Gita, Vivekananda, Tagore and Gandhi.

Somnath Bharti: Anil Ji, HH Dalai Lama and his followers do eat meat and they justify the same as shared with you earlier. In fact he had visited RadhaSoami Satsang Beas (they practice strict vegetarianism) sometime back wherein his followers were looking for eggs in the morning for his B/F. Because of my father, I have the quest of visiting any and every known living practitioner of Spirituality and sorry to say that majority barring a very few have been doing more damage than any benefit. Barring a very few, all start with a wrong premise; they want me to believe without going through the pain and labor of my own like Buddha, Mahavira, Nanak etc. that there is a God. And when you start with a premise like this then whole journey gets screwed up. And towards the old age, people get conditioned so much that they cling to the unverified believes which they are carrying along since childhood and give all sorts of explanations to save their ego. Like we tell our children that there is a God, Russians tell their children that there is no God and later on the grown ups of these societies debate in favor of such thrust upon believes as if they were their own findings.

Shailendra Ji, whether it be Gita or Bible, they are someone else's personal, original and first hand experiences and if someone tries to internalize them then s/he is just putting another layer of Mask and all such persons will be dangerous to one selves as well as to others. Spirituality is a journey which any desirous person has to undergo individually just as Nanak, Raidas, Kabir, Christ, Ram Krishna went all on their own with no help whatsoever from anywhere.

Anil Bhatnagar: I am in complete agreement with you Somnath ji on each word you have written. If Jesus was great that does not make all Christians great (and the same logic goes for Krishna and Hindus).

Though I personally don't approve this cruelty on animals, however, I feel my compassion for animals and all living beings should extend to include even those who kill them and also to those who have no respect for my sentiments, values and beliefs.

In Buddha's time, monks were allowed to accept meat since they were to accept whatever they were to get in alms (beggers cannot be choosers). This was mainly meant to make them reach beyong Raag and dwesha (eat even what you dislike the most as a mark of complete surrender and let go of what you like the most). But this does not hold good today when the scenario offers more options to them (searching for eggs when they are not available is just the opposite of this spirit and clearly shows raag or attachment).

Spirituality is a personal search for meaning and life sustaining values It cannot be pasted from outside; it must grow from within. It is definitely beyond the inherited beliefs--as you have rightly pointed out

Somnath Bharti: Anil Ji, you have explained the small incidence of Buddha's time beautifully in which he had to permit eating of the meat dropped in the begging bowl of a monk by a vulture on his way back to the monastery as he had received nothing else that day because, as you have beautifully explained, Buddha did not want his monks to empower their minds by exercising discretion- a mark of complete surrender. Ahh, what a great way you have explained this part of Buddhism which is badly misused and exploited so badly by its followers. From outside, buddhus and buddhas look alike; both carefree but from inside, both are extreme of the possibilities available to each of the human beings.

Somnath Bharti: Yogesh/Anil/Shailendra, because our discussion led to many interesting facets which I think would be good for any seeker of truth, I need your permission to permit me post this entire conversation on my blog. If desired, I can suppress your identities.

Wish you and all your loved ones a blissful, insightful and prosperous year 2011!!!

A trick to save time-rarest of all the commodities-on Facebook

Have you ever wondered why Facebook does not have give an option of Select All while sending an invite to your FB friends? It's very frustrating to keep selecting them one by one. For reasons I had to contact all of them and faced the same frustrating problem and in fact many more people have faced similar problem as evidenced by a search on this on Google. My search took me to http://funkyplumbo.com/2009/04/21/how-to-invite-all-your-friends-on-facebook-to-your-event-in-one-go/ from where I have picked up the following paragraphs giving the solution.

he newly redesigned Facebook has led inviting members to an event/group/page to an even more complex process. Why can’t they just make a “select all” button? Initially I got tired of clicking several hundred times on all the pictures to invite people to my event, so I came up with this small piece of Javascript:

javascript:elms=document.getElementById('friends').getElementsByTagName('li');for(var fid in elms){if(typeof elms[fid] === 'object'){fs.click(elms[fid]);}}

Go to your event/group/page, click invite people and then paste this snippet in the URL field of your browser.

Left-click the mouse in the URL field and hit Enter. Your invitations will not be sent yet, but all your friends will be selected. Click the “Invite” or “Send” button on the Facebook page to finally send the invites.

How to type in Hindi in Facebook while browsing it using Google Chrome

It's been quite awhile I moved to Google Chrome abandoning Firefox, IE and every other browsers for no major reason other than convergence of applications, I use, of Google. So far I have had no major problem other than my robo form and couple of other extensions not working with Chrome. Anyway, features like online bookmarks inbuilt with Chrome and it's finish prompted me to do the migration for once and all. Today I faced a major problem when I wished to share with my Facebook friends the experience of Lord Buddha in my own mother tongue ie. Hindi. Using Google Transliteration with Firefox I used to manage this but this simply refused to work in Chrome. After wasting almost 1 hour, I found out a Microsoft development called Indic Language Input Tool (ILIT) which is claimed to have been brought out by Microsoft in response to Google Transliteration and this did the magic. In case you are facing the same problem, please visit http://specials.msn.co.in/ilit/Hindi.aspx and secure your peace of mind.

A song by Dushayant Kumar- I was introduced to by Arvind Kejriwal during PanIIT 2010

Arvind Kejriwal, Ramon Megsaysay award winner, was invited to speak during PanIIT 2010 recently concluded on 31.10.2010 and he took the stage almost by storm. His brief talk on CWG scam and how clandestinely the government is handling this largest ever reported SCAM, followed by the recital of the following poem by Dushayant Kumar, mesmerized the audience and ALL sang the song together.

हो गई है पीर पर्वत-सी पिघलनी चाहिए,

इस हिमालय से कोई गंगा निकलनी चाहिए।

आज यह दीवार, परदों की तरह हिलने लगी,

शर्त लेकिन थी कि ये बुनियाद हिलनी चाहिए।

हर सड़क पर, हर गली में, हर नगर, हर गाँव में,

हाथ लहराते हुए हर लाश चलनी चाहिए।

सिर्फ हंगामा खड़ा करना मेरा मकसद नहीं,

सारी कोशिश है कि ये सूरत बदलनी चाहिए।

मेरे सीने में नहीं तो तेरे सीने में सही,

हो कहीं भी आग, लेकिन आग जलनी चाहिए।

Whole world is watching the CWG Scam and how is the same being investigated by the government setup Shungulu Committee.

Video of the event "Campaign-No to UID" held on Oct 16, 2010 at ISI, New Delhi

This video can be used by our Hindi-speaking countrymen who are the real target of UID and whose lives are in danger because of UID. The government is selling their death warrants in such sugar-coated capsules that they wont even notice that they have sold their freedom and lives to the whims and fancies of the corrupt leaders. Please use this video and spread the message to each and every Indian.

Unknown aspects of UID-the most ambitious project of UPA Govt

UID, the most ambitious project of UPA government to convert every Indian to a 12 digits number, has been the concern of almost every Indian for reasons, good and bad. Before the project gets judged on merit, it is most important to know that the execution of project is unconstitutional as it does not have the legislative sanction. The parliament never debated on the project as it was never brought before the parliament to seek approval for the same. Stealthily it is being executed, in a complete undemocratic way. First time I got interested in knowing more about the project when a close friend Ram Krishnaswamy, an alumnus of IITM, shared with me few articles on UID, opposing the same which in absence of the correct information was an excellent thing as per my superficial understanding. When I read about it and the background in which it has been brought into execution and how hastily it is being rolled out in absence of a legislative sanction, I was horrified on the possible repercussions of this exercise. On 16.10.2010, I was invited to an event held at ISI, Lodhi Road, New Delhi to speak on techno-legal aspects of UID, there I learnt many new things from the fellow speakers. Following this, Mr. Rajesh Joshi- a journalist working with BBC Hindi approached to do a show radio show on the issue and having learnt many new things about UID, which made me believe stronger than ever that UID is a product of some big conspiracy between Govt and Corporations, I gave my consent to be on the program. Had to grapple in finding correct Hindi words substitutes but the program went well. Callers in the program were from places as remote as Madhepura in Bihar. It was horrifying to see that the whole country has been kept in dark and the government has made false promises to the nation that the UID number will solve the myriad of problems our fellow countrymen in rural India faces everyday. The entire program is presented below for your perusal. The original program is at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/hindi/multimedia/2010/10/101019_indiabol_uid_audio.shtml

An information of immense utility: The days when famous markets in Delhi observe an off.

Recently, for reasons :-), for the first time in my life lived so far, I have been happy to go for shopping, though I have no sense of color or style and in fact I have been termed color blind by the loved ones. They fail to appreciate that by design I can't wear anything but black and white, in fact the day I moved to law the first thing I was happy about was not to waste any more time in order to chose the dress for the day. Even on occasions, I preferred wearing white and black but that won't do any longer, I have been clearly told. Hence my hunt for markets. First thing I had to consult the shopaholics to assess the market and what to buy from where and then was my sudden visits to those markets. One thing which came very handy was to know the days when specific markets observe their weekly off and I am sure that this information, mentioned below, will be of immense use/help to people like me who are not regular to these places and visit them for special occasions.

1. Gaffar Market (karol Bagh )Closed on Monday
2. Sarojini Nagar Closed on Monday
3. South Extension Closed on Monday
4. Chandni Chowk Closed on Sunday
5. Daryaganj Closed on Sunday
6. Sadar Bazar Closed on Sunday
7. Lajpat Nagar Bhoghal Jungpura Closed on Monday
8. Connaught Place Closed on Sunday

A strange keyboard error which had such a simple fix but......

There are times when simple things are really simple. My Laptop X61 went bad and hence had to be sent for repair to IBM. They wanted a Demand Draft of INR 1665/- just to examine what went wrong. And it took them more than a week to tell me that its motherboard needs a replacement. I was so disappointed to hear this from IBM, not because it was going to drill a hole in my pocket but because it took IBM more than 7 days to tell me what I was aware of on day one. And in fact that was THE SOLUTION but IBM was supposed to delve deeper and tell me more precise solution viz. the chip below the second fan has gone wrong which was the actual diagnosis which they did after I wrote a really nasty email. Anyway, that's IBM.

In absence of my lifeline I got struck, lost many hours and then decided to revive my old Toshiba 17 inches monster P25-S5092. Somehow I have always been in favor of Linux, maybe because it gives me the freedom of modifying the kernel to give the OS a form of my liking and hence this monster was loaded with Linux. I had no way but to order (because I did not want to corrupt the beautifully modified Linux, Ubuntu to be precise) a new high capacity HDD and then get hold of a Windows XP. Everything went fine but on start the keyboard gave me a real tough time, other than alphabets all other keys were not in sync with my keyboard, e.g. @ and " had got interchanged. Tried hard, consulted some experts but no one could be of any help. Someone cursed Microsoft and advised me to switch over to Linux but he was not aware that Legal Software which are lifeline of my profession are not Linux-compatible and to make them run on Linux is too difficult a task like I have to wrap dlls to make them run in Linux which is also always successful anyway. As I usually say one has to die to go to heaven, I had to die and look for a solution myself, for these many hours I would have charged a client a huge sum.:-) 

Finally realized that it have something to do with keyboard type and this realization took me to Regional an Language Options available in Control Panel of Windows XP. There was my solution, I had to change the keyboard type from UK to USA and everything became normal. This brought an interesting question to may mind, why can't be have all English Keyboards of the world alike. But probably that won't be possible. Any guess, why?? 

The ambitious project of Govt of India to reduce every Indian to a number.

Nandan Nilekani of Infosys, also an IITian, is the man who will get a place in the history of India for him heading the mission of the government of India to reduce every Indian to just a number and as claimed all problems of this great country which has people like Kalmadi will disappear within no time. Nandan seems to be kidding or he has just got trapped in it, after all he enjoys the rank of a cabinet minister. When countries like USA, UK and Australia have decided to abandon all such projects in their country for the reasons of it being expensive and too intrusive in nature, India with a population, 50 times of that of Australia, has started afresh on the plan of reducing Individuals to numbers. Wastage of tax payers' money probably has become the rule than exception, examples are RTE, CWG and UID. In none of these projects, the Govt had taken any caution of the kind of a feasibility study or a cost-benefit analysis to ensure the proper utilization of the tax payers' money. Recently a press conference was called upon by who's who of the Indian Intellectual Society and the following was issued by them supposedly as a press release, I am sure that many of these names you might have already been familiar with.

Here goes the release for your perusal and if you find your views in alignment then do take pain of writing directly to PM and UPA Chairperson to communicate your views because it is still not too late to halt the project and revisit the whole project and abandon the same if needed.

The project that proposes to give every resident a `unique identity number’ is a matter of great concern for those working on issues of food security, NREGA, migration, technology, decentralisation, constitutionalism, civil liberties and human rights. The process of setting up the Authority has resulted in very little, if any, discussion about this project and its effects and fallout. The documents on the UIDAI website, and a recent draft law (the National Identification Authority Bill, which is also on the website) do not provide answers to the many questions that are being raised in the public domain. This project is intended to collect demographic data about all residents in the country. It is said that it will impact on the PDS and NREGA programmes, and plug leakages and save the government large sums of money. It would, however, seem that even basic procedures have not been followed before launching on such a massive project.

Before it goes any further, we consider it imperative that the following be done:
• Do a feasibility study: There are claims made in relation to the project, about what it can do for PDS and NREGA, for instance, which does not reflect any understanding of the situation of the situation on the ground. The project documents do not say what other effects the project may have, including its potential to be intrusive and violative of privacy, who may handle the data (there will be multiple persons involved in entering, maintaining and using the data), who may be able to have access to the data and similar other questions.
• Do a cost:benefit analysis: It is reported that the UIDAI estimates the project will costs Rs 45,000 crores to the exchequer in the next 4 years. This does not seem to include the costs that will be incurred by Registrars, Enrollers, internal systems costs that the PDs system will have to budget if it is to be able to use the UID, the estimated cost to the end user and to the number holder.
• In a system such as this, a mere statement that the UIDAI will deal with the security of the data is obviously insufficient. How does the UIDAI propose to deal with data theft? If this security cannot be reasonably guaranteed, the wisdom of holding such data in a central registry may need to be reviewed.
• The involvement of firms such as Ernst & Young and Accenture raise further questions about who will have access to the data, and what that means to the people of India.
• Constitutionality of this project, including in the matter of privacy, the relationship between the state and the people, security and other fundamental rights.
Questions have been raised which have not been addressed so far, including those about – 
• Undemocratic process: UIDAI was set-up via a GoI notification as an attached office of the Planning Commission without any discussion or debate in the Parliament or civil society. In the year and a half of its inception, the Authority has signed MoUs with virtually all states and UTs, LIC, Petroleum Ministry and many banks. In July, the Authority circulated the draft NIA Bill (to achieve statutory status); the window for public feedback was two weeks. Despite widespread feedback and calls for making all feedback public, the Authority has not made feedback available. Further in direct contravention to the process of public feedback, the NIA Bill was listed for introduction in the Lok Sabha 2010 monsoon session
• Privacy (It is only now that the DoPT is said to be working on a draft of a privacy law, but nothing is out for discussion even yet)
• Surveillance: where this technology, and the existence of the UID number, and its working, could result in increasing the potential for surveillance
• Profiling
• Tracking
• Convergence, by which those with access to state power, as well as companies, could collate information about each individual with the help of the UID number.
National IDs have been abandoned in the US, Australia and the newly-elected British government. The reasons have predominantly been: costs and privacy. If it is too expensive for the US with a population of 308 million, and the UK with 61 million people, and Australia with 21 million people, it is being asked why India thinks it can prioritise its spending in this direction. In the UK, the Home Secretary explained that they were abandoning the project because it would otherwise be `intrusive bullying’ by the state, and that the government intended to be the `servant’ of the people, and not their `master’. Is there a lesson in it for us? In the late nineties, the Supreme Court of Philippines struck down the President’s Executive Order A.O 308 which instituted a biometric based national ID system calling it unconstitutional on two grounds – the overreach of the executive over the legislative powers of the congress and invasion of privacy. The same is applicable in India – UIDAI has been constituted on the basis of a GoI notification and there is a fundamental risk to civil liberties with the convergence of UID, NATGRID etc.
The UIDAI is still at the stage of conducting pilot studies. The biometric pilot study has reportedly already thrown up problems especially among the poor whose fingerprints are not stable, and whose iris scans suffer from malnourishment related cataract and among whom the incidence of corneal scars is often found. The project is clearly still in its inception. The project should be halted before it goes any further and the prelude to the project be attended to, the public informed and consulted, and the wisdom of the project determined. The Draft Bill too needs to be publicly debated. This is a project that could change the status of the people in this country, with effects on our security and constitutional rights, and a consideration of all aspects of the project should be undertaken with this in mind.

We, therefore, ask that:
• The project be halted 
• A feasibility study be done covering all aspects of this issue
• Experts be tasked with studying its constitutionality
• The law on privacy be urgently worked on (this will affect matters way beyond the UID project)
• A cost : benefit analysis be done
• A public, informed debate be conducted before any such major change be brought in.


List of signatories of a statement on the UID
Justice VR Krishna Iyer, Retired Judge, Supreme Court of India
Prof Romila Thapar, Historian
K.G.Kannabiran, Senior Civil Liberties Lawyer
Kavita Srivastava, PUCL and Right to Food Campaign
Aruna Roy, MKKS, Rajasthan
Nikhil Dey, MKKS, Rajasthan
S.R.Sankaran, Retired Secretary, Government of India
Deep Joshi, Independent Consultant
Upendra Baxi, Jurist and ex-Vice Chancellor of Universities of Surat and Delhi
Uma Chakravarthi, Historian
Shohini Ghosh, Teacher and Film Maker
Amar Kanwar, Film Maker
Bezwada Wilson, Safai Karamchari Andolan
Trilochan Sastry, IIMB, and Association for Democratic Reforms
Prof. Jagdish Chhokar, ex- IIMA, and Association for Democratic Rights
Shabnam Hashmi, ANHAD
Justice A.P.Shah, Retired Chief Justice of High Court of Delhi

 

Your life-Accidental or essential?

So far I was of the opinion that if something you were working at or you wanted to achieve did not succeed then the reason behind the failure is the little extra efforts which you failed to augment your already put-in efforts with but today I realized that that's not the case. I may be sounding mystical or mysterious. Let me explain it with an anecdote. An architect friend was once visited by a middle aged man and strangely he was holding an old antique piece of door nob in his hand. Architect after understanding his plot dimensions and the family size and their needs proposed few options but nothing seemed to interest the man at all. As usual, I interrupted noticing the gap between my architect friend and the man ever increasing and asked the visitor if the nob he was carrying along had anything to do with plan he wanted the architect to design and to the utter shock of my architect friend he nodded his head in affirmation. Upon inquiry he said that that nob was brought sometime back by his wife from some place, unheard of and none of the plans shows the possibility of fitting that nob anywhere. He wanted a plan which shows that nob getting used. This incident resulted in eruption of fountain of laughter from our within but at the same time it took me deep within because I found this happening in lives all around us. We meet a small success somewhere and then plan whole of our lives woven around that success. We want to ensure every piece of our lives so designed that the success must have its print on each of the pieces. This I call accidental life of which we all knowingly or unknowingly have been victims. On contrary to this, there is a life lived by the awakened called essential wherein the awakened lives effortlessly without any plan, without any expectation, without any opposition to what's happening and just by identifying THE PLAN and syncing his life with the same. This awakened man differs from us just by the kind of life he opts to live and with that comes entire gamut of heavenly pleasure and SAT-CHIT-ANANDA. Our never ending misery has its genesis in the accidental lives which we have built with our efforts. The moment we come to know of THE PLAN to sync our life with, miseries disappear within no time. This by no stretch of imagination should be interpreted to mean in-action on our part. This primarily means that we got to let ourselves be the vehicle for the purposes, THE EXISTENCE wishes to flow through us for. Such has been my life to a great extent though unconsciously and in the process I consciously notice the bliss I am inundated with all around my life.

How long the laws, the system, the society and the judiciary will continue to keep abusing the women in India by taking her side? Let her be free and she needs no mercy of you.

Just a day prior to the pronouncement of the insightful judgment by one of the finest Judges of Modern India, Justice S N Dhingra, I was arguing a case on similar grounds in the High Court itself. And my arguments, interestingly, were the same though the judge did not seem to appreciate my views though gave a patient hearing. Every now and then I am approached by the aggrieved husbands when their wives would like to use any and every legal remedy available in the statute books against the husband. This, by no means, should be interpreted to go against women as there have been a great number of cases which I have fought for and still fighting for the interest of women too. The approach of tit for tat in any relationship, matrimonial in particular, has always been the basis of destruction of relationship and of any bridge to bridge the developed gap thereof. In my aforementioned case. the estranged wife has been hell bent on teaching some sort of lesson to the husband for reasons best known to her and in pursuant thereof has been filing mindless cases against the man with every possible fora. The man could not get the divorce as he failed to prove to the satisfaction of the judge that desertion of his wife had no contribution from the husband and desertion so occurred amounts to cruelty to the husband. Anyway, the husband decided not to appeal against the dismissal (dismissed after 7 years) and this somehow has not gone well with the wife. And for no rhyme or reason she decided to use the new weapon called domestic violence Act, a recently enacted law for the rescue of the women, and filed a section 12 complaint against him. She also filed a fraud case for some transaction happened years ago between them having no bearing of any sort on any of them. She was awarded a maintenance order of 6000/- under section 24 as pendente lite maintenance against which she moved under Article 227 to Delhi High Court to get the same revised to a whopping amount of Rs. 60,000 where I am representing the man. Truly speaking, representing a man in a matrimonial affairs is considered to be a half lost case in the legal fraternity but such are the cases which interest me most. The moment I hear someone say a lost case or a half lost case and a sudden eruption of abound energy I get filled-in with. In the aforementioned case, attempts were made in Lok Adalat to get the matter settled by making the man give some money but the demand of the woman was too high to be matched. But on advises by friends, the man decided to pull all his resources together and borrow money from friends and family to end the 8 years old severe mental torture he was put under by the woman and decided to match the figure thrown by his estranged wife. The moment the woman saw he demand getting fulfilled and thus the 8 years old drama getting wrapped up for once and all, she withdrew herself from the deal and told the president of Lok Adalat that she is not ok with it and asked the matter to be referred back to the court to be decided on merits. 7 hearings of Lok Adalat for nothing??? I could see the man in deep turmoil but I had nothing to console the man with. When the matter came up before the judge in High Court on 26.08. 2010, the judge was told that the man runs very handsomely and hence needs to be told to be given minimum 60,000/- per month. I had few questions and was deeply concerned with the hell the man had to continuously be in for no direct fault of his, other than marrying this woman. The judge commented that my client i.e. the man was handsome and healthy and hence must be making good money. Do you see any logic? I don't. The judge was of the opinion that if no one runs a business for a profit of meager 12,000 INR a month. Do you find him true? I don't. The child of the couple which the lady denied to give to the man studies in a school where the tuition-fee is 20,000/- INR a month and hence the man must bear this cost. I don't see a logic in that. Do you? In India, schools for below 15 years and upto class 8th, at least after RTE act, can be availed for free, rather they would pay for coming to the school. At the same time, there are schools, affording which is much beyond an ordinary family's budget. One decides the luxury after gauging the inflow of the money and not otherwise. It's like that you wish to send your kids for foreign education and hence you demand a much higher salary, disproportionate to your capabilities. When we are striving for equalities amongst men and women, why can't the woman be made earn, that too when she is healthy and educated and she used to work prior to the marriage. If she wants not to give the child to the man and give the best of the facilities and education, she must put herself to some work. Why the whole burden be of the man while the woman rests and rusts.The judge wasn't willing to give up at all and want my client to shell out at least 25000/- which seems to be ridiculous in view of his present earning of 12000/- a month. On this note, the matter was adjourned for 15 days. I am sure that on the next date, I am gonna give many memorable moments to everyone in the court. 

No freedom comes cheap, if the women want to be free they need to accept the responsibilities too and it is well proven and established by the new age women we see around us. Many cases which I do of new age women, they don't want any maintenance at all and just want to have amicable separation. I really admire such women. I also admire judges of the flavor of Justice Dhingra who love speaking for truth and truth only....the following judgment drawn by him is an example of his exemplary understanding of the truth and aligning the judgment accordingly. 

Unemployed man can't be forced to pay maintenance to wife :DELHI HC

 Crl.M.C.No. 491/2009      Sanjay Bhardwaj & Ors. v. The State & Anr.  

* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
Date of Reserve: 9th August, 2010
Date of Order: 27th August, 2010

Crl.M.C.No. 491/2009            27.08.2010

  Sanjay Bhardwaj & Ors.        ... Petitioner 
      Through: Dr. Naipal Singh, Advocate

Versus
  The State & Anr.                ... Respondents
      Through: Mr. O.P.Saxena, APP for the State With Mr. Gajraj Singh, SI
      Mr. K.C.Jain, Adv. for the Complainant/Wife

JUSTICE SHIV NARAYAN DHINGRA

1. Whether reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment?  Yes.
2. To be referred to the reporter or not?            Yes.
3. Whether judgment should be reported in Digest?        Yes.

JUDGMENT

The present petition under Section 482 Cr.P.C. assails an order of interim maintenance under  The Protection of Women from  Domestic Violence  Act, 2005 (in short Domestic Violence Act)  passed by the learned MM  on 16th January, 2008  and confirmed by the learned  Additional Sessions Judge in appeal by order dated 29th February, 2008.

2.    The petitioner was a Non-Resident Indian, working in  Luanda,  Angola  in Africa as a Manager.  He came to India  taking leave from his job for marriage.  Marriage between the petitioner and respondent  no.2/wife was settled through matrimonial advertisement.  The respondent wife was MA (English) and MBA.  As per her bio-data sent before marriage, she was doing job with a Multinational Company.  The marriage between the parties was solemnized on 14th May, 2007 at a Farmhouse in Vasant Kunj and was got registered on 25th May, 2007.  The parties lived together for a limited period of 10 days i.e. from 15th May, 2007 to 19th May, 2007 and from 2nd June to 6th  June, 2007.  While the allegations of husband are  that marriage failed within 3 weeks since  the wife was suffering from a chronic disease about which no information was given to him  before marriage  and a fraud was played.  The allegations made by wife were as usual of dowry demand and harassment.  Since the marriage did not succeed,  the husband/petitioner filed a petition under Section 12 of Hindu Marriage Act for declaring the marriage  as  null and void and the wife  first  filed an FIR against the husband under Section 498A/406 IPC and then filed an application under Section 12 of Domestic Violence Act.

3.    It is not relevant for the purpose of this petition  to go into the details of allegations and counter allegations made  by each other.  Suffice it to say that the learned MM passed an order dated 16th  January, 2008 directing husband to pay an interim maintenance of   5000/- pm to the wife.  He fixed this maintenance without considering the contentions raised by the husband  (as is stated in the order)  that  the husband  lost his job in Angola  (Africa) where he was working  before marriage because his passport was seized by police  and he could not join his duties back.  After marriage he remained  in India, he was not employed.  In  the appeal,  learned Additional Session Judge noted the contentions raised by the husband that he had become jobless because of the circumstances as stated by him and  he had no source of income,  he was not even able to maintain himself and had incurred  loan,  but observed that since the petitioner had earlier worked abroad as  Sales Manager  and  in view  of the  provisions of  Domestic Violence Act,  he had the  responsibility to maintain  the  wife and monetary  relief  was  necessarily  to be provided to  the aggrieved person i.e. wife.  He observed that the wife was not able to maintain herself therefore husband,  who  earned handsomely  in past while working abroad, was liable to pay `
5000/- pm to the wife as fixed by the learned MM. 

4.    A perusal of Domestic Violence Act  shows  that Domestic Violence Act does not create any additional right in favour of wife regarding maintenance.  It only enables the Magistrate to pass a maintenance order as per the rights available under existing laws.  While, the Act specifies  the duties and functions of protection officer, police officer, service providers, magistrate, medical facility providers and duties of Government, the Act is silent about the duties of husband  or the duties of  wife.  Thus,  maintenance can be fixed by the Court under Domestic Violence Act only as per prevalent law regarding providing of maintenance by husband to the wife.  Under prevalent laws i.e. Hindu Adoption & Maintenance Act, Hindu Marriage Act,  Section 125 Cr.P.C - a husband is supposed to maintain his un-earning spouse out of the income which he earns.  No law provides that a husband has to maintain a wife, living separately from him, irrespective of the fact whether he earns or not.   Court cannot tell the husband that he should beg, borrow or steal but give maintenance to the wife,  more so when the husband and wife are almost equally qualified and almost equally capable of earning and both of them claimed to be gainfully employed before marriage. If the husband was BSc.  and Masters  in Marketing Management from Pondicherry University,  the wife was MA  (English) & MBA.  If  the  husband was working as a Manager abroad, the wife with MBA degree was also working in an MNC in India.  Under these circumstances, fixing of maintenance by the Court without there being even a prima facie proof of the husband being employed in India and with clear proof of the fact that the passport of the husband was seized, he was not permitted to leave country, (the bail was given with a condition that he shall keep visiting Investigating Officer as and when called) is contrary to law and not warranted under provisions of Domestic Violence Act.  

5.  We are living in an era of equality of sexes.  The Constitution provides equal treatment to be given irrespective of sex, caste and creed.  An unemployed husband,  who is holding an  MBA degree,  cannot be treated differently  to an unemployed wife, who is also holding an MBA degree.  Since both are on equal footing one cannot be asked to maintain other unless one is employed and other is not employed.  As far as  dependency  on parents is concerned,  I consider that once  a person is  grown up,  educated  he  cannot  be asked to beg and  borrow from the parents and maintain  wife.  The parents had done their duty of educating them and  now  they  cannot be burdened to maintain husband and wife as both are grown up and must take care of themselves.

6.    It must be remembered that there is no legal presumption that behind every failed marriage there is either dowry demand or domestic violence.  Marriages do fail for various other reasons.  The difficulty is that real causes of failure of marriage are rarely admitted in Courts.  Truth and honesty is becoming a rare commodity, in marriages and in averments made before the Courts. 

7.    I therefore find that the order  dated 16th  January, 2008 passed by the learned MM and order dated 29th February, 2008 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge  fixing maintenance without there being any prima  facie proof of the husband being employed  are  not tenable  under  Domestic Violence Act.  The petition is allowed.   The orders passed by Metropolitan Magistrate and learned Additional Sessions Judge are hereby set aside.

August 27,  2010             

SHIV NARAYAN DHINGRA, J.

How to replace MD5 hashed password directly at MySQL or stored in any other database?

We maintain FAQs of our law firm Bharti & Associates (Advocates, Corporate Lawyers and IP attorneys)  at http://www.bhartiassociates.com/faqs using PHPMYFAQ an open source faq manager. For security reasons, our developer changed the admin password and then forgot as usual. This led us to a big problem because we maintain many things using this faqs. Unfortunately the Forgot Password facility was also giving problems. The developer came to me with his head down and I had to put my most scarce resource to use i.e. Time. First I thought to decrypt MD5 hashed password, picked up from the database, but that would have taken days. Then I thought of using a tool MD5 Hash generator at http://www.miraclesalad.com/webtools/md5.php to get a text password MD5 hashed and using regular UPDATE command in mysql updated the respective table entry. Hope it does save days of headache of yours.

7 blunders that will always haunt India by Major General Mrinal Suman

This qualifies to be one of those rare articles published on my blog though written by someone else. The writer Major General Mrinal Suman has done a great work by summarizing the major problems India faces today whose genesis lies in the shortsightedness majority of our leaders including Mr. M K Gandhi (yes he is Mahatama Gandhi but I don't address him by this name for the kind of deeds he did during his lifetime). suffer from. India has always been too poor in claiming its tallness, amongst the comity of developing/developed nations, even in the areas in which she does enjoy exclusivity and Indian leaders are so inferiority complexioned that it would take hundreds of years for these non compos mentis leaders' trace to go off India for India to claim its glory back.
http://sify.com/news/Seven-blunders-that-will-always-haunt-India-imagegallery-features-khpu5Hiiegc.html

History is most unforgiving. As historical mistakes cannot be undone, they have complex cascading effect on a nation's future. Here are seven historical blunders that have changed the course of independent India's history and cast a dark shadow over its future. These costly mistakes will continue to haunt India for generations. They have been recounted here in a chronological order with a view to highlight the inadequacies of India's decision-making apparatus and the leadership's incompetence to act with vision.

No 1: The Kashmir Mess

There can be no better example of shooting one's own foot than India's clumsy handling of the Kashmir issue. It is a saga of naivety, blinkered vision and inept leadership. Hari Singh was the reigning monarch of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947. He was vacillating when tribal marauders invaded Kashmir in October 1947, duly backed by the Pakistan army. Unable to counter them, Hari Singh appealed to India for assistance and agreed to accede to India. Indian forces blunted the invasion and re-conquered vast areas.
First, India erred by not insisting on unequivocal accession of the state to the Dominion of India and granted special status to it through Article 380 of the Constitution.
Secondly, when on the verge of evicting all invaders and recapturing the complete state, India halted operations on 1 January 1949 and appealed to the Security Council. It is the only case in known history wherein a country, when on the threshold of complete victory, has voluntarily forsaken it in the misplaced hope of winning admiration of the world community.

Thirdly and most shockingly, the Indian leadership made a highly unconstitutional offer of plebiscite in the UN.

Forty percent area of the state continues to be under Pakistan's control, providing it a strategic land route to China through the Karakoram ranges. As a fall out of the unresolved dispute, India and Pakistan have fought numerous wars and skirmishes with no solution in sight. Worse, the local politicians are holding India to ransom by playing the Pak card. Kashmir issue is a self-created cancerous furuncle that defies all medications and continues to bleed the country.

No 2: Ignoring Chinese Threats and Neglecting the Military Memories of the year 1962 will always trouble the Indian psyche. A nation of India's size had lulled itself into believing that its protestations and platitudes of peaceful co-existence would be reciprocated by the world. It was often stated that a peace-loving nation like India did not need military at all. The armed forces were neglected. The political leadership took pride in denigrating the military leadership and meddled in internal affairs of the services to promote sycophancy. Foreign policy was in shambles. The intelligence apparatus was rusty.
Even though signs of China's aggressive intentions were clearly discernible for years in advance, the Indian leadership decided to keep its eyes shut in the fond hope that the problem would resolve itself. When China struck, the country was caught totally unprepared. Troops were rushed to snowbound areas with summer clothing and outdated rifles. Despite numerous sagas of gallantry, the country suffered terrible embarrassment. India was on its knees. With the national morale and pride in tatters, India was forced to appeal to all nations for military aid. Inept and incompetent leadership had forced a proud nation to find solace in Lata Mangeshkar's Ae Mere Watan Ke Logo.

No 3: The Tashkent Agreement and Return of Haji Pir Pass Following the cease-fire after the Indo-Pak War of 1965, a Russian-sponsored agreement was signed between India and Pakistan in Tashkent on 10 January 1966. Under the agreement, India agreed to return the strategic Haji Pir pass to Pakistan which it had captured in August 1965 against heavy odds and at a huge human cost. The pass connects Poonch and Uri sectors in Jammu and Kashmir and reduces the distance between the two sectors to 15 km whereas the alternate route entails a travel of over 200 km. India got nothing in return except an undertaking by Pakistan to abjure war, an undertaking which meant little as Pakistan never had any intention of honouring it.
Return of the vital Haji Pir pass was a mistake of monumental proportions for which India is suffering to date. In addition to denying a direct link between Poonch and Uri sectors, the pass is being effectively used by Pakistan to sponsor infiltration of terrorists into India. Inability to resist Russian pressure was a manifestation of the spineless Indian foreign policy and shortsighted leadership.
No 4: The Simla Agreement With the fall of Dhaka on 16 December 1971, India had scored a decisive victory over Pakistan. Over 96,000 Pak soldiers were taken Prisoners of War (PoWs). Later, an agreement was signed between the two countries on 2 July 1972 at Shimla. Both countries agreed to exchange all PoWs, respect the line of control (LOC) in Jammu and Kashmir and refrain from the use of threat or force. Additionally, Bhutto gave a solemn verbal undertaking to accept LOC as the de facto border.
India released all Pak PoWs in good faith. Pakistan, on the other hand, released only 617 Indian PoWs while holding back 54 PoWs who are still languishing in Pakistani jails. The Indian Government has admitted this fact a number of times but has failed to secure their release. India failed to use the leverage of 96,000 Pak PoWs to discipline Pakistan. A rare opportunity was thus wasted. Forget establishing permanent peace in the sub-continent, India failed to ensure release of all Indian PoWs - a criminal omission by all accounts.
The naivety of the Indian delegation can be seen from the fact that it allowed Pakistan to bluff its way through at Shimla. The Indian leadership was fooled into believing Pakistan's sincerity. Unquestionably, Pakistan never intended to abide by its promises, both written and verbal. Fruits of a hard-fought victory in the battlefield were frittered away on the negotiating table by the bungling leadership.
No. 5: The Nuclear Muddle Subsequent to the Chinese Nuclear Test at Lop Nor in 1964, India showed rare courage in carrying out its first nuclear test on 18 May 1974 at Pokharan. Outside the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, India was the only nation to prove its nuclear capability. The whole country was ecstatic and every Indian felt proud of its scientific prowess. But Indians had not contended with their Government's penchant for converting opportunity into adversity and squandering hard-earned gains.
Instead of asserting India's newly acquired status of a nuclear power and demanding recognition, India turned apologetic and tried to convince the world that it had no nuclear ambitions. Strangely, it termed the Pokharan test as a 'peaceful nuclear explosion' - a term unheard of till then. The Defence Minister went to the extent of claiming that the Indian nuclear experiment was 'only for mining, oil and gas prospecting, for finding underground sources of water, for diverting rivers, for scientific and technological knowledge.' It was a self-deprecating stance. Displaying acute inferiority complex, India did not want to be counted as a member of the exclusive nuclear club.
Criticism and sanctions were expected and must have been factored in before opting for the nuclear test. Whereas a few more assertive follow-on tests would have forced the world to accept India as a member of the nuclear club, India went into an overdrive to placate the world through a self-imposed moratorium on further testing. It lost out on all the advantages provided to it by its scientists. It suffered sanctions and yet failed to gain recognition as a nuclear power. The country missed golden opportunities due to the timidity and spinelessness of its leaders.

No 6: The Kandahar hijacking The hijacking of an Indian Airlines aircraft to Kandahar by Pakistani terrorists in December 1999 will continue to rile India's self-respect for long. According to the Hindustan Times, India lost face and got reduced to begging for co-operation from the very regimes that were actively undermining its internal security. The hijacking revealed how ill-prepared India was to face up to the challenges of international terrorism.
The eight-day long ordeal ended only after India's National Security Adviser brazenly announced that an agreement had been reached for the release of all the hostages in exchange for three Kashmiri militants including Maulana Masood Azhar. Sadly, the Prime Minister claimed credit for forcing the hijackers to climb down on their demands. The worst was yet to follow. India's Foreign Minister decided to accompany the released militants to Kandahar, as if seeing off honoured guests.
The government's poor crisis-management skills and extreme complacency in security matters allowed the hijackers to take off from Amritsar airport after 39 minutes halt for refueling, thereby letting the problem get out of control. India's much-vaunted decision-making apparatus collapsed and was completely paralysed by the audacity of a bunch of motivated fanatics. It was a comprehensive failure of monumental proportions. India's slack and amateurish functioning made the country earn the tag of a soft nation which it will find very difficult to shed.


No 7: Illegal Immigration and Passage of IMDT Act It is a standard practice all over the world that the burden of proving one's status as a bonafide citizen of a country falls on the accused. It is so for India as well under Foreigners Act, 1946. Political expediency forced the Government to make an exception for Assam. In one of the most short-sighted and anti-national moves, India passed the Illegal Migrants - Determination by Tribunals (IMDT) Act of 1984 for Assam. It shifted the onus of proving the illegal status of a suspected immigrant on to the accuser, which was a tall and virtually impossible order. Detection and deportation of illegal immigrants became impossible.
Whenever demands were raised for repealing the Act, the Congress, the Left Front and the United Minorities Front resisted strongly. Illegal immigrants had become the most loyal vote bank of the Congress. Worse, every protest against the Act was dubbed as 'anti-minority', thereby imparting communal colour to an issue of national security. The government's 'pardon' of all Bangladeshis who had come in before 1985 was another unconstitutional act that aggravated the problem.
The Act was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on July 13, 2005, more than 20 years after its enactment. The Apex Court was of the view that the influx of Bangladeshi nationals into Assam posed a threat to the integrity and security of northeastern region. Unfortunately, immense damage had already been done to the demography of Assam and the local people of Assam had been reduced to minority status in certain districts. Illegal immigrants have come to have a stranglehold over electioneering to the extent that no party can hope to come to power without their support. Nearly 30 Islamic groups are thriving in the area to further their Islamist and Pan-Bangladesh agenda. It is incomprehensible that a nation's leadership can stoop so low and endanger even national security for garnering votes.