Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

Time to relax, therefore, has not yet come. According to the latest assessment of the Union Home Ministry, "security situation in Jammu and Kashmir continued to show improvement in 2006. There has been a significant decline both in terms of incidents and casualties of civilians ...more

Wither criminal justice system

By Rameshwar
Singh Jamwal

The High Court of J&K organized a seminar on the topic ‘Whither Criminal Justice System’, in connection with its Diamond Jubilee celebrations in which eminent lawyers and judges of Supre...more

Divine springtime

By Sheriar Nooreyezdan

The spring equinox-21st, March- is the harbinger of a new season of sunshine and warmth. It rings down the curtain on the cold, sultry winter months, and ushers in a new seasonal cycle.

Soon will the apparently dead, bare branches of trees be garbed with delicate green foliage. ,.....more

Water woes

By G L Khajuria

But in existing world scenario, water is life and death also; life in the sense that we get it in safe and pure form and death when it is unsafe and badly polluted.

Our daily life's existence rests upon safe water for drinking purposes, besides fulfilling multihued requirements et. al. food production, bathing and many other cleaning operations, apart from energy conservation, irrigation of farmlands and so of its kind. Life ...more

EDITORIAL

Be on guard

Should this surprise anyone that the Pakistani militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) are using fake voter identity cards in the State? At least two of them have been caught possessing them. They had pasted their photographs after smudging the original pictures. Time and again there have been allegations of large-scale bungling in electorate lists in the country as a whole. For its part the Election Commission has been quick in taking suitable action. At times it has also ordered the elimination of doubtful names from electoral rolls. In such a milieu it should not appear to be shocking if the LeT or any other terror organisation tries to fiddle with the system. It does not need any elaboration that these agents of mischief and mayhem have entered our precincts to subvert our institutions. By now it is well established that their primary focus invariably is on the border areas --- Rajouri, for instance, in this case. The revelation by an arrested militant makes it clear that there are more such tampered cards in our vicinity. It is on their strength that the militants are able to validate their travel from one place to the other if they are questioned at security points on the way. There is another danger that we continue to face. A ruling party legislator Mohammad Sharief Niaz has made a serious charge. According to him several over-ground workers of militant outfits operate openly because of their high connections. He has alleged their links with top people in politics and bureaucracy which, he has added, they use to terrorise lower rungs of the officialdom and the members of the public. He has claimed knowledge about "the activities of many of them in his area" --- Bhalesa in Bhadarwah (Doda district). He has parted with the information that many of them are serving in various government departments and are collecting money and exploiting and sending youth for training to Pakistan. Amazingly, however, he has said that he is unable to "speak openly against these elements" because of the threat to his life, his family and close associates of his party (Congress).

Has Mr Niaz really left anything unsaid? One would sympathise with him. But, it needs to be pointed out, that he would have carried greater conviction had he mentioned the names of wrong-doers. This was necessary for more than one reason. He is mistaken if he thinks his targeted audience --- the militants and their patrons --- have not heard him. In fact, he has been quite vocal in condemning them. Moreover, the identification of mischief-mongers is essential from the point of the view of the safety of the Chief Minister who also belongs to the same region. This is all the more necessary on another ground. There is insinuation involved in Mr Niaz's utterances as if security and intelligence agencies and the administrative machinery are deliberately keeping silent. In the absence of evidence it seems to be an unfair observation.

It needs to be understood that there is no half way if one wants to eliminate the terrorism lock, stock and barrel. If we have an upper hand today it is because the security forces have effectively handled a tough assignment. We must remain on guard and spare no effort in isolating the enemy.

Terror in figures

Every session of Parliament gives us a deep insight into the prevailing terrorism scenario in the country. It provides a study in statistics, among other analyses. Its just-concluded sitting in the national capital brings us up to date on the subject which is so relevant for all of us in the State. There is no doubt that the security forces have done a commendable job to contain the militant violence on either side of the Pir Panjal. There has been a gradual improvement in the security situation after 1990. One and all can vouch for it. Nevertheless, the threat persists. Time to relax, therefore, has not yet come. According to the latest assessment of the Union Home Ministry, "security situation in Jammu and Kashmir continued to show improvement in 2006. There has been a significant decline both in terms of incidents and casualties of civilians and security forces in the State." The preceding year witnessed 1667 terror-related incidents in the State. These resulted in the killing of 151 uniformed men, 389 civilians and 593 "terrorists/extremists". The corresponding data for January 2007 is: 74, 11, 11 and 25. What does this point out except that we have some more ground to cover? The state of affairs is slightly worse in the North-East. In 2006, there has been "a marginal increase" in the number of violent incidents in Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. Together, however, they have seen significant reduction in casualties. Of the seven states, Assam has been exposed to the maximum 413 vicious events taking a toll of 32 security personnel and 164 civilians. As many as 46 terrorists were eliminated in the process. The blood-stained January 2007 scorecard is: 88, 5, 86 and 15.The New Year has ushered in well for Meghalaya, Arunachal and Mizoram: the tiny trio has been completely free from trouble in the first month this year.

Naxalism which has emerged as terrorism by another name is posing a threat to peace in the mainland. The new State of Chhattisgarh is often in the news because of the Naxal strikes. The other affected states in that order are: Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. On the whole the Naxal violence has shown a decrease of 6.15 per cent in 2006 over 2005. But as the recent events especially in Chhattisgarh have proved that the killers are going in for big hits. What had begun as a phenomenon born of socio-economic disparities has assumed the form of armed militancy. It is explained by the fact that they are equipped with weapons like self-loading rifles (SLRs), sten guns, grenades, landmines and detonators. A collective effort is being made by the Union Government and concerned states to exorcise the land of the menace. A discomforting information, however, is that arms and ammunition are almost freely available. Their seizure list (including from terror outfits) from January 1, 2006 to January this year reads: 2910 arms/weapons including pistols/revolvers, Kalashnikovs, machine guns, rocket boosters, sniper rifles and 108330 ammunitions/magazines, among other things. What is the lesson in this for us? We have to exercise utmost vigilance. That is our role as citizens. So far as the security forces are concerned they are already playing their part with courage.

Wither criminal justice system

By Rameshwar
Singh Jamwal

The High Court of J&K organized a seminar on the topic ‘Whither Criminal Justice System’, in connection with its Diamond Jubilee celebrations in which eminent lawyers and judges of Supreme Court and various other High Courts were also present. There was one former Law Minister of the country and another present Law Minister of the state as well. The topic itself suggested the candid admission of judiciary, one of the organs of the criminal justice system that the system has withered and needs to be corrected. Then almost every speaker admitted that there is some thing terribly wrong somewhere, whether in laws or in the system itself which needs to be corrected. But the big question is, who will reform the system. We have been agitating this for the last about fourteen years, have held three seminars on the subject, have given detailed recommendations to the central and state governments but not even a single recommendation has been discussed or implemented for these years. If the Law Minister of India and Law Minister of the State, Judges of Supreme Court and High Courts cannot reform the system, then who will do it. Will someone from the heaven come to correct things for us. The problem lies in our attitude towards the problem. We can criticize, we can make excellent speeches in seminars but will not do anything to reform the system, to do some thing for those voiceless victims of crime, to rid the system of all those vices which has almost crippled it, where almost everybody acknowledges that the system in which we are striving for results is sick and has failed to yield the desired results.

India is a big country and its problems are also big. Indian judicial system is one amongst the most over burdened systems in the world with a massive backlog and little progress to show. A letter by the Chief Justice of India, few months ago, to initiate process for filling up the vacancies in different High Courts, which at present number less than 100 and the continuing debate about the huge pendency of cases in lower courts forces one to think whether the justice system in India will improve ever. According to rough estimates there are more than twenty million cases pending in different courts in India at present. According to Malimath committee report, there were 6023134 cases which came up for trial during the year 2000. A total of 8570940 of criminal cases were pending for trial in the year 2000 and the report further says that if as in January 2003, if no crime takes place in India and police does not take cognizance of any criminal case, either under IPC or SLL and the strength of trial courts remains same, it will take at least four years to dispose of the pending cases. But this will never happen and the number of cases will go on piling up. This trend needs to be reversed but there seems to be no effort on the part of Governments to address the issue. Merely by appointing a few hundred High Court judges will not solve the problem. We need to change the entire Criminal Justice Administration System, introduce a few new concepts and take help from other international agencies and experts if we want the system to survive. Whether the Government will ever implement the Malimath committee report is a political question which can be answered only by the Government but I had suggested the introduction of a new concept in Criminal Justice Administration System which has taken deep roots in some countries but about which very few people know in India. This concept was also supported by the star speaker of the seminar Mr Ram Jethmalani. This system is called Restorative Justice System and it is working quite satisfactorily in many countries of the world and has reduced the burden on the judiciary to a considerable extent.

What is Restorative Justice ?

Restorative Justice is the latest Big Idea in Criminal Justice. There is no single universally acknowledged definition of Restorative Justice. It is a notion of repairing the harm done by crime and restoring the parties to a state of wellness or wholeness which was disturbed by the Criminal Act. Restorative justice is a systematic response to wrongdoing that emphasizes healing the wounds of victims, offenders and communities caused or revealed by the criminal behaviour. Restorative Justice can be defined as an approach to justice which focuses on repairing the harm caused by the crime and the criminal and also holding the offender responsible for his actions. It provides an opportunity to the affected parties, victims, offenders and the society to identify and address their needs in the aftermath of a crime and seek a resolution that affords healing, reparation and reintegration and this also helps in preventing future harm. A definition of restorative justice, increasingly used internationally, emphasizes both the process and the outcome: Restorative justice is a process whereby parties with a stake in a specific offence resolve collectively how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and its implications for the future.For example in accident cases, the state tries to get the accused convicted. In a case where for example the sole bread earner of the family has expired in the accident, what the family will get if the offender is convicted. Instead if the offender is directed to feed the family of the victim, it will be more satisfying for the family of the victim rather than seeing him in jail

Restorative justice is a new movement in the fields of victimology and criminology. Since crime causes injury to people and communities, it insists that justice repair those injuries and that the parties be permitted to participate in that process. Restorative justice programs, therefore, enable the victim, the offender and affected members of the community to be directly involved in responding to the crime. They become central to the criminal justice process, with State and legal professionals becoming facilitators of a system that aims at offender accountability, reparation to the victim and full participation by the community to learn and grow and for those involved to have their needs addressed. For this reason, the needs of all those affected by the harm are central in any restorative process. It is a process to involve, to the extent possible, those who have a stake in a specific offence and to collectively identify and address harms, needs, and obligations, in order to heal and put things as right as possible. Restorative justice emphasizes the importance of elevating the role of victims and community members through more active involvement in the justice process, holding offenders directly accountable to the people they have violated and providing a range of opportunities for dialogue, negotiation and problem solving, which can lead to a greater sense of community safety, social harmony and peace for all involved. In assessing benefits, it is important to determine what good will come from introducing restorative justice principles and practices in India.

Due to practical constraints it is not possible to give the entire details of Restorative Justice concept in present article, a detailed version of which I am thinking of publishing in some law journal, but the point is that we have to start from somewhere and now is the right time, when even the highest judicial body in state has acknowledged that the system has withered and needs to be corrected.

(The author is President of Criminologists Society)

Divine springtime

By Sheriar Nooreyezdan

The spring equinox-21st, March- is the harbinger of a new season of sunshine and warmth. It rings down the curtain on the cold, sultry winter months, and ushers in a new seasonal cycle. Soon will the apparently dead, bare branches of trees be garbed with delicate green foliage. The brown earth will, ere long, be carpeted with fresh green grass. The spring air will breathe new life into nature. Long dormant plants will spring forth and blossom into colourful and fragrant flowers. Hibernating creatures emerge from their burrows to forage for food, squirrels again come forth to rummage for nuts, and birds chirp gleefully welcoming the sun. Nature's half-year-long festival is here again. It will culminate in another glorious summer, when it will yield it's best luscious fruits and most fragrant flowers. Then will set in another austere autumn, when leaves will yellow and fall off, days will shorten, and temperatures will fall. Soon will nature face another bitter, lifeless winter. As the seasonal cycle in nature, so also seasonal cycles in the spiritual world. As springtime brings new life to nature, so does a divine springtime recreate mankind, with the advent of a new spiritual Sun. As natural seasons are unavoidable, so are spiritual seasons fixed. At a time when man is lost in the darkness of materialism, a spiritual Sun rises to dispel the gloom of his life. To generate new spirit in man, a new Mainfestation of God appears to guide him back to the path of spirituality and of enduring happiness.

History records that during man's darkest hours a Krishna, a Buddha, a Zoroaster, Moses, Christ or Muhammad, has mercifully appeared to lead mankind out of his depravity, and to instill into him noble qualities. As long as man has followed the fresh guidance and obeyed divine laws, he has progressed and his life has been fruitful. These periods in history have been the summer periods of unprecedented achievement and enrichment, and of the establishment of a great civilization. And when man has detoured from righteousness and gradually fallen from grace, he has brought on the spiritual autumn, and eventually the cold lifelessness of winter.

These spiritual seasons conform to our yugas. God's manifestation ushers in the satyug, to be followed by dwapar, treta and kali yugas. According to accepted systems the 4800 years of kalyug have elapsed and the long awaited satyug should have dawned. And indeed it has. God has neither forsaken his creation nor left His covenant unfulfilled.

The differently named avatar of all Holy Scriptures- Kalki, Amitabha, Shahbahram, Christ-returned, Imam Mehdi- has appeared at the pre-destined time and place. He bears the universal Name, Glory of God-Baha'u’llah. Born in Persia, Baha'u'llah declared His mission in 1863, suffered forty years of persecution , exile and imprisonment at the hands of hostile Governments and fanatical clergy. But neither could the radiance of the Sun be clouded nor could the flame of faith be extinguished. During His lifetime the Word of this illustrious Prisoner spread through mid-eastern countries and reached India, the cradle of two mighty Revelations. Today the world is falling in line with His teachings on human rights, disarmament, universal peace, globalization, and a world Government. His followers, from every conceivable background of race, religion, caste and ethnicity, speaking over eight hundred language, inhabit 120,000 centres, in the far-flung corners of the planet.

They harbour no prejudice, for they accept the unity of God, the Unity of progressively revealed Religion, and the unity of all God's Manifestations. In Baha'i Houses of Worship and Centres all Holy Scriptures are read with equal reverence, as in their Lotus Temple in New Delhi.

Water woes

By G L Khajuria

Water, water... and water but virtually there is hard-ly a sip insofar as goes to its purity, cleanliness and deprivation from unhygienic foreign material. Next to air, water is prominently the only ‘elixir’ for all the living-beings over the earth to the extent of their survival and sustainment. But in existing world scenario, water is life and death also; life in the sense that we get it in safe and pure form and death when it is unsafe and badly polluted. Our daily life's existence rests upon safe water for drinking purposes, besides fulfilling multihued requirements et. al. food production, bathing and many other cleaning operations, apart from energy conservation, irrigation of farmlands and so of its kind. Life as such is intimately linked to this natural resources and its deprivation shall lead all living to extinction within shorter spells of hours. Man, do doubt, can survive for a period without food but insofar as water is concerned, it would rather replicate strangulation.

The human body itself constitutes around 70 percent of water, which though seems strange and imagine the soporific and death syndrome impacts in the arbitrary. Rightly has, ‘Kofi Annan’ remarked years back that the future wars shall be fought for water and of the recent his remarks go as such; ‘‘No single measure would do more to reduce disease and save lives in the developin world than bringing safe water and adequate sanitation.’’ It is no denying the fact that there is abundant water in the oceans, rivers, islands, seas, water falls, ice-sheets etc, but there is a big question mark as to how far it is safe ? And how much is percolated as ground water ? Estimates reveal that our oceans constitute around 70 percent of earth's surface area and pacific (the largest) alone is sprawling some 1,65,760,000 sq km, which is astonishing and is more that the sun-total of all continents combined in unison.

Causes : After all, what are the so dramatic causes leading to such stories world over ? Surely, the rapid population growth coupled with industrialization and urbanization are the predominantly the root causes threatening water-crisis and in such a run-race, India shall be highly water-stressed country by the year end 2020 from now, says ‘‘World Watch Institute Washington’’. Coming to our home town Jammu the situation is equally threatening for over a couple of weeks when owing to the recent unprecedented water floods which obliterated the ‘‘Shitlee Filtration Plant’’, the main supply source to Jammu, next to Company Bagh. The situation is aghast and aggravating for over couple of weeks. There is ever brewing confusion and chaos amongst the local populace with the break down in entire water system.

The abrupt climatic changes occurring from the changing monsoonal pattern both in frequency and intensity tantamounts to either droughts or flood's fury which too recently hitted hard the north, particularly J&K and Barmar district of Rajasthan where the floods affected people very badly.

There are endless list of causes that has resulted into water scarcity looming large and of the few are as enumerated as here under :-

* Deforestation and the depletion of forest cover : The ruthless deforestation of rich and vibrant forest cover has doubtlessly ravaged the ecosystem for the sake of ‘development’. The limitless urbanization and exploding population have rather under cut the very basis of environment thereby obliterating its very natural balance. The torrential rains come down in floating form from barren hills and mountainous tops in the shape of floods relegating water percolation to the minim. The floods do not come alone, rather en mass take every thing (soil, rocks) in conglomeration that come in its way. Then how come the safe and hygienic underground drinking water? The perennial springs, rivers are rapidly drying up and there are either scanty rains or cloudbursts berefting the landmass of least percolation, going every things into the oceanic mouth. Satluj, Beas, Ravi, Brahmputra and most other rivers originating from north-east Himalayan region are under awful situation.

* Dry-spell and droughts: With ever-escalating global warming, the mosoonal pattern is fastly eluding, results being dry-spells and droughts accruing thereby suicidal cases as it did amongst AP farmers not too distant back and such stories have mostly become a regular feature in the prevailing scenario. And in such a situation, the rivers are changing their natural courses taking heavy toll of human life and their belongings.

* Mounting pollution a biggest challenge : The pious and nectar clear rivers are gaining momentum with every tickling moment of time and the dreadful and obnoxious effluents of industries are breaking the very fabric of environment and all rivers are going to be highly polluted. And how will it long lost ? Is it not a tragedy ? And we are not the responsible for the deeds ? These are perhaps the big question marks of the day for which man is having no answer in slight.

* Sinking water table : All these factors, amongst may more, have in one way or the other are responsible for lowering of water-table which invariably has devoid the man and made him unreachable for drops of water. This is probably biggest tragedy of course, for the humanity over the globe.

* Suggestive measures : Though we are far too late to apply the reverse gear, yet there is time though late going by the adage, ‘‘ it is better to be late then never’’ and so, at this crucial juncture, let all nations awaken from deep slumber in designing ways and means to save water for the sake of life. A few points are elaborated as hereunder :-

* Save water/save life

* Massive afforestation and soil conservation measures are warranted to be taken.

* Reviving traditional water conservation practices as is being done in Delhi and other metropolis.

* Construction of water harvesting structures for the conservation and storage of water.

* Arrest soil erosion and construction of soil conservation structures to maximize percolation.

* Training of nallahs, ravines, rivers, rivulets and its allied.

* Reducing water pollution of rivers, canals and other water bodies like lakes and other inland water areas.

* Catchment Area and basin treatments on similar lines such like catchments area treatment (CAT), watershed managements and so many of its ilks.

Conclusively, though the list is endless yet it stays in the top priority i.e, the public awakening and sensitization in the truthful spirits and legal sanctity, which need to be articulated and affirmed on all parameters.