THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
Government’s toolkit fear
Zubair posted a Tweet in 2018 and it takes four years for someone’s sentiments to get hurt! Never mind that the complaint was based on an anonymous Twitter handle that had posted only one message till Monday and has three followers. So did Zubair’s post cause riots? Philosopher Martha Nussbaum critiqued the law (Section 295A in the IPC) by saying that it invites thugs to suppress speech on anything they dislike; she added that given India’s political climate, several would take up this ugly invitation. Laws are inherently vague and subjective. There is no objective way of distinguishing between unacceptable hate speech and an acceptable rant.
There is no way of determining what will outrage the sentiments of someone. The laws operate in a manner that allows those who claim to be offended or insulted to lay down what constitutes hate speech. It is an insidious form of censorship and control. And in India, it assumes truly sinister proportions because of a dangerous cocktail of circumstances — a citizenry that takes offence much too easily; governments and political parties that prefer to collude with the malcontents rather than stand up for free expression; and courts that are willing to entertain what are clearly frivolous petitions. Twitter and Facebook have become a “marketplace for outrage” — a new economy that thrives on emotion, one in which “if the feelings run high and deep enough, a good price will be fetched.
Section 295 A of the IPC is intended to apply only when there is a “deliberate or malicious act” to outrage religious feelings. But it has become a handy tool to harass all manner of people, including writers, artists and filmmakers. When you feel insecure because except for slick propaganda, you have little that is tangible to show after eight years you use the law and the legal process just to silence dissent.
The great Chinese strategist Sun Tzu had said, “Kill one, frighten ten thousand.” The Indian state has modified this as, “Implicate one in a false case, frighten ten thousand.”
D C Dias, Taleigao
Don’t mention home State of culprits
Every day we read in the newspapers, both local and national, the occurrence of different crimes. These may be a minor incident such as pick pocketing, fraud, cheating, etc, or major robberies and other serious crimes. Most of the times the Indian States to which the culprits or accused belong is mentioned, this is more common in local papers. This information would create in the minds of readers and writers of letters to the editors, a negative image of the people belonging to a particular State. Does it really matter as to where from the culprits hail?
A crime is a crime and the punishment is neither increased nor decreased by the courts based on the domicile of the culprits. This kind of racial profiling is not necessary as nothing is achieved by printing this useless information. People assume that only migrants are involved in all the crimes and create law and order problems while the locals come up smelling like roses!
Sridhar D’Iyer, Caranzalem
District collectors and IAS officers
It is humorous and though provoking. I wonder why such absolute and seamless powers have been bestowed upon district collectors and IAS officers. During British rule, officers were appointed across the country with unlimited powers to collect tax from people, and we know as tax collectors. After Independence democratic and free India slightly modified the term to collectors. When out of power, politicians have rowdies around them for all kinds of dirty jobs, and while in power they have the powerful IAS and IPS officers and ED with them.
I don't blame IAS officers couple in Delhi who cleared the stadium of athletes so that they could walk their dog on the racing track. I blame the elected governments for not yet eradicating the hangover of the British Raj from the mind of officers.
Diomedes Pereira, Corlim
Rule of law has been upheld
The Political fraud committed by the Goa Government in needlessly postponing the Panchayat elections has been exposed by the High Court. As holding elections on time is the very essence of democracy, the High Court has so very rightly directed this power intoxicated Government to hold these elections within 45days. The cavalier manner that this government is functioning with political mischief galore is reprehensible. The devious and crafty way in which the Panchayat Polls were postponed was a well orchestrated stage managed drama. The silence of Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai over issues that concern the public is deafening, as he is duty bound to reprimand the government on wrong decisions taken and not wait for the High Court to have to intervene in every folly of the government.
The very Independence and autonomy of the State Election Commission (SEC) is flagrantly being breached in absolute misuse of power and authority. The SEC should not be succumbing to any political pressures or manoeuvers whatsoever as holding free and fair elections is sacrosanct. Constitutional order and values must always prevail as Constitutional morality thrives when misuse of executive power is restrained. Guided by the principle of limited government we need to protect and safeguard our Constitution by ensuring that the executive does not do whatever it wants, bypassing the constitutional mandate.
Abraham Lincoln had said “The ballot is stronger than the bullet”. And so should it truly be.
Those entrusted with the task of conducting elections must bear in mind those words of the Former Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano “Organising free and fair elections is more important than the result itself”.
Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
Power hike to maintain street lights
The State government last week hiked the power tariffs by 5 paise to 8 paise per unit for low and high tension consumers respectively as “public lighting duty”. The government has justified the decision to hike the power tariff stating that the revenue generated will be utilised towards street light maintenance. The question that arises is whether it is proper to charge the common man for maintenance of the street lights.
The power minister reportedly justified that the power hike for the domestic consumer is only 5 paise per unit. If it is felt that the power hike is low then it could be borne by the government instead of passing it on to the consumer. Many-a-time it is observed that the street lights are kept on throughout the day. This will add to the maintenance cost. Should the common man be made to pay for the blunder? It is understood that in Goa maintenance of street lights is being done by the electricity department and also by the respective village panchayats. The village panchayats reportedly collect tax from the villagers specifically for the maintenance of street lights.
Besides this tax will the villagers also have to bear the proposed hike in power tariff? What happens if one fine day the government decides to raise the water tariff in order to maintain the water pipelines which incidentally burst at regular intervals?
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Customer is king
"Customer is King” is an age-old mantra reflecting the importance of customers or consumers in every business. Traditionally it means the promise to provide good products or services with evolving technology it means a lot more than just products or services. In my opinion, the customer is the king because every product or service that is innovated is completely based on customer needs. If a customer is not satisfied then the product or service will be shut down or out of the market. The age of mass scale production has changed the position of Consumer from that of King to Slave.
The customer needs to be delivered what he is promised, in time and in an acceptable manner. The king always pays and it pays to treat the customer as the ‘King’. It is just human relations but the customer and the banker (for example) relationship is long standing. Of course, it is Fevicol ka jod as I put it in the right spirit of cordial relationships.
C K Subramaniam, Navi Mumbai
