Yamuna's petition

 

In the second week of July, Delhi Chief Minister stated that experts had concluded that an ominous increase in the water levels of the Yamuna was improbable and therefore flooding of Delhi was not expected. Yamuna had other plans. Soon the river crossed the danger mark and breached her bank in many places.

Delhiites started fretting and fuming. They started cursing the river, unmindful of her uninterrupted blessings to Delhi in the form of supply of water and nutrient-enrichment of the capital’s soil. Yamuna realised that neither the government(s) nor the citizens would come to her rescue and therefore she had to approach the courts of law to get relief from people’s anger. The waters of the Yamuna entered the Supreme Court confident that the Court being the sentinel on the qui vive would protect the interests of all. In her desperation for immediate succour from people’s wrath and governments’ insouciance, Yamuna overlooked the judicial protocol that required her to go to the High Court first.

The Supreme Court was aghast that the Yamuna waters had entered it and that the Court was also subject to nature’s fury. The Court dismissed Yamuna’s petition in limine and asked her to maintain judicial discipline and approach the High Court first. So, the holy Yamuna who was willing to give way to Lord Krishna soon after His birth despite heavy downpour but was unable to contain herself now, filed her petition in the Delhi High Court.

The petition was an essay partly in pathos and largely in legalese. Yamuna bemoaned in the petition, “I have constantly been of service to citizens of Delhi without expecting any reward from them. At the same time, I did not expect them to curse me as they are doing now.” The petition stated three reasons why Yamuna had a Constitutional right to be protected by the court.

1)     Idols have been accepted as juridical persons by the courts. Just like idols, rivers are also worshipped by people. Therefore, in recognition of their divinity, rivers also need to be recognised as persons. Under Article 21 of our Constitution, “no person shall be deprived of their life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.” Personal liberty includes the right to free movement within India. Hence neither the government(s) nor the people have a right to frown upon Yamuna for breaching her banks.

2)     Under Article 51A(g), it is the duty of every citizen of India “to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures.” Though as a Directive Principle this duty is not enforceable, the petition pleads that as a measure of judicial progressivism, the court may issue a writ of mandamus directing the government to ensure that citizens discharge their duty for the sake of sustainable environment. Redirecting the rivers to facilitate construction of buildings must be stopped as an immediate measure. Condign punishment should be meted out to those throwing waste and pollutants into the river.

3)     Unprecedented torrential rains inundating almost all parts of Delhi during July, 2023 were an act of God (force majeure) and therefore Yamuna was freed from the obligation to provide trouble-free service to Delhiites during this crucial period. People do not have any right to blame the river for the havoc caused by the act of God.

(Though this is an imaginary petition, this essay is written with a view to sensitising us to the need for keeping our rivers clean and protecting them  from the greed of real estate developers.)

 

 

 

Do courts command respect?

Recent pronouncements by various High Courts are causing concern. The Calcutta HC has fined the W.Bengal government Rs. 50 lac for not carrying out its order to transfer a cooperative bank fraud case to CBI. Does the state government not know the implications of disobeying a judicial order? Will the fine be borne by the person responsible instead of being debited to the government account? In all likelihood, the recalcitrant government will go on appeal against this levy.

The situation in Tamilnadu is equally, if not more, scandalous. The Chief Justice of the Madras High Court has lamented that an alleged criminal now in prison continues to be a minister in the state cabinet. The Chief Minister only looks askance. A puisne judge of the same court has reopened corruption cases against former and present state ministers which were closed unauthorisedly and unlawfully. The ministers are upset that they are also held accountable for corruption. Another judge has expressed surprise over a minister's  outburst against a religion. It is time for the Supreme Court to advise the governments to behave or else -------.

Learning leads to negative amortisation

 

Amortisation means reduction in value of an asset or a liability. Suppose you have taken a housing loan. When you pay an instalment (say an EMI), the loan liability comes down by a certain amount. In other words, the loan is getting amortised. In this process, the EMI should be more than the interest charged. Otherwise, the loan amount will never be adjusted; rather, the loan liability will keep increasing. This is called negative amortisation.

When we learn something new, the stock of what we do not know ought to come down. But it does not happen. We start realising that what we do not know is more than what we thought we did not know. This is why the more we learn, the more we want to learn.

Sanatana Dharma (contd.)

 The war of words on Sanatana Dharma is continuing. Mr.A.Raja has reinforced Mr.Udhayanidhi Stalin's argument comparing Sanatana Dharma with diseases. N.Ram quotes from convenient books to claim that every word of condemnation of Sanatana Dharma is valid.

This is no doubt an emotional issue. Therefore, we need to be clear on what is meant by Sanatana Dharma. According to the detractors, Sanatana Dharma is nothing but Varnashrama Dharma cloaked in a different nomenclature. The detractors do not stop there. They go on to define Varnashrama Dharma in a casteist way.

There are two mistakes here which of course do not cancel each other. Rather, they aggravate and mislead. Sanatana Dharma is different from Varnashrama Dharma. As repeated ad nauseam, Sanatana Dharma consists of eternal values or principles like adherence to truth, non-violence, respect for parents, teachers and guests and so on. I do not think that Stalin or Raja or Ram is against these eternal qualities, though they may not practise them. So, Sanatana Dharma is not Varnashrama Dharma. The detractors claim that Varnashrama is defined by birth. As already quoted from Bagavad Gita, the fourfold classification of society is based on profession and practice and not based on birth. This truth does not support the critics' tirade and therefore they misinterpret. Thus, it is a deliberate ploy to mistake one for another and then indulge in misinterpretation.

Ram claims that he is a non-believer in God and therefore can view this objectively. Atheism is not a licence for misinterpretation and falsehood.

Sanatana Dharma aka Hinduism

 

Mr.M.K.Stalin and his ministers are in the habit of ridiculing and bashing what they assume to be Sanatana Dharma. According to them, Sanatana Dharma is divisive, hierarchical and dehumanisation of a section of society. If some philosophy is really like this, it has to be condemned and done away with.

The problem is not with Sanatana Dharma. It is with their understanding of what is Sanatana Dharma. Sanatana Dharma means eternal dharma. Qualities like truth which are for ever are the constituents of this Dharma. Stalin and his followers interpret this Dharma narrowly and wrongly and then make caustic comments.

These critics attribute divisiveness to Sanatana Dharma by assuming that people are bracketed into different groups by birth. Sanatana Dharma clearly points out that people differ because of their qualities and not because of their birth. For example, sloka 41 of 18th chapter of Bagavad Gita says,

brāhmaṇa-kṣhatriya-viśhāṁ śhūdrāṇāṁ cha parantapa
karmāṇi pravibhaktāni svabhāva-prabhavair guṇaiḥ

Meaning: The duties of the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras—are distributed according to their qualities, in accordance with their guṇas (and not by birth).

Many Azhwars and Nayanmaars who are held in high esteem by believers in Sanatana Dharma were born in what are unfortunately considered as lower castes. People respect them for their qualities and do not disrespect them for the families they were born in. 

One should understand a philosophy first before attempting to make rabblerousing comments.

Medical outcome

 

Medical outcome is at the end of a long chain starting from a patient realizing when to seek medical help. Competent doctor, correct diagnosis, right prescription, corresponding medicine that is not counterfeit, side effects of medicine, attendant problems sometimes mistaken as side effects, availability of a competent doctor at crucial times (an in-patient in a hospital suffering a heart attack on a Sunday morning is more likely to die), etc. are critical variables. With so many impondèrable links in the chain, prognosis is bound to be uncertain. An admission in any hospital will convince even the most rational among us that luck is a critical factor in life (and death). Late Dr.K.P.Misra , a well known cardiologist, would humorously express his pleasant surprise whenever a patient came out of this ordeal hale and healthy.

LIC Policy claimants beware !

LIC keeps advertising that its claims settlement process is simple . The advertisements claim that the nominees need to submit only Death Certificate, Policy, Claim Form and Bank Account details along with proof of identity of the nominee / claimant.  They also claim that the claim can be lodged in any branch of LIC. 

The reality is far from all these claims. LIC insists that the nominee should lodge the claim only in the base branch which has issued the policy. Even within Chennai, the branches require the nominee to go to  the policy issuing branch. Death Certificate is not enough. Hospital should confirm the details of admission and death. ( I do not know what LIC will want if the insured passes away at home.) A person who has seen the dead body should certify the insured is dead and that he or she has seen the body. The challan issued by the crematorium is insisted upon. All these need to be notarised also !

Why is the LIC so thoughtlessly and sadistically bureaucratic? Why is the LIC making false claims in its publicity?

A person on the death bed , thinking about the torture of claim settlement, would prefer not to die. Perhaps LIC wants all of us to be Chiranjeevis !

Rahul Gandhi's theatrics

 

The Bharat Jodo Yatra has made news. It is not possible to say if it was a success because we do not know what its objectives were. Perhaps Rahul himself is not aware.

He observed during the yatra that " women are still being sexually assaulted." This is indeed a serious allegation, the kind that makes other nations sit up and wonder what is happening in and to India.

The police obviously wants to know who are sexually assaulting women so that they can be dealt with legally. Rahul is unable to give details immediately. He only wants to know if the government is crass with him because he is raising the Adani issue.

Rahul Gandhi is unable to abstain from making crude allegations without preparing groundwork. He is coached by advisors who perhaps are misleading him. 

Silicon Valley Bank

 

The unforeseen rapid fall of SVB is an appropriate plot for a business novel. This was caused not by mismanagement. The unholy combination of substantial withdrawal of deposits and drop in value of government securities was the primary cause of this debacle. 

Nearly 95% of deposits were above the insured limit. The government, the FED and FDIC have decided that all deposits will be repaid. This is possibly a moral hazard. There will hereafter be a clamour for such exemptions during any future bank failure.

HSBC (UK) has agreed to purchase SVB (UK) at a nominal price of 1 British Pound. SVB (UK) earned profit of 88 million pounds last year. Its deposit is 6.7 billion pounds and advances 5.5 billion pounds. HSBC has made a sensible decision.

There are two features in the American banking system which deserve a revisit. The moment loss exceeds the capital, a bank is declared insolvent and final rites are set in motion. Secondly, there is rarely any regulatory forbearance. The Indian system gives time for the bank to recover. The RBI does not hesitate to provide forbearance to a deserving bank.

The FED hopes that the SVB problem has been contained and there will not be any major fallout. But banking events have a tendency to upset the regulator's calculations. 

Pegasus again

 Rahul Gandhi has raised the Pegasus issue once again, this time from Cambridge. He states that his mobile had Pegasus earlier and some opposition leaders are spied on even now. He has even clarified that some intelligence officials had approached him with the information that they were recording his mobile conversations. When the Supreme Court - appointed Committee had earlier asked for the mobiles of opposition leaders to see if they were subject to surveillance, they preferred not to hand over their mobiles. 

Too many allegations without evidence trivialises governance in a democracy. Since the Supreme Court is a sentinel on the qui vive to protect and nurture democracy (evidenced by its order on appointment of Election Commissioners) and governance (evidenced by its appointment of a committee to investigate lapses in capital market regulations), it should suo motu ask Rahul Gandhi to identify, under oath,  the intelligence officials who warned him that they were recording his mobile conversations. This will enable the nation to know the truth.