Tag: Justice Katju Twitter

Gen Munir, the financial wizard

One would have thought that the job of an army chief is to protect his country’s borders, and render assistance to the civilian authorities in cases of internal disturbances when asked by the latter. But it seems that the Pakistan army chief, Gen Munir, has other ideas, and believes he can fix Pakistan’s tumbling economy.
He recently held several hours long meetings in Karachi and Lahore with over a hundred prominent members of Pakistan’s business community to sort out the country’s economic woes.

Pakistan has a 27% inflation rate, and the prices of food have gone up recently by 40%. The currency has been rapidly depreciating ( presently about Rs 306 vis-a-vis the dollar ). Highly inflated electricity bills have resulted in massive demonstrations and protests all over the country. Traders are on strike.

Pakistan has a civilian government ( though a caretaker one ) and fixing the economy is surely the task of this government. But Gen Munir has now dropped even the fig leaf of civilian rule,and the army has taken full control.

In his meetings with the business leaders Gen Munir has announced a plethora of steps he is going to take viz corruption will be eradicated or largely reduced, 100 billion dollars will be invested in Pakistan by foreign countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, smuggling of Iranian oil checked, forex traders taxed, the ‘grey economy’ curbed, sick government industries privatised, etc
There are several problems with Gen Munir’s plans
Firstly, Pakistan’s present economic crisis was largely due to the misdeeds of these very business leaders whom he met, who along with corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and army generals looted Pakistan for decades. Now all they want is reduction in income and sales taxes, and various other concessions for themselves ( as they told Gen Munir ), and they are least bothered about the public welfare..

Secondly, checking corruption is easier said than done. Much of the corruption is by army officers themselves, as explained below :
The Pakistani Vampire By Justice Katju
So the army has a vested interest in maintaining corruption.

Thirdly, it is presumptuous to believe that anyone will invest money unless he is assured that he will get back the money he invests with a reasonable profit. After all, he is not doling out charity. Gen Munir may give his guarantee in this connection, but what are words when not backed up by deeds ? The past performance of Pakistan has been dismal, with its leaders repeatedly going around with a begging bowl to the IMF, Saudi Arabia, etc.
And lastly, recovery of Pakistan’s economy depends on peace and stability, which is only possible after a free and fair elections.
But Gen Munir, knowing that Imran Khan’s PTI will sweep the polls as he has support of 85% Pakistanis ( as all opinion polls indicate ), is adamant not to hold elections for parliament or the provincial legislatures.
In fact the very purpose of holding meetings with business leaders was to convey the message that first we have to fix Pakistan’s economy, however long it takes, and only thereafter can elections be held ( which is putting the cart before the horse ).
I am afraid Gen Munir has bitten more than he can chew, and is living in la-la land

September 6, 2023
Women’s representation in Parliament

In the special session of the Indian Parliament which will be sitting from September 18-22, among the other bills will be a bill for increasing women’s representation in Parliament and state legislatures to 33%

I regard this as a gimmick, for two reasons :
1. In our semi-feudal society in India, most ( not all ) women, particularly in rural areas, are housewives who loyally obey their husbands. Experience has shown that when they get elected to gaon sabhas, zila panchayats or municipal corporations ( due to laws for women’s representation in these bodies ), they really function as the mouthpieces of their husbands, and obey their orders. In other words, the person who is really operating and calling the shots behind the scene is the pradhanpati, panchayatpati, or municipal councillorpati. We also had Rabri Devi as Chief Minister of Bihar, but everyone knew that the real Chief Minister behind the scene was Lalu Yadav.
So if the proposed bill is passed we will have mostly MPpatis and MLApatis behind the women MPs and MLAs who will tell the latter what they should say and do.
2. It is wrong to believe that all women are good, kind, caring, and concerned about the people’s welfare. The truth is that they are usually as selfish, ruthless, vicious, cold blooded, heartless, and callous as the menfolk.
For instance, in Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’, while Macbeth was wavering whether to kill King Duncan or not, Lady Macbeth was adamant that this should be done, and she kept egging him on.
In the Nazi concentration camps the female guards like like Irma Griese, Ilse Koch, Maria Mandl, Dorothea Binz, Herta Bothe etc at Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Bergen Belsen, Majdanek, Ravensbruck, etc were as ruthless and cruel towards prisoners as the male guards.
Indira Gandhi was ruthless and power crazy, and for retaining her Prime Ministership after the Allahabad High Court verdict holding her guilty of election malpractices and disqualifying her for 6 years, imposed a fake Emergency in 1975, in which thousands were jailed on false charges and all kinds of atrocities on the people were committed. Parliament was turned into a rubber stamp, and a ‘committed’ judiciary created.
Numerous other such examples can be given e.g. ‘Bloody’ Queen Mary of England, Dowager Empress Cixi of China, the serial killer Aileen Wuornos of America, etc

So women’s representation is just a stunt,which will be of no benefit to the Indian people.

September 5, 2023
Gyanvapi or Shahi Masjid will be demolished before 2024 elections

My dear friend Irfan Ali ( email irfan79@gmail.com ) who lives and works in Princeton, New Jersey, USA has prompted me to write this article. Evidently Irfan was put off by my article that the newly formed alliance of 28 opposition parties called INDIA ( Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance ) is a stunt

In response to my article Irfan wrote angrily on whatsapp :
” It appears that you don’t want an opposition in India? What would take you to support a strong opposition to fight this authoritarian demagogue? Should there be no opposition in India at all ? You seem more into Pakistan politics when your own system is screwed up. INDIA is a combination of 28 parties but NDA has 36. Who is doing a stunt? ”.
To which I responded :
” I have never said I don’t want an opposition, so don’t twist my words. Of course I want an opposition, but the meaningful opposition can’t be within the system of parliamentary democracy, but can only be by a historical united people’s revolutionary struggle led by modern minded leaders determined to rapidly modernize and industrialise the country. I have explained this in detail in many of articles, which u may see ”.
I had earlier written an article that BJP will win the coming Lok Sabha elections in India in 2024.
Despite everything BJP will still win in 2024

Irfan thinks that INDIA can help in ousting BJP from power. I totally disagree.

What I foresee is this : a few months or a few weeks before the 2024 parliamentary elections the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, or the Shahi Masjid in Mathura will be demolished by a huge mob of fanatics ( just as the Babri Masjid was demolished ).

This will generate an emotional wave all over India, on the basis of which BJP will easily win ( never mind how many people will be killed or other ‘collateral damage’ done in the backlash ).
Most Indians are emotional, not rational, and they vote accordingly not on real issues like poverty, unemployment, hunger, lack of healthcare, price rise, etc. For instance, in 1962 the Indian army invaded Goa, and soon thereafter parliamentary elections were held, in which Congress swept the polls, with people in a victory mood. After Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984 parliamentary elections were held, and in the sympathy wave Congress secured a record over 400 seats in the Lok Sabha.

The BJP came to power in 1998 and in 1999 because of the fervour generated by the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation.

On 26th February 2019 the Indian Air Force conducted a ‘surgical strike’ in Balakot in retaliation to the Pulwama attack on 14th February which was attributed to Pakistan trained terrorists. Two months thereafter, and in a martial hysteria ( with the slogan ‘Pakistaniyon ko ghar mein ghus ke maara hai’ ), parliamentary elections were held in India in April-May 2019, in which BJP won with an increased majority.

The Babri Masjid was demolished in December 1992 when Congress was in power in the centre, and despite an undertaking given in the Suprême Court by UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh of the BJP that it would not be demolished.
So undertakings mean nothing, and now both Central & State Governments are of the BJP.
So a huge mob of fanatics will very likely demolish either Varanasi or Mathura mosque, with the police turning a Nelson’s eye.
Then in that emotional surge and communal passions elections will be held.

Hindus ( who are 80% of India’s population ) will be told to celebrate victory over the Muslim devils who broke our temples and committed other atrocities on us, and elections will then be held in this surcharged atmosphere, leading to a BJP victory, and with INDIA going up the chimney..
I am not approving this, but I can foresee this happening.

BJP has been in power since 2014. Will it easily give up power ? No, it will resort to every ‘saam, daam, dand, bhed’ i.e. Machiavellian tactic ( as Congress had earlier done for decades ). All is fair in love and war, as the saying goes, and politics is war.

History shows that the wars for the throne of Delhi have been ruthless, and so will be the 2024 elections.
I am afraid Irfan is living in a dreamworld
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/r1gc_CF6Qg
Disclaimer : “The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the TheNewsCaravan.
Any content provided by our bloggers or authors are of their opinion, and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone or anything.
The News Caravan values and welcomes diverse representations and opinions.”
Author Justice Markandey Katju is an Indian jurist and former Supreme Court judge of India who served as chairman for the Press Council of India. He has also worked as Standing Counsel for the Income Tax Department.

September 4, 2023
Bhai ka Farz: Rakshabandhan Special

For almost 30 years Naseem Zohra has travelled from Allahabad, where she lives, to wherever I am located ( for almost a decade I am in Noida ) to tie rakhi on my hand on the auspicious occasion of Rakshabandhan.
The full story behind this is given below :
https://indicanews.com/2023/04/09/justice-katju-bhai-ka-farz/
This year she has been unable to come, probably due to old age, so instead she sent this rakhi by fb messenger along with this message :
Good Morning Bhai,
Happy Rakshabandhan.
May God give you healthy and blessed life ahead.
Regards
Naseem Zohra
(Your Sister)

September 2, 2023
The correct tactics for overseas Pakistanis

Overseas Pakistanis are probably over 90% in favour of Imran Khan as they perceive him to be honest. He has hardly any assets abroad, whereas the ruling PDM leaders are regarded by Pakistanis as a bunch of dacoits who have looted Pakistan, and have siphoned off huge amounts of money abroad ( as the Panama Papers and other credible evidence discloses ).

Hence overseas Pakistanis are bravely carrying on a campaign in USA, Canada, UK, middle east countries, and elsewhere for release of Imran Khan ( who has been incarcerated in Attock jail on bogus charges ), and for holding free and fair elections in Pakistan at the earliest.

In this connection I wish to give them an advice : they have been crying hoarse against the fascist reign of terror unleashed by the Pakistan army and police, and violation of civil liberties and human rights in Pakistan.

While I too condemn violation of human rights, I submit this is a wrong approach. While Westerners may talk a lot about human rights, they do not really mean what they say, and do not care about violation of human rights as long as their financial interests are not adversely affected. What they really care about is money.
So long as their investments in Pakistan are safe, they really do not care if thousands of Pakistanis are arrested, beaten, tortured, killed or ‘disappeared’.

The correct tactics for overseas Pakistanis is therefore this : they should talk less about violation of human rights, and instead explain, particularly to US Congressmen, Government officials, businessmen, and the American public ( and also people in other countries ) how US financial investments in Pakistan ( and in the long run also in some neighbouring countries ) are being endangered and jeopardised by the continuing agitations and instability in Pakistan.
For this purpose, overseas Pakistanis need to do research, and find out details of these US investments in Pakistan ( and also in some neighbouring countries ), publicise them, and explain to US officials and Congressmen that business requires peace and stability.

With almost 90% Pakistanis supporting Imran Khan ( as all opinion polls indicate ), there will certainly not be peace and stability in Pakistan as long he is kept in jail, and early parliamentary elections are not held. And if the present agitations and volatile situation in Pakistan continues, it may well spill over into neighbouring countries, thus further jeopardising US financial interests.

So it is in their own interest that the American Government should give up their present hostility towards Imran Khan, advise the Pakistan Government to release him and withdraw all cases against him, and hold early free and fair parliamentary elections.

Imran Khan’s PTI will certainly sweep the polls in these elections, and he will become Prime Minister again.

Only then can there be peace and stability in Pakistan, and only then will American economic interests in the region be safe.

August 31, 2023
Bhagavad Gita and the first atomic bomb explosion

On 16th July, 1945, in a desert in Alamogordo in the state of New Mexico, U.S.A. the first atomic explosion in the world took place at 5.45 a.m. which changed the world.
The Director of the Manhattan Project, which manufactured the atomic bomb, was Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the top nuclear physicists in the world, who is also regarded as ‘the father of the atomic bomb’.
Dr. Oppenheimer, apart from being a great scientist, was also a great scholar of Sanskrit. He had studied a vast number of Sanskrit books in original, including the Bhagavad Gita ( which is part of the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata).
When the massive nuclear blast whose blazing light covered most of the sky took place, the following words in Chapter 11 shloka 12 came out spontaneously from Dr. Oppenheimer’s lips :

“Divi surya sahastrasya bhaved yugapad utthita
Yadi bhah sadrashi sa syat bhasastasya mahatmanah”

which means :

” If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once in the sky, that would be like the splendour of the mighty One”.
But when the sinister and gigantic mushroom cloud rose higher and higher in the far distance over Point Zero, and some onlookers feared it may soon engulf the whole world, he uttered another line from the Gita : ” Kaalo asmi loka kshaya kritpraviddho” ( Chapter 11 shloka 32). i.e.
” Now I am become Death, the destroyer of the worlds “
( see the book ‘ Brighter Than a Thousand Suns ‘ by Robert Jungk )

Much later, in a television interview in 1965 ( which can be seen on Youtube), Dr. Oppenheimer said
“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed (immediately after the nuclear explosion), a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince (Arjuna) that he should do his duty, and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form, and says :” Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds”.

August 30, 2023
Alice in Daakustan

One summer evening a little girl called Alice was dozing on a green meadow when she saw a white rabbit wearing a blue coat running on two legs, and seeing a watch said ” My God, I am late ”. Saying this it jumped into a hole on the ground.
Alice got up, and following him jumped into the same hole. She fell and fell, and finally landed with a big thud on a heap of garbage.
She looked around, and saw on a wall a big signboard on which it was written ” Welcome to Daakustan ”.
She wondered what that meant, and getting up enquired from a man walking nearby what the signboard meant.
He whispered into her ears ” Can’t you understand ? In this country most prominent persons are daakus ( dacoits ) ”.
Alice asked how was that ?
He replied ” It is very simple to understand. Our political leaders are mostly daakus because they have looted the country, and taken its wealth abroad, where they have bought huge assets like mansions and luxurious flats, as the Panama Papers revealed.
Our army generals, whose job is to defend the country, instead of doing that have amassed huge wealth during their tenure, and ended up as billionaires, like Gen Bajwa, and they have also imposed a reign of terror on our country, imprisoning thousands of our people, and violated all human rights ”.
Alice asked ” But don’t you have a judiciary to protect the people’s rights under your Constitution ? ”’.

He replied ” Our judges are only concerned about their salaries, perks and pensions. They too are daakus because instead of protecting the people’s rights they help the above two kinds of daakus by giving dishonest verdicts, like Justice Munir who invented the ‘doctrine of necessity’ justifying army coups, like Chief Justice Maulvi Mushtaq Husain who sentenced former Prime Minister Bhutto to death, or like Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court Aamer Farooq who coerced Additional Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar into giving a dishonest judgment against former Prime Minister imran Khan and sending him to jail for 3 years, to deprive him of the right to contest elections, and promptly rewarded him by sending him and his family to London ”.
Alice was shocked to hear all this.
She walked ahead and saw thousands of people with their lips sealed and eyes closed, with their hands on their ears, carrying placards which read ” Speak nothing, see nothing, hear nothing ”.
She asked some people there what this meant, but none was willing to answer. Ultimately one man gathered courage, and whispered into her ears ” Keep quiet, or else you too will be carted off to a dungeon, like those who protested ”
She walked further ahead, and saw a huge crowd of people who were evidently hungry and looking like beggars. She asked one of them the cause of their plight, and he replied in a whisper ” All our wealth has been taken away by our daakus, and we are left with nothing. Our leaders are now going around to the IMF, Saudi Arabia, etc begging for money ”.
Alice saw an army officer, and asked him why they were behaving like tyrants ?
He was surprised how anyone could ask such an impertinent question, and then replied ” The people are like dumb driven sheep and cattle, and the only way to control them is by using a whip and a danda. Power grows out of the barrel of a gun, and we will use the gun we have against this riffraff, rabble, scum, hoi polloi and ragtag and bobtail ”.
Alice shouted ” You are nothing but a bunch of daakus ”, at which he pointed his gun at her, and was about to shoot, when Alice woke up, and realised she had been dreaming.

August 24, 2023