Greed Lust Addiction

by Ravi Dabral

  This investigative and detective arm will help in protecting witnesses and building the trust of the general public in the judicial system. This will also help in resolving millions of pending cases in a time-bound manner to protect legal, civil and natural rights of common citizens for whom otherwise justice delayed means justice denied.

  The scope of these detective and investigative arms of courts can be widened by giving them powers to coordinate with national and international investigative agencies, INTERPOL, relevant cybercrime teams, and agencies dealing in international money laundering activities. This is to check whether politicians, businessmen, and bureaucrats have their undeclared and undisclosed income diverted from the country’s taxpayers’ funds, borrowed international funds and bribes taken from MNCs, drugs and weapon dealers to their foreign bank accounts.

  Fee for such investigative and detective services can be taken as part of court fee, or cess included in taxes and duties collected by the state or central government but must be kept under the control of the top court.

  Above suggested legal reforms are at institutional level and will take time. At the individual level wherein most of the disputes arise due to false ego position, Courts should promote ‘mediation’ as an alternate way to resolve millions of disputes as is the case in many countries such as Singapore. Mediation works on the principles of move on approach in life. This way millions of pending legal disputes in courts relating to marriage, property and other civil cases can be resolved amicably outside Court between individuals and corporates.”

  “Political reforms: Someone has correctly said, ‘Politics is the last resort for scoundrels’ which fits very well in the current corrupt political scenario. There are many black spots in the history of Indian democracy that elected politicians who held portfolios of Chief Ministers or Ministers in State or Central Government for several years as lawmakers were, later on, declared lawbreakers or criminals or convicts by the top court. Ironically and unfortunately, these convicts made laws during their tenure as lawmakers. Is this not a mockery of Indian Judiciary, Democracy and the Constitution that such criminals made laws?

  Our Constitution is great as it has provisions to make an ordinary person the President or the Prime Minister of the Country till such time as criminal charges against that person are proven in any court of law, which takes years. This is because of adversary or rivalry legal system manipulated by influential lawyers cum touts for their powerful clients having muscle, money and political powers at their disposal after holding constitutional positions such as ministers. These corrupt or criminal politicians misuse such flexible provisions or loopholes in the legal system and the constitution for their personal benefit. Once they come to power, they not only take VIP security but also misuse government investigation agencies, machinery, regulatory, statutory, financial institutions and autonomous constitutional bodies as their caged parrots, attack dogs, lapdogs and puppets to destroy all evidence against them. There is a need to have fast track courts for such accused politicians wherein support of court’s detective, and investigative arm can be taken for effective and speedy trial in a time-bound manner.

  There is Lokpal Bill or Ombudsman Bill pending for final approval in many States and at Central Government level, but it is obvious and a common sense question, why corrupt politicians will pass such a law which is against them? Instead of depending on politicians, the top court should take the suo moto action or initiative to form a special committee of retired judges to prepare a Lokpal Bill to curb the powers of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. Top court and higher courts need to send reminders to central or state governments after every three months to pass such Lokpal Bill in State Legislative Assembly or Parliament, and if not passed even after four reminders than it should be considered as contempt of court.

  A committee comprising of retired judges from top court and retired commissioners of Election Commission should be formed to scrutinise political funding particularly from big corporates and foreign sources, and to review all ‘election manifestoes’ of the national and regional political parties which they have released so far since independence to fool and loot innocent voters by making false and unrealistic promises.

  Elected politicians and Ruling Political Parties should be treated as the service providers to taxpayers and voters who have equal rights over the country’s natural resources and be held liable for providing defective services or non-delivery of services within the purview of Consumer Protection Acts.

  Accountability and responsibility should be fixed on the political party’s President, Prime Minister and Chief Minister of ruling political party running the Government, for the false and unrealistic promises made by their party workers, politicians and ministers during elections. There should be a check and balance on lip services and oratory skills used by these to ultimately cheat the innocent public to get their votes.

  It may take many years to empower, alert and aware public about the judicious use of their votes to elect honest, trustworthy and reliable politicians. In today’s corrupt political atmosphere, the last hope is only from the Top Court to play a proactive role to uphold and protect the Institutions in India from corrupt politicians keeping in mind the spirit of the preamble of the Constitution—‘Justice, liberty, equality and fraternity’—to ultimately protect the rights of citizens of India.”

  “Media Reforms: There is no doubt that media runs the business, and instead of guiding, it is misguiding the public through infotainment just for the sake of TRP to get advertisement income from MNCs, corporate houses and ruling party Government.

  It is a known fact that cost of advertisements which corporate houses run on the news channel is ultimately paid by the audience in the form of higher product cost apart from wastage of their valuable time while watching the propaganda news and sponsored advertisements. The debate, discussion and argument showed on news channels among different political parties’ spokespersons, is a kind of bullfight or cockfight wherein the TV anchor acts as an umpire provoking the bulls or cocks or spokespersons for the entertainment of innocent public with the ultimate objective to generate revenue for the news channel through TRP generation. They are doing dirty business by spreading poison in the society. We are taking poison or harmful chemicals and pesticides through food. Similarly, we are taking poison through our eyes and ears by watching and listening to unproductive programs and useless news stories on news channels. This poison is not only causing pollution inside us by diminishing our values, morals and sanskar but also outside, in the society in the form of hatred, violence and social unrest.

  A media cess, kept under the control of the top court, can be collected from the public as happens in many western countries, to make the media impartial and neutral.

  An independent, impartial Autonomous Authority under the supervision of the top court should be formed to oversee the functioning of these news channels. This impartial Authority should endeavour to make media the fourth pillar of Democracy in its true spirit and to guide the media to keep a check and balance on Government’s welfare activities. Independent and neutral internet web-based news portals that run their channels by subscription and donation should be promoted by the Autonomous Authority to encourage fair competition, true journalism and honest reporting in the media industry.”

  “Religious reforms by spreading ‘Humanism philosophy’: India is the only blessed country in the world having maximum diversity and variety based on religion, caste, language, food, tradition, customs, culture, and heritage, which is similar to having different flowers in a garden. Unfortunately, evil and corrupt politicians have misused this unique feature of India for their divisive vote bank politics by spreading hatred among citizens through propaganda using puppet media.

  Almost all religions have failed in achieving the objective of world peace, so there is a great need to inculcate ‘Humanism Philosophy’ at school and college level to make this world a peaceful, pollution free and better place to live in.r />
  There should be five main principles covered in the humanism philosophy or white magic.

  The first principle should be focussing on ‘self-reform’ and ‘social reform’ by promoting National Social Service (NSS), welfare meditation and smart village projects.

  Second, ‘respect and care for Mother Earth’ to protect the Environment.

  Third, be a good human being having empathy and respect for the perspectives of others to inculcate a ‘sense of brotherhood’ and ‘secularism.’

  Fourth, give importance to ‘virtues, values, and morals’ in school and college curriculum to develop an inclination towards the spiritual way of life.

  Fifth, avoid vices such as ‘lust, greed and addiction’ as these are the main causes of most of the crimes in today’s material world.”

  The Judge Mr. Madaan said, “Thanks Suraj for this note. I will review this and add my inputs. I will soon email you a soft copy of the final note to forward on social media and internet news portals to generate awareness and awaken the general public. All of us, be it the general public or intellectuals need to convince the country’s top court judges to initiate the political, legal, media, humanism and institutional reform process by taking immediate steps. We cannot rely anymore on corrupt politicians and bureaucrats as they have miserably failed to do anything concrete to eradicate poverty, hunger, and illiteracy since the independence of India.”

  Acknowledgements

  W ell, to say that this book originated 100 percent from my thoughts would be totally untrue. This is a work of fiction, but fiction needs real inspiration. I would like to thank all the people who played an important role in helping shape this novel, and in particular:

  My maternal grandfather Late Mr. Kedar Dutt Suyal, paternal grandfather Late Mr. Mohan Lal Dabral, grand-uncles Mr. Lakhiram Dabral and Mr. Tikaram Dabral who inculcated deep-rooted values, sanskar, and ethics in me; and taught me to stay away from greed, lust, and addiction to live a virtuous and happy life.

  My parents and in-laws who always inspired me, and my uncles Suresh, Vinod, Bimal, Lalit, Kamraj, Bhanu, Sri Kishan, and CM Dabral, brother Shailender, sister Anita Bhatt, cousins Manoj Tiwari, Gaurav Tiwari, Mukesh Dobhal and brother-in-law Rajiv Naithani who always encouraged me to learn in this University of Life.

  Sarita, my wife who has always been a wonderful companion. Apart from being shocked by some of the incidents in the book, particularly the love angles, she kept calm and was cooperative, despite the less time I spent with the family owing to my busy schedule while writing this novel.

  Namita, my daughter, who regularly reminded me to complete the novel and provided many inputs on literary aspects.

  Avi, my son who always kept the young kid active inside me by asking out of the box questions, thus enhancing my creativity and imagination power.

  My school friends Deepak Chander, Suveer Rawat, Kuldeep Rawat, Vinod Bhatt, Navin Bhaskar and all others, with whom I spent a great time in school days and even today.

  My ICP and college friends Dinesh Sharma, Jitendra Thakur, Gulshan, Beenu Bhalla, Harish Joshi, Jitendra Gambhir, Sanjay Arora, Sanjay Joshi, Dhananjay, Harish Uniyal, Ajay Gupta and Girish Yadav with whom I enjoyed the days of my youth and had remarkable memories.

  My friends in Singapore, ashram friends, my colleagues at work, my boss Mr. Bhandare, my yoga, meditation, and spiritual teachers, and Uttarakhand Association of Singapore (UASG) who helped me develop my hobbies in dance, singing and stand-up comedy, and kept me connected to my roots in Uttarakhand through regular cultural and entertaining events.

  This novel’s editor Gunjan Singhal, and the entire team at NotionPress for being so professional and friendly through the whole editing, publishing and marketing process.

  I believe that one should ‘always remember those who helped us in our personal and professional life; forget if you have helped someone, and always keep a list of persons whom you want to help out’. So, there are many more people who helped and inspired me in my life and to write this book whose names are mentioned on my website www.ravidabral.com .