Justice delayed is justice denied

1. “Justice dalyed is justice denied” is an apt statement. The Indian judiciary suffers from this malaise. Here is a letter written to the editor in The Tribune (http://www.tribuneindia.com/ ) on January 16,07:

Backlog: CJI should find solutions

The new Chief Justice of India, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, has an impeccable track record as an advocate, judge, Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court and Supreme Court Judge. Now that he is at the helm of the country’s judiciary, he should find suitable solutions to the problem of huge backlog of cases.The judiciary is unable to expedite the cases at various levels due to many problems. Shortage of judges is one of them. For a long time, one fourth of the authorised strength of judges has been lying vacant in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Why cannot senior sessions judges of Punjab and Haryana be elevated to the High Court to fill in the vacancies and quicken the pace of justice?Union Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj informed the Lok Sabha that various high courts may get 100 more judges, but the Centre would convene the chief ministers’ conference to deal with the backlog problem. The CJI and chief justices of high courts should also be involved in this exercise.The Centre should also constitute the Indian Judicial Service expeditiously on the lines of the Indian Administrative Service to attract talent to the judiciary. There is no dearth of brilliant law graduates in the country. If the IJS is constituted, these students can try their luck through the Union Public Service Commission. This will, in fact, revolutionise the judiciary and improve the state of affairs.

Lt-Col P.S. SARANG (retd), Chandigarh

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) denotes number of kids dying in first year of their lives per 1000 alive kids in a year. In USA, the IMR is roughly 7/1000 kids, whereas it was 3.1 in HongKong in 1999. In January,07 The Tribune (published from Chandihgarh, India) reports that IMR has come down to 42/1000 alive kids in the state of Haryana.

Web sites


Web-sites which I have visited in past years and have liked them.

A] INSPIRING:

1. Logon to www.mss.niya.org/people/baba_amte.php

About the well known social crusader Baba Amte’s Maharogi Sewa samiti (MSS). Donot forget to see the pictures related to a ‘jungle hospital’ run by Dr Prakash Amte (younger son of Baba) in Hemalkasa, a tribal belt in Gadchiroli since 1974.

2. http://www.hinduwisdom.info/: A very good website which tells about Hinduism. Good for anyone who wants to grasp the basic understanding as well as details about this religion.

3. http://www.sarvodaya.org/: founded by the Srilankan Sarvodya leader Dr AT Ariyratne.

4. http://www.searchgadchiroli.org/Dr Abhay Bang – an MD in pediatrics and a MPH from USA, this doctor turned towards tribal interiors of Gadchiroli (about 250 KM from Nagpur) to set up a hospital. Fascinating.

5. www.cfar.umd.edu/~venu/ANNA/index.html: About Anna Hazare, the social activist.

6. www.grameen-info.org: The official web-site of Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh who was awarded the Noble Peace Prize for 2006. His concept of micro-finance has gained world-wide acceptance. Another related web-site is: www.grameenfoundation.org

Gandhi

Here are 3 refernces/articles about the evolution of Gandhian philosophy on Ahimsa( Non violence) and Satyagraha (passive resistance):

1. About how Gandhi’s ideas shaped, particularly in S Africa. Click

2. The book by Tolstoy which influenced Gandhi most and he had actually read it in 1994.
Click

3. Comparison between Adinballou, Tolstoy and Gandhi. Click

Here are more links to the themes of non-violenece, peace and satyagraha:

1. Albert Einstein Institution (based in East Boston, MA): Click on this link
Here you can find 198 methods of non-violent actions which were originally complied by Gene
Sharp.
2. Gene Sharp: Click here to read about him.

3. Mahatma Gandhi Library: Texas based. Click here. You can find the list of books by and on Gandhi.

4. Bethesda, MD based Gandhi Memorial Center: Click

5. Raj Mohan Gandhi (son of DevDas Gandhi, 4th son of Gandhiji): Click

6. Arun Manilal Gandhi: He is grand-son of Gandhiji and lives in USA and heads the MK Gandhi Institute for Non-violence (link) . His son is Tushar Gandhi. He lives in Mumbai and unlike his great grandfather, as per media he eats meat. He contested LS elections as a Samajwadi- Congress party in 1997.

Mansi


1. Mansi : The word ‘mansi’ means plucked flower and is a native Indian (I mean American Indian) word. Hopi- American Indian, to be precise. Well, the word sounds (east) Indian too as this is not an uncommon female name. Any connexion!