News: H M Pernal

Mangaluru, Dec 9: “Our country and its citizens are in danger. Economy has drastically slowed down. Human rights are violated every day. Even the judiciary, which was citizens only hope, is collapsing," said Justice M F Saldanha, former judge of Karnataka and Bombay high court.

He was speaking at a seminar ‘Indian Democracy at Peril’ organised by People’s Union for Civil Liberties South Kanara (DK and UK) on the occasion of Constitution and Human Rights Day at Maria Jayanthi Hall, Jeppu.

Calling Finance minister’s reaction to rising onion prices with statement ‘I am not eating onions’ as ridiculous, Justice Saldanha said, “The politicians of this country are neither concerned about the common man nor the country.” He cited the example of an illiterate man who does not even know to sign becoming education minister of a state. He said that he represented the said minister when he was a lawyer and the judge threw back the affidavit with education minister’s thumb impression on it. “Sadly, in this country going to the jail maximum times has become the criteria to become a politician,” he said.

Commenting on the Hyderabad encounter, Justice Saldanha said that in his tenure as a Judge, he has handled 29 encounter cases and all of them turned out to be fake. He said, “Most of the times, in high profile cases, police catch hold of innocent people like watchman, lorry drivers and cleaners and kill them in an encounter with the sole intention to save their faces and pacify public outrage. They fabricate stories that the accused tried to escape from custody, snatched weapons from the police, fired at police etc. But in most encounters, there are one or two bullet wounds on the police jeep and the windscreens of the police vehicle are hardly damaged. Not a single policeman gets injured in cross firing.”

Referring specifically to the Hyderabad encounter, Justice Saldanha questioned, "What was the need for the police to recreate the crime scene at 3 am in the morning? What prevented the police from taking the accused to the scene of crime during day time? If police force all over the country takes this as a model to eliminate accused, what will happen to nation and democracy? "

“To save democracy the citizens should take active initiative. If everybody thinks it is not my business and keep quiet, whose business is it to save democracy?” he questioned.

High Court advocate Dilraj Rohit Sequeira and human rights activist Fr Dr Ozmond Roshan D’Souza presented their views on the subject.

Advocate Dilraj, in his address, spoke about different types of democracies practiced in various countries of the world. He strategically pointed out that implementation of England model of democracy by Nehru in India was a failure. England model of democracy will not suit a country like India with different cultures and many languages. He further said that People Representatives Act should be amended with minimum educational qualification for people to contest elections. Free and fair election process and environment awareness, especially water conservation will help in saving Indian democracy.

Human rights activists Fr Dr Ozmond Roshan D’Souza said, “Human rights come to us by nature. Unfortunately, today we are fighting for them.” Citing an example of students’ agitation at a University Dr Ozmond said, “Even research scholars do not listen to intellectual professors. But they run away when policemen come wielding Lathis. By imposing fear, we cannot restore democracy.”

PUCL President R Eswarraj welcomed the gathering and introduced the speakers. Former PUCL National Vice President P B D'Sa moderated the discussion. PUCL Secretary Ajoy D’Silva rendered vote of thanks.

Prior to the session, case studies handled by PUCL were presented by affected parties.