Lawfare
By Kaushal Kishore*
Abstract: The sinner with the reputation of a saint came out in the public view as the Supreme Court in Brazil initiated legal course against former federal judge Sergio Moro better known for the extrajudicial conduct in the Operation Car Wash case while ripping the dignity of former President Lula da Silva. Indian judicial institutions can learn from Brazil trying hard to ensure justice to restore its own dignity.
Lal Bahadur Shastri, one of the best among prime ministers of India, never wore a flowing beard to reaffirm his position as a saint while being in the hot seat. Three years before the birth of RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) at Nagpur, he went to Lahore (now in Pakistan) to join Public Life Order of SOPS (Servants of the People Society), however, then SOIS (Servants of India Society) was active at Pune for seventeen long years. Almost after four long decades, introduced Satya Paul to the life members order and persuaded him to serve Dudhike village (birthplace of Lala Lajpat Rai in Moga district of Punjab) while being its secretary in early sixties.
The Gandhian leaders like JP (Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan) and Vinoba Bhave also recommended for him. The promising young man left the thriving practice of Tax law at Bhatinda to join the likes of Rajarshi PDT (Purushottam Das Tondon), the founding father of three-tire Panchayati Raj institutions Balvantray Mehta, Shastri and former Vice President Krishna Kant at “Lajpat Bhawan”, perhaps to end up with the reputation of a sinner while being a saint as the Greek philosopher Plato said in The Republic long ago. Today we need to look at it while indulging into the public discourse on the lawfare in Brazil that seems to predict the fate of its former President Lula da Silva before the upcoming presidential election. Moreover, it has created space for the saints with sinners reputation after more than a couple of millenniums.
The realities of the Operation Car Wash and extrajudicial conduct of former federal judge Sergio Moro to implicate Lula right before the last presidential poll is in public now. Geoffrey Robertson, the well-known Australian-British jurist, had referred to him then as a campaigner and not a judge. In this pandemic one of the finest saints in public life emerged as if the toughest time renders opportunity for the best of the leaders. Lula is one of the most respected statesmen across the Himalayas today, however, he is not in power. The fall of the Bolsonaro govt. next year is yet another reality after the last year’s fall of Trump led Republican govt. in the USA. The details of the quid pro quo before and after formation of the right wing regime in Brasilia, and the impending proceedings against Moro is on the other side of the same coin. At last the truth prevails with the redemption of Lula after the 580 odd days of incarceration in the anti-graft case since April 2018.
After independence, Gandhi continued the public service without committing to any public office. Down the line JP and Vinoba followed his footsteps. Satya Paul is the last generation of that banyan, who is known to join JP at All India Panchayat Parishad as its general secretary when he was its head. The proverb, “Wrap into the Samaja” is not used to refer to the Odia daily Samaja, but to any newspaper among the people versed in that dialect. Undoubtedly, he is one of main architects behind this proverb, although better noticed to initiate South Asian Fraternity to continue the people to people relationship among the citizens of SAARC nations. He has been the victim of embezzlement worth 4.7 million rupees since November 20, 2006 that was neither intended nor committed, and the role of judiciary turn it into a critical example of lawfare to depict a public figure as the criminal.
In 2011, Justice Indrajit Mahanty had reserved the judgment after hearing that case in the High Court at Cuttack. After an in-house probe initiated by the Supreme Court in corruption case, he was transferred to Maharashtra in 2018. Meanwhile the judgment remained reserved, and he has never cared to deliver the same before leaving Cuttack for new placement. I hope the incumbent Chief Justice of Rajasthan (Mr. Mohanty) will share the reason behind this misuse of judicial discretion and thereby paint a criminal out of a saint like Satya Paul.
Five years ago, Punam Suri, the president of DAV College Managing Committee enlightened us with the fact that Lala Lajpat Rai had left the college in 1921 before establishment of SOPS at Lahore. Radha Mohan Gokul referred to him as Lajpati (Master of Dignity) in his first authoritative biography that was published before the World War I. The centenary celebration of his brainchild is not that meaningful so long as the dignity of one of its most committed inmates is not really restored. One can hope the lights emanating from the saga of the socialist statesman from Brazil might enlighten thinking being to ensure the dignity of the saint with a reputation of the sinner for fifteen odd years.
*Writer is the author of The Holy Ganga (Rupa, 2008), Managing Editor of Panchayat Sandesh, and his column, Across The Lines, appears in the vernacular publications. The views expressed are personal.
