PEOPLE'S RIGHTS AND PEOPLE'S WILL

In the ongoing battle between the legislature and the judiciary, the Parliament claims primacy and authority on the basis that it is the representative of the people, i.e. the repository of sovereignty as emblazoned in our Constitution. In a country of 21 million, eligible voters total some 6 million and out of this, say, only 50-60% use their ballot, and if a governing party gets slightly above 50% of these votes, then the percentage drops to a mere 10% or so. It is this percent age of people that the members of parliament claim have given them the supremacy to do whatever they feel is right for the total population of the country. Adding insult to injury, the present government also claims a two-third majority thus giving itself a licence to ridicule the judiciary and its occupants. In fact, this so called two-third majority is an ill-gotten one through horse-trading – and there again, it does not reflect the actual will of the people who exercised their democratic right to cast their votes to opposition political parties. In fact, this is a massive travesty of justice legalized by a friendly ex-Chief Justice.


Further, when one carefully looks at the characters of those who got elected to the Parliament by whatever means, one cannot help but notice that most of them are a degenerate and depraved lot – hardly the material one would call “law makers”. A more appropriate description would be clowns or jokers who are adept at telling all sorts of lies and providing unlimited free entertainment to the gallery, while at the same time fattening their pockets through various means – mostly illegal. For instance, one is fully justified in questioning as to how many of those Ministers and MPs now making a hue and cry about financial dealings and declarations of assets of the Chief Justice and sitting in judgement over her, have in fact complied with that requirement and how many can provide reasonable explanations as to how they came to be millionaires and billionaires overnight. In fact, it is worthwhile investigating as to how those who could not even afford a push bicycle not so long ago, are now owning luxury cars and even going to get down racing cars for themselves and their family members.

Sadly, the terms “People’s rights” and “People’s will” are nothing but gibberish in our context.