Demand justice for justice

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, said the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, who was no stranger to protests or agitations for a just cause. Within days of a mob riot in East Bengaluru on August 11, allegedly triggered by a blasphemous social media post, that left a trail of destruction of public and private properties, the Karnataka government rushed to the High Court for its nod to institute a Claims Commission [CC] to recover the losses from the rioters.

As per the Supreme Court guidelines of 2009, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi have appointed such CCs, and Karnataka wants to follow.

Karnataka and UP are both under the BJP rule currently. It is pertinent to note that our state would like to follow the UP model, according to which the state authorities are empowered to recover losses caused during riots, demonstrations, political rallies and illegal agitations. The CC would be chaired by a retired district judge or an officer of the rank of an additional commissioner of police who would determine the damages caused and give a report to the state government within three months. The tribunal would be empowered to attach the property of the offender. Authorities were directed to publish their photographs, names and addresses to warn the public not to buy such attached properties.

The draconian part of the UP model is that the orders and awards passed by the tribunal are final and not appealable. Accordingly, in the wake of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests, a list of 57 people, including important public figures, accused of damaging public property was published and pasted in prominent places and compensation was demanded from them. But the Allahabad High Court took suo motu notice of the offensive posters and immediately directed the UP government to remove them.

A division bench of the High Court, led by Chief Justice Govind Mathur, castigated the Yogi Adityanath government and directed Lucknow’s district magistrate and commissioner of police to take those posters off. The bench observed that the UP government’s action was tantamount to “violation of Article 21 of the Constitution” and “amounts to unwarranted interference in privacy of people”. It added that privacy is an “intrinsic component” of the Constitution and these fundamental rights “cannot be given or taken away by law and laws. All the executive actions must abide by them.”

The bench added that [the state’s action] was “alleged to be in conflict with the right of life and liberty...The advocate general [of the state] also failed to satisfy us as to why placement of the banners is necessary for a democratic society for a legitimate aim.”

The UP government, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, challenged the Allahabad HC directive in the Supreme Court. On March 11, the apex court, in a big relief to those named and shamed, told the UP government that there was no law to back its action.

The basic function of any government is to protect its citizenry and the property, law and order being a primary duty of its executive and administrative machinery. Law and order get broken not only in an anarchic stage, but also when the government becomes repressive and anti-people. The UP government’s model showed a clear mark of vindictiveness rather than just unbiased action to make claims for damaged properties. When you read the text of its law, it feels as though it was written to be misused. With so much unbridled power vested in an authority, it clearly will be.

How do we juxtapose this with justifiable democratic agitation against governments? Would authoritarian governments hesitate to use this law to suppress popular dissent and aspiration?

Our contemporary political structure is based on personality cults, devoid of all ideology, giving ample scope for this law to be grossly misused against political and social activists.

When there is State violence on genuine agitators, how does one fix the compensation? And who is accountable?

The major root cause of mob riots is failure of law and order, disproportionate increase in corruption in administration and making the State machinery subservient to the ruling party and more so to the ruling individual, rendering constitutional limits to power irrelevant. Laws alone do not establish peace in society. Proper governance is the key to maintaining peace and harmony.

Whenever there is mob violence and rioting, all political parties point fingers at each other. That means they are aware that political elements are in operation. It is common knowledge that such situations generally do not occur without the connivance of corrupt, self-seeking political elements to settle personal scores.

Though the primary duty of the government is to protect life and property and ensure public safety, the failure of governance on its part should not be used against justifiable agitations.

Agitation is a fundamental right of the people in a democratic society while at the same time it is the duty of the government to protect property and ensure public safety, with a robust law and order machinery in place. But who determines which agitation is illegal or legal?

If the administration and, more so the police, are allowed to function as per the law, without sidelining, ignoring and, at times, punishing honest officers, maybe we won’t require special laws to recover damages. But it is everybody’s knowledge that that is not how the system works currently. Some officers are favoured and rewarded by the government even if they are declared guilty by appropriate authorities.

In this background, what is the claim of the Claims Commission that the state government is in a rush to set up? The time has come for justice to demand justice. It’s almost 60 years since Martin Luther King Jr wrote these lines from a Birmingham jail, but they are relevant even today: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

(The author is a writer, former principal of Seshadripuram College and vice president of KPCC)