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1.Bail, not jail: Delay in considering bail is an attack on constitutional principles. Many systemic flaws need correction
On learning that a bail application is pending since February 2020, Supreme Court directed Punjab and Haryana high court to expeditiously hear the matter, noting that the delay was an “infringement of right and liberty assured to an accused”. The dictum of innocent until proven guilty is under attack in India thanks to huge numbers of pre-trial/ undertrial prisoners (UTPs). Prisons should house convicts. But in Indian jails, UTPs outnumber convicts by a wide margin, 70:30.
Comparative figures for the US, despite its systemic faults like money bail and over-prosecution, is 24%, and the UK’s is 16%. Conviction rates of 90% and low case pendency automatically resolves this problem for many countries. But India struggles on both counts. Overall conviction rate touched 50% in 2019 but courts could dispose just 10% of cases related to crimes against women, economic offences, or offences against the state. Recall that UAPA charges against three anti-CAA activists failed Delhi HCs prima facie scrutiny. With 740 prosecution witnesses, the trial could have dragged on for years with the three in jail. Backlogged courts and judges often cowed down by police arguments are making quick grant of bails exceptions.
A systemic review and overhaul is necessary, beginning with employing more judges. Punjab and Haryana HC can point out that 38 of 85 sanctioned judges posts lie vacant. Across HCs, 650 serving judges have to carry the caseload of 450 judicial vacancies. Lower courts too report huge vacancies. Centre, SC’s collegium and HCs must fill these posts fast.
Criteria like gravity of offence, possibility of tampering evidence, and likelihood of absconding are usually considered during bail hearings. But if trials crawl, even such rational criteria tend to lose persuasiveness. Access to quality legal defence is uneven, too. Over 2.3 lakh of 3.3 lakh UTPs didn’t cross the Class 10 hump in school education. Without financial resources or legal literacy, they lose out. Bail bonds valued on property or tax documents is another giant hurdle: The poor struggle to find sureties to vouch for them, a fact flagged by Justice Krishna Iyer way back in 1978. And often, police oppose bail owing to difficulties in producing accused for hearings.
The list of things to do is long: appointing judges fast, hiring more cops, separating prosecution and investigative agencies, setting up well-funded legal aid networks, offering witness protection, and enlightened bail reform. But to do nothing questions India’s constitutional democratic credentials.
2.Forget the opposition, Punjab Congress leaders prove to be a handful for Amarinder Singh
Dissidence in Punjab Congress shows no sign of waning with just months left for elections in the state. After perpetual rebel Navjot Singh Sidhu, more Congress ministers and MLAs are now speaking out against chief minister Amarinder Singh. From a position where he was comfortably in the saddle, Amarinder is in the unenviable position of fending off a series of allegations by party apparatchiks.
With elections just months away, the opposition is also getting into the act. Akali Dal’s alliance with BSP aims to woo the 31% Dalit population in the state. The Akalis will be hopeful that BSP will help offset some of the loss of Hindu votes owing to the split with BJP. The party has also assiduously tried to woo back farmers cross with its continuance in NDA for a few months after the farm laws were enacted as ordinances. AAP is also trying hard to return to the reckoning after imploding in 2017 from a position of strength.
The split in opposition votes will help Congress but the dissidence is poor optics, locally and nationally. A national opposition party perpetually in turmoil has practically little time left to play the role of a constructive or aggressive opposition. Failure to retain Punjab will be a big blow for Congress’s 2024 prospects. During the height of the PS Bajwa-Amarinder strife in 2015 and 2016, Rahul Gandhi had failed to grasp Amarinder’s clout. With that episode in mind, can the high command strike a peace deal between Amarinder and the dissidents soon?
3. A national unity project
In a polarised time, there’s one issue on which parties can come together: Vaccination. Such a campaign can achieve two objectives — it can help shed vaccine hesitancy, and provide a glimmer of cross-party unity at a time when society desperately needs a display of political solidarity rather than division. The virus is the enemy — and we are all in this together.
On Monday, India ushered in a new vaccine policy framework, and vaccinated a record number of people. This is good news. But sustaining the momentum of vaccination will require adequate supplies (which the Centre has to manage), smooth coordination between the Centre and states, and ensuring that citizens turn up for vaccination. Anecdotes and reports from the ground — particularly in rural areas and urban slums — suggest that vaccine hesitancy is real and segments of citizens, even those in high-priority groups, are reluctant to get the jab (in many urban areas, of course, supplies are the issue). This stems from misplaced apprehensions about adverse effects, a distrust in the public health system, and social and religious misconceptions.
It is clear that there is no way out of the pandemic until universal vaccination is achieved. It is also clear that India has lost valuable time because of its failure to order vaccines in time, and a flawed vaccine distribution and pricing policy. But even as the Centre remedies these errors, it is time for all of India’s political parties and leaders to come together in this moment of national crisis with a common message for citizens — get your vaccine shot.
There are deep ideological differences among India’s political formations, there is polarisation at the ground level where even a civil dialogue between supporters and opponents of the central government is difficult, and there is competitive politics where each party has an eye on the next election. But this is one issue on which all leaders — from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, from West Bengal chief minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee to Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath — can come together, perhaps even issue a common video appeal in favour of vaccination. Imagine political workers deploying their networks with the same message on the ground. Imagine a poster which has images of all former and serving CMs of a state, in the language of the state, with an appeal to vaccinate. Such a campaign can achieve two objectives — it can help shed vaccine hesitancy, and provide a glimmer of cross-party unity at a time when society desperately needs a display of political solidarity rather than division. The virus is the enemy — and we are all in this together.