The power struggle between judiciary and legislature

If Arundhati Roy were a painter, she would have loved the brush on the left. She really did use some broad strokes to paint a fantasy filled picture of a "corrupt" judiciary, using the atypical example of the Justice Sabharwal (retired Hon'ble CJI) case, in a recent article.

This case is not getting the due attention because Lord Ram is on everyone's mind these days.

If there is one issue that attracts an unanimous vote of confidence from all parties, it is the idea that the judiciary wields too much power.

Ideally our politicians would like to be able to decide the outcomes of every court case. Starting from the quota case to the 123-agreement to the Ram Setu destruction conspiracy - they want to be the ultimate arbiters.

A problem with our bleeding heart liberals is that they appear to have no sense of scale. The alleged Sabharwal case is tiny compared to even the most garden variety scams pulled by politicians. Laloo still roams free, not only that he is still doing immense damage. Shibu Soren was let go. The land grab scams going on at a massive scale in Andhra, Kerala, Bengal etc. are too numerous to list.

As noted earlier, scions of politicians get preferential land allotments at Agricultural rates and scarcely anyone even raises an eyebrow. Arundhati Roy herself built a dream bungalow on illegally acquired land.

The judges do have enormous power but they are like knights whereas the politicians are like queens on a chessboard. Politicians control everything from law enforcement to the bureaucracy. They also have enormous powers over the fate of a lot of people. Judges are severely handicapped. It would be only under the rarest of circumstances that a judge can align the stars so that the outcome of a case can have a material impact. Also, politicians never retire.

It is difficult for a communist to understand a constitutional democracy. In their world (non-existent), there are the happy people and the people's leader. Goods and services appear out of nowhere, perhaps by divine intervention. In reality they come through massive aids given by capitalist countries, e.g. North Korea, Cuba, 70s India etc.

So, Arundhati Roy gets it wrong once again. It is our politicians who are the real Gods.