Readers’ comments: Independent inquiry into allegations against Chief Justice of India is essential

Sexual harassment allegations

Thanks for the unprecedented and bold publication of sexual harassment allegations involving such a high office (“Chief Justice of India sexually harassed me, says former SC staffer in affidavit to 22 judges”). All I understood from this is that there seem to be lots of buried facts and voluminous merit to the woman’s allegations. Indians holding constitutional positions should allow their heart and brain to work in harmony and take some verifiable action, if not to prove the woman right then at least to prove the sanity and sanctity of the office of the Chief Justice of India. My entire family is supporting this cause.
– Manimekalai Sunil Kumar

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Nemo judex in causa sua – nobody can be a judge in his own case. Allegations have been levelled against the Chief Justice of India. The law demands that an investigation be conducted by an independent organisation. It sounds strange that an employee who was graded “very good” in the annual confidential report, as her affidavit mentions, was all of a sudden found to be lacking in performance. – Bal Krishan Kaul

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This incident is shameful and prima facie, indicates a wrong mentality on part of the Chief Justice of India. It is very bad that such things allegedly happen in high-profile places. Since it has come out, Ranjan Gogoi must be suspended pending inquiry and sacked if the allegations are found to be true. – Bhavak Parasher

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Great job by the journalists who had the courage to highlight the alleged misdeeds of a super-powerful man. – Rajiv Kumar

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If Gogoi is innocent, let the matter be investigated. Gogoi is not above the law. Supreme Court Bar Association President Vikas Singh cannot decide on the merit of the allegations. – Sanjeevan Kaur

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I subscribed to Scroll.in after reading the story on the allegations against the Chief Justice of India. I congratulate the team for the courage and effort involved in bringing such stories to the public. Keep up the good work. – Abhi Kaushik

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I really appreciate your courage and the way you put together all the evidence in the article whilst other media houses are still mum and want to de-escalate the matter because of the influential person involved. Keep up the good work and looking forward to reading further developments in the case on Scroll.in. – Akshaye Katyal

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The allegations made by the woman have to be investigated by impartial judges, preferably a bench, and the Chief Justice should not be present. If a similar case had come to CJI Ranjan Gogoi, he would definitely have ordered an enquiry. Justice should prevail irrespective of position of a person as the Chief Justice of India is an ordinary citizen. One hopes that the prime minister does not intervene to save the Chief Justice or ask departments not to proceed on the matter in light of the Supreme Court hearing in the Rafale deal. – Mukunda GS

Changing alliances

This article has same good points on the treatment of women in the misogynistic political arena of the country (“Has Priyanka Chaturvedi failed women by joining the Shiv Sena – or shown how to survive in politics?”). A historical record of Priyanka Chaturvedi’s new party on the treatment of women would have better explained the “failing” part to young readers. Also, some of the major ideological differences could have been spelled out, which would debunk the reasons for quitting one party for the other. These alternative news websites are patronised by youth who are disgruntled with the mainstream media. So, a little historical perspective always helps, even at the expense of sounding repetitive. – SSLN Sarma

Poll parleys

It is not new for BJP leaders to make outrageous comments (“Narendra Modi says Pragya Thakur’s candidature is a symbol that will prove costly for Congress”). It is also not new for the prime minister and other BJP leaders to justify their antics by comparing them to what Congress did. It shows their single-minded obsession with the Congress. Are the country’s interests served simply by Congress bashing?

The latest justification of Sadhvi Pragya by our prime minister beats every comment made by BJP so far. Yes, 1984,was a mistake. I was in Delhi at that time and saw Sikhs being beaten up mercilessly in our street. Is the prime minister wanting 1984 all over again?
Does the first citizen of the country want to recreate the earlier massacres? He owes a clarification to the country.
And why are the press, intelligentsia and human rights organisations keeping quiet? – Angara Venkata Rao

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As a citizen, I would like to urge both parties (ruling and opposition) to work for betterment of the nation. They should not fight. The Opposition should give advice to the ruling party when they go wrong. They should sort out the real problems, like how to remove poverty, improve education levels, bring about more development, ease of transportation, implementation of GST at lower slabs and so on. – Ghansham Punjwani

Controversial claims

Pragya Thakur claimed that she cursed the late Hemant Karkare (“Mumbai terror squad chief Hemant Karkare died after I cursed him, brags BJP’s Pragya Thakur”). If at all she has such powers, she is not a human being. There should be some limit to the nonsense someone can speak. Her remarks are highly condemnable and action should be taken against her under relevant sections. She should not be allowed scot-free. – ST Chandrasekhar Babu

Jammu and Kashmir elections

This story by Safwat Zargar says that the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party has a standard Hindutva agenda (“Rebel’s revenge? Sacked BJP minister Lal Singh may spoil the party’s plan to sweep Jammu again”). This is not true. The Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party is not only concerned about Hindus neither is it a Hindu-centric party. It is concerned with the Dogras of Jammu and Dogra is community irrespective of any cast and religion. It includes Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Gujjars, Bakarwals and more. In short, any person living in the Jammu province is called a Dogra. – Adhikshat Sharma

Assange arrest

While I agree with the distinguished signatories about freedom of the press and condemn the US efforts to muzzle it, it is very disturbing and revealing that not one of them refers to the original reason that Assange sought asylum – to avoid extradition to Sweden in sexual assault case against him (“‘Set Julian Assange free’: N Ram, Arundhati Roy, Romila Thapar and others decry attack on press”).

While some of the rape cases are victims of time lapse, there’s still one that can be pursued, and Swedish authorities are reportedly looking at the possibility of reopening the case. Does freedom of press also mean freedom to ignore allegations of a heinous crime of rape? By demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Assange, these luminaries are sidelining the serious sexual assault charges. – Usha Subramanian

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It seems that the so-called eminent journalists want to press for freedom of speech by protesting the arrest of Julian Assange. They think they have achieve a great thing by signing this statement. The Assange event shows how untrustworthy people in the government can jeopardise the nation and in the Indian context, can mint money by being sellers of grey market news to the agents of free press journals. – Srinivasan Ramaswamy

Alternative medicine

Whenever any type of medicine is compared to allopathy, that itself is the most unscientific approach (“Under the microscope: Questionable claims about Ayurvedic drugs for diabetes, malaria”). Each medicinal approach has its own pattern of healing. Allopathy administers an artificially crude form of natural sources and suppresses the symptoms. Hence it seems to be very authentic when observed in the short term. However it allows the illness to penetrate deeper, towards vital organs.

Herbal, Chinese and Ayurvedic medications are administered in the crudest natural form to the patient, hence the lab test comes up with colourful results of mercury and arsenic. However, these may be given in the traditional way to control the negative impact upon the system.

Homeopathy tries to work with the natural excretory system that pushes the toxins through orifices and skin. Ailments of the skin, being the farthest from the important organs, are deemed easier to be treated in homeopathy. It potentises and dynamises the crude form of the main ingredient getting the most out of its natural healing processes.

Other medicinal systems work in different ways. Now, how can one compare these treatments and prove one better them the other? Instead of following the pharmaceutical politics under the banner of USFDA and other incredulous organisations, Indians should use reason and self-reliance in conducting individual studies.

How many of those failed cases were under proper doctor’s care? How many followed proper diet along with those medicines? If allopathy was the only reliable medicine sytem, the human race would have been extinct long before it reached the era of modern medicine.

Indians have the legacy of Charak Samhita and the Vedic expertise, which helped spread natural healing to common households. For years, the Indian kitchen has been the most nourishing and healthiest in its approach and usage of ingredients.

It is high time we stop following the most glowing economy blindly. As a journalist, you owe your own intellect and that of the readers to provide the most important and true information. Do the research and acquaint yourself with what is being criticised. – Kausar Saiyed

Analysing the Gita

I am a regular reciter of Srimad Bhagavad Gita (“Is the Bhagavad Gita as we know it the work of multiple authors?”). The theory that it was authored by more than one person appears to me not acceptable. The author of the Bhagavad Gita is Lord Krishna Himself. The 700 stanzas of the Bhagavad Gita contains the conversation between Arjuna and Krishna. Dhrutharashtra begins by addressing Sanjaya, his charioteer, about what happened in the battlefield after the two armies of the Kauravas and the Pandavas were arraigned against each other. These utterances are by Vyasa, who is the author of Mahabharatha.

The authors for the rest of the stanzas, which are a continuous flow of questions and answers, are only the two of them: Krishna and Arjuna. These verses are captured by Sanjaya and made available to Dhrutharashtra. As this Bhagavad Gita is part of the Mahabharatha, there’s nothing wrong in assuming that Vyasa was the author of these slokas too, but with an understanding that these verses were not his own. He was a manthra dhrashta and could gain these for incorporating into the Mahabharatha.

If one sees it as a manmade composition, then I have nothing to say. Certain things are matter of belief. If one wants to tarnish the image of a personality, one can indulge in it and perhaps logically arraign arguments too. But I am firmly of the view there are things beyond human comprehension and our brain cells have limited capacities. – R Krishnamoorthy

Tall claims

I am a proud resident of Telangana. I appreciate your efforts on this piece and the good analysis and data visualisation (“2800% jump in farm returns: Telangana government’s claims about irrigation project are ‘laughable’”). I had some questions after going through your article.

1. Is the Centre dumb enough to believe the false claims of the Telangana government? If so, any other state government can fake the benefits of project and get approvals. Should we question the credibility of central government here?

2. Generally, multi-purpose projects would have high maintenance costs. Kaleswaram has higher maintenance costs indeed, but what else can we do, considering our geographical features. I’m curious to know the estimated maintenance costs of the earlier Congress government’s Pranahita Chevella project.

3. Is any other state government detailed project report as exaggerated as that of the Telangana government?

I appreciate your efforts to work a better society and hope you do a video series on this for more public reach, because we the people of Telangana do not want to be deceived one more time. – Sahith Raja