To be fair (even though this stinks to high heaven), this sordid
>affair is still being investigated and probed.
Not just that, it might prove to be without any real lapse of
ethics on Phukan's part. So,I am not going to judge Phukan on
Tehelka's report alone.
But the real issue is that there is a lot of truth to Tehelka's
assertion
that >Justice has seldom been insulated from malpractice in
India.
There are umpteen proven examples for that.
At 9:23 AM -0500 5/6/05, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
C'da,
>>Phukan did not find anything wrong in pointing out that he belonged
to Assam >>and therefore any slight to him might lead to a terrible
feeling of alienation >>among the people of the Northeast.
Talk about capitalizing on the woes of the masses.
The latest I heard was Phukan telling the media, that the trip he(and
wife) took from Mumbai on an airforce plane was horrible, and that he
did not know that he was not allowed these extra perks.
To be fair (even though this stinks to high heaven), this sordid
affair is still being investigated and probed.
--Ram
On 5/6/05, Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I think it IS a good way to explore it. Too bad it had to be a
> compatriot of ours, more so because it involves one from our neck of
> the woods :-).
>
>
> At 8:27 AM -0500 5/6/05, Rajen Barua wrote:
> >May be we can take up this case for an analysis of the system Vs people of
> >the Indian system!!!!
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Chan Mahanta" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >To: <[email protected]>
> >Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 8:09 AM
> >Subject: [Assam] From Tehelka
> >
> >
> >> Probe into inquiry
> >>
> >> Justice has seldom been insulated from malpractice in India
> >>
> >> By Nitin A. Gokhale
> >>
> >> Justice SN Phukan's blatant justification of accepting lavish
> >> hospitality of the defence forces when he was heading the Tehelka
> >> panel enquiring into wrongdoings in defence purchases should not come
> >> as a surprise given the nature of these appointments. Most enquiry
> >> commissions, set up either at the Centre or in the states, are used
> >> by governments of the day either as tools to obfuscate the truth or
> >> as coverups for culprits. Those who head such probes are therefore
> >> chosen with great care. Often politicians appoint judges with proven
> >> malleability. If that does not work, then governments choose people
> >> who are favourably inclined, or, better still, those who can be
> >> 'guided' towards a particular conclusion. We may never know what
> >> exactly prompted the National Democratic Alliance (nda) government to
> >> appoint Justice SN Phukan as head of the Tehelka panel after Justice
> >> Venkataswamy resigned. But for most of his legal career Phukan was
> >> regarded as a bit of a plodder who knew how to work the system. More
> >> important, he also knew how to avoid unnecessary attention.
> >>
> >> Inquiry panels are
> >> used by governments
> >> to hide the truth
> >> and protect the
> >> culrprits. Those who
> >> head the probes are
> >> chosen with care
> >> After retiring from the Supreme Court in 2002, Phukan became
> >> chairman of the Assam Human Rights Commission (ahrc). Then the nda
> >> government pulled him out of relative obscurity to head the Tehelka
> >> panel in January 2003. Even as he was conducting the probe into the
> >> Tehelka episode, Phukan continued to hold on to his post as chairman
> >> of ahrc. This, former colleagues say, was typical Phukan: have Plan B
> >> ready if something goes wrong with Plan A. He could have easily let
> >> someone else take up the ahrc post while handling the Tehelka panel,
> >> but having worked with the government for over two decades, he knew
> >> the value of a fallback option. Throughout his career, Phukan always
> >> shunned the limelight as a strategy. Except once, in 1998, when he
> >> wrote to the then President KR Narayanan threatening to resign as a
> >> protest on being superceded.
> >>
> >> Like his justification about defence ministry junkets, Phukan did
> >> not find anything wrong in pointing out that he belonged to Assam and
> >> therefore any slight to him might lead to a terrible feeling of
> >> alienation among the people of the Northeast. Now the quiet man from
> >> Jorhat is having to live through his 15 minutes of infamy. He is,
> >> however, not alone. Take a random survey of the fate of most inquiry
> >> commissions, and in a majority of cases there is bound to be a hidden
> >> hand guiding the conclusion. Phukan is only one among a long list of
> >> men in gowns wearing tainted hallows.
> >>
> >>
> >> May 14 , 2005
> >>
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