It was great joy in viewing Shree Bhupendra Bhai Pandyaji's Scriptural Discourse on Sanskar TV Channel this morning after a long time.

Birth centenary of Dr Nelson Mandela

It was a pleasure to view the Nelson Mandela birth centenary speech by Mr Barack Obama, former US President, in Johannesburg, on BBC World, today.

It is rare to come across inspirational leaders like Nelson Mandela, Rev Dr Martin Luther King and our own Mahatma Gandhi.

Sometimes these leaders are placed on par with self centred politicians . It is a well known fact that Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela were proud to follow Gandhian principles unlike in the case of dubious politicians like K Kamaraj, former Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, who was believed to be a Gandhian, though it was an open secret that he could not resist the temptation of eating chicken curry even in public luncheons and was instrumental in oppressing people of certain castes in Tamilnadu, during his regime. His skewed grudge based policies were followed by other political parties as well resulting in nasty public administration governance permeating across all Tamil Nadu State Government regimes except that under the leadership of Dr MGR.

People centered Governance

While our Central Government seems to be doing well in many development areas, I think that it is high time that the Government should consider law and order as 1st priority. 

It is still common to hear criminals being acquitted, given bail etc with no valid reason. This is obviously because of corrupt police officers and judges (Though honest officers are there in Police and Judiciary, there contribution is overshadowed by others). It is very high time that corrupt officials in Police and Judiciary are given very severe punishment including irreversible life imprisonment or death penalty.

Similarly, criminal friendly advocates who defend criminals in our courts of law should also be given very severe punishment. If they are merely banned from practising their profession, they can still influence and mislead the judiciary processes in the wrong manner. If I remember it correctly, many years back Ram Jethmalani, a senior advocate in the Supreme Court, defended the person who assassinated our former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. I think that this Ram Jethmalani was also made a Minister in former BJP regime/s a few times.

Any advocate who defends criminals or people who go against dhaarmic principles (law) should be accorded irreversible life imprisonment or death penalty. Once this happens, lawyers will also be cautious not to practice in the wrong way.