Daijiworld Magazine, Vol.12, Issue 4, September 2020

DAIJIWORLD Magazine | September 2020 43
POINT OF VIEW
ONE RUPEE for A NEW INDIA
By Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ
The writer is a human rights and peace
activist
Not only Justice Shah, but several
legal luminaires, intellectuals,
civil society leaders from across
the board, leading editorials/
op-eds have expressed their
disgust with what is happening
in the Supreme Court today.
Just a couple of days before
his retirement from the
Supreme Court, Justice Arun
Mishra gave the people of India a
very special gift - a ONE RUPEE
COIN! It was in the form of a soft
‘punishment’ to senior human
rights activist Prashant Bhushan in
the contempt of court case.
Bhushan was held ‘guilty’ and
the quantum of ‘punishment’ was to
be handed out on August 31, a little
after the clock struck twelve noon!
The 82-pages judgment concludes
with, “We, therefore, sentence
the contemnor with a fine
or (SIC)
Re. 1/-(Rupee one) to be
deposited with the Registry of this
court by 15.09.2020, failing which
he shall undergo a simple imprisonment
for a period of three months
and further be debarred from practicing
in this Court for a period of
three years” (#93)
It was perhaps one of the most
high-profile cases in the Supreme
Court in recent times. Bhushan after
all, is a well-known lawyer and
has taken up cudgels on behalf of
the poor, the excluded and the exploited;
it has always been against
the powerful, the vested interests
and of course the ruling regime
-particularly the current political
dispensation. The immediate provocation
was two tweets Bhushan
made in June; first against four former
Chief Justices and in a second
tweet against the current Chief
Justice. As the case unfolded it was
clear that Bhushan would never
relent; besides, Justice Mishra was
well known in giving favourable
judgements to the likes of the BJP/
RSS and other powerful groups.
Justice Mishra said that they
were “showing magnanimity” by
not imposing a severe punishment.
He is fooling no one! There would
have been ‘magnanimity’, if he had
declared the entire case null and
void and apologized to Bhushan for
the mental trauma he has caused
him, for the tremendous loss of
resources and time and if he had
decided to look objectively at all
the charges of corruption against
past and sitting judges. Instead by
awarding the Re 1/- fine he has initiated
a national movement; where
hundreds of people who stand up
for democratic principles, for truth
and justice, for Constitutional values
and certainly for Prashant Bhushan
were spontaneously ready to
put the Re1/- into the kitty. Re 1/- is
mainly in coins today; but the ordinary
citizen is short-changed all
the time. If you pay in cash with a
big note or coin, the small change
(particularly the Re1/-) is hardly returned.
In fact, one cannot get one
of those ‘masala’ pouches or even
a gulp of tea, today for Re 1/-. That
coin has become useless; today
however, it is pregnant with meaning!
It is not about a ‘token’ punishment;
it has suddenly become a
powerful symbol of a resilient and
new India waiting for change, ready
to overthrow all those who have
been destroying every sacred institution
of our democracy!