It's B2B (or Back 2 Beef time) in the State of Maharashtra. The Bombay (Ahem! not Mumbai) High Court passed a judgement on the 6th of April 2016, that eating, importing and possession of beef is not a crime in the State of Maharashtra while upholding the ban on cow slaughter. It dilutes the enactment of the Maharashtra Government passed in March of last year that was viewed by people from all communities as strangulation of constitutional rights assured by this Democracy. But, how does one prove that the beef consumed, transported or stored is imported from out of the State? The onus to prove otherwise is on the authorities. Then, everyone knows that those in power know how to abuse it too like it happened in the case of a building called "Adarsh".

Wow! Just a few days back the same Court ordered the demolition of the very same scam-tainted 31-floor apartment building that has been mired in controversy since the start of this decade. It gave people some degree of hope that someday, the people who abuse power in this Democracy will get punished. personally, I feel that the order delivered only 50% justice as the genuine eligible buyers will suffer under the order.

Lately, be it the case of Choppergate or Coalgate or one of the many national scams; booking the "King of Good Life" - Vijay Mallya or its "Emperor" - S. Roy; punishing corrupt builders or greedy bureaucrats and occasionally politicians even; deciding on the odd-even traffic scheme in Delhi or animal rights; taking on NEET1 or triple 'talak" ; imposing President's rule in Uttrakhand and Arunachal or the overruling it; granting bail to a JNU student (Kanahiya) or denying bail to an ex-DU professor (Geelani); the voice of the Honourable Courts, be it the Supreme Court or the High Courts in various States has been quite audible. More ferocious than their bark has been their bite, and one wonders if they are executing their right role - that of a democratic watchdog or are they in their judicious blindness, also being used to settle scores. Are they helping in saving democracy or... It's a different matter that the Courts have a backlog of 31.4 million cases, some going back to the time this Nation was born (1947) or even before.

The Indian National Congress (INC) led by the Gandhi family (jocularly referred by some as "Gandhi INC.") have reasons to believe that democracy in India is in danger and needs to be saved. As much as the Nation has been amused by the "Save Democracy" march which many called the "Save Dynasty" march, the world was not amused at the amusing Mr. Donald Trump's victory in being nominated as the Republican Party's candidate for a stint in the White House. The fear of his rule has pushed the Democrats (though not necessarily believers in democracy - just like those in the INC) to seek funds to not just save the democrats or democracy in the USA but "Save the World" itself.

Looking at the situation around the world, theorist have begun to debate the efficacy of the democratic system itself, asking if there is true democracy functioning anywhere in the world? North Korea seems to think it does, at least for one person - it's rule of KIM, by KIM, for KIM, and the world powers just let him, unlike many such leaders that have been ousted from Iraq, Libya; with current attempts ongoing in Syria to help people in those nations lead a truly democratic life. Kim must be doing something right to keep his place as did his father as did his father.

No wonder new leaders around the world have therefore adopted Kim as their role model. Going by their behaviour and way of running their nations, it certainly seems plausible.

But then one wonders if some species of the human kind deserve a democratic system? Was Winston Churchill right in his assessment? Guess it's time to go Back 2 Basics of understanding what real democracy means and can it, like an endangered species, be saved?

Baghdad

Tripoli

We require more than 70,000 judges to clear pending cases: CJI TS Thakur

Mon, 9 May 2016-07:26am , PTI

Justice TS Thakur once again expressed concern over the shortage of judges in the country, saying, "we may now require more than 70,000 judges to clear the pending cases."