South Asia Citizens Web

The political reaction in Maharashtra to the Supreme Court’s lifting of the state government’s ban on American author James Laine’s book on Shivaji - or rather, its upholding the 2007 high court decision to lift the ban - has been disappointing.

Is not the army boss forgetting his station? India is no Thailand, it is no Pakistan either, surely not the Pakistan people and politicians over there are currently trying to extricate themselves from. The armed forces in India are, the Constitution lays down, servants of an elected government. The government is elected by politicians who are members of parliament. The status of politicians who are elected as representatives of the people is way superior to that of the army chief. It is, of course, within the range of the army chief’s responsibilities to speak — or send a note — to the defence secretary and, through the secretary, to the defence minister, in case he feels apprehensive about proposals to amend or abolish the AFSPA. But that is all. To presume that he can publicly dress down politicians who hold views different from his on the merits of the act is a bit too much; somebody needs to advise him where to draw the line.

The Citizens’ Initiative for Peace (CIP) expresses its concern over
Maharashtra Government’s move to enact a law curtailing freedom of
expression

In its judgement of July 9, 2010, the Supreme Court of India says:

no fault can be found with the finding of the High Court to the effect that there is nothing on record on the basis whereof the Government could form the opinion that the book was likely to promote disharmony or feeling of enmity between various groups or likely to cause disturbance to public tranquillity and maintenance of harmony between various groups.

No ground is made out warranting our interference with the impugned judgment.

The SC dismissed the Maharashtra government appeal, finally lifting its stay of the Bombay High Court Order, and thus in effect lifting the ban of the book.

In an eerie way, South Asia’s nuclear-armed countries are being increasingly controlled not by their elected representatives but by a shadowy and unaccountable cluster of officials who like Frankenstein’s monster have become a serious threat to the very people they were pledged to serve. Interestingly this perception is more readily shared in Pakistan than in India where it is mostly shunned.