Scrap the Contentious Agri-Laws
This refers to your Cover Story “Stalemate Continues on Pro- Corporate Agri-Laws: Farmers swelling at Delhi borders makes BJP nervy” by Abdul Bari Masoud (Radiance Viewsweekly, 27 December 2020-2 January 2021). This farmers’ protest against three pro-corporate agri-laws is unprecedented. Since the Independence Movement we have not seen such a mammoth countrywide protest movement in our Independent India. Even the anti-CAA protests could not attract such a largescale response from every section of society. But as the powers-that-be would have it, every effort is being made to sabotage the farmers’ protest.
Efforts are being made to create a cleavage in the rank and file of the farmer unions as also to convince the farmers that the agri-laws passed by the government are in fact in the interest of the farmers. But the tens and thousands of farmers coming not only from Punjab and Haryana as the government wants us to believe but from across the country, who are camping at the borders of Delhi know perfectly well that these laws are anti-farmers. Their only demand to scrap these three laws should be considered coolly in the greater interest of the nation. The sooner it is done, the better.
Abdur Razzaq
Malegaon, Maharashtra
Is This Really the End of Rule of Law?
Shoaib Daniyal has written an opinion article, “‘This ends rule of law’: Police raid on Delhi riots advocate raises alarm bells among lawyers” in Scroll.in (December 25). The writer raises a question: “If the state can simply raid a lawyer fighting the state and access his communications with an accused person, what remains of the legal system?”
He writes: “The drastic police action has raised serious questions among Indian lawyers about the breach of attorney-client privilege – the idea that communication between a person and his lawyer is confidential. By accessing computers used by Pracha, the Delhi Police can potentially access communication between Pracha and the clients he represents in the Delhi riots cases.”
The writer has cited opinions of many practicing lawyers on the issue. For example, Abhinav Sekhri, a lawyer practising in Delhi, says: “This action is deeply worrying as lawyer-client confidentiality is the bedrock of legal practice, especially for criminal defence lawyers.” Anuj Bhuwania, a professor at OP Jindal Global University, explains that this action strikes at the heart of rule of law in India: “If a lawyer fighting against the state can simply be raided by the state and his materials seized then really, it practically ends rule of law.”
The issue appears to be very alarming. Our legal luminaries should come forward and guide the nation as to what should be the right approach in this case.
Saghir Ahmad
Goa
No Illegal Influx from Bangladesh
The preparation of National Register of Citizen (NRC) is an “Indian issue” and there has been no illegal influx from Bangladesh into India, the Director General of Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), Maj. Gen. Shafeenul Islam, said in Guwahati on December 25. Islam said, “I think you need to revisit the perception that a large number of Bangladeshis are crossing into Assam…. Yes, people do come to India with valid documents and passports for tourism purpose but for work, there is no such case…There is no infiltration from Bangladesh to India.”
However, BSF DG Rakesh Asthana said that as of December 15, the BSF this year has nabbed 3,204 individuals trying to illegally enter India along the entire India-Bangladesh border. Asthana added the caveat that the figure was not just of Bangladeshi nationals but the overall number of people nabbed while trying to cross over illegally, including criminals and smugglers.
One fails to understand why there is so much din and bustle about Bangladeshi infiltrators when the highest border protections officers of the two countries aver that there is no influx as such.
Shariq Iqbal
Kolkata, West Bengal