Discovering Secularism in India

The first time I came across the word secularism was in school and the meaning as I understood then was that a secular state is one that is the opposite of a theocratic state without a state religion, where all citizens were treated equally without any regard to their religion also that they did not need to disclose their religious identity in public for any purpose. In later years when I heard and read about Shah Bano case, I was pushed into a state of confusion; I could not comprehend the concept of majority and minority and how different people were treated differently.

Shah Bano case:

Later years of studying law gave me the opportunity to understand the facts and circumstances that surrounded the Shah Bano case. In a nutshell the case was about a 62 year old divorced Muslim woman from Madhya Pradesh, who claimed Maintenance of Rs. 500/- from her ex-husband under section 125 of Code of Criminal Procedure; the Code of Criminal Procedure is the criminal procedural law on India that applies to all citizens of this country without any exception. The matter reached the Supreme Court in some seven years and it was held that section 125 of Code of Criminal Procedure applies to everyone regardless of caste, creed, or religion and that Shah Bano should be paid maintenance.

This decision was welcomed by many but some felt that the Supreme Court was encroachment of the Muslim Personal Laws and protested. The Congress Government then led by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi played to the gallery and in the course of doing so made Arif Mohhamed Khan a scapegoat.

Contd........ 

in the posts that follow I would deal with the betrayal by Rajiv Gandhi and the subsequent appeasement measures that eventually lead to the Babri Masjid demoloition

Chiru says political will needed !!!

Praja Rajyam president K. Chiranjeevi has described the first plenary of the party as the “beginning of a long political journey” for him and not the end.


Annaya still dreams of a long political journey...... somebody please tell him

The Hindu : States / Andhra Pradesh : Andhra Pradesh HC suspends five judges

The Hindu : States / Andhra Pradesh : Andhra Pradesh HC suspends five judges


The Andhra Pradesh High Court has suspended five judges for allegedly copying while writing the LLM (Master of Law) examination held at Kakatiya University’s Arts College in Warangal district.

The five judges were allegedly caught copying by a squad of invigilators of the varsity during the first-year LLM exams on August 24 at Warangal town, about 150 km from here, a senior court official said.

According to N Manohar, the university’s additional controller of examinations, the candidates were taking their examinations in Room No 102 when a team headed by him made a surprise visit.

One of the judges was found copying from a law book hidden under his answer sheet.

Written slips and pages torn from textbooks were seized from other judges.

All the material was confiscated by the invigilators who stopped the judges from writing any further.

After a report was received from the Kakatiya University, Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court Mohammad Kakru placed the five judges under suspension pending inquiry against them, the official said.

The suspended judges are Ajitsimha Rao, Vijender Reddy, M Kistappa, Srinivasachary and Hanumantha Rao.

Where are we heading??

My first day in school

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First Day - A rainy day in mid June 1989

After a year of shouting, screaming, writing on all conceivable places in the house "Rishi Valley" because my friend joined that school, it was finally decided that I will be joining a school called Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Bhimavaram in AP. No screening or entrance test, packed with all necessary things that I would need, we started for Bhimavaram in a Matador van that my grand father owned.

Reaching the school the first thing I saw was a mini zoo with deer and peacocks, a huge 25 acre campus with lovely buildings with plenty of mango trees, we were then directed to the principal's office, Mr. G.S. Negi was the principal then. The first question I was asked was "Why do you want to be in a hostel?" to which my answer was "I like being in a hostel" and a small test by a maths teacher followed. The maths teacher conveyed to the principal that I was OK; the principal also asked me a few spellings and gave his consent for my admission.

As my parents completed the paper work I was taken to the dining hall where I was introduced to a few boys from my class whom I vividly remember till today, they were Appaji, G.N. Suresh and V.V.K. Rajeev. In their company I ate tomato bath and I was then taken to my hostel dormitory, it was for the first time that I saw bunk beds and I was allotted a bed on top. The caretaker was a middle aged lady called Chandramma who hailed from a near by village but surprisingly could talk fluent Hindi. My things were moved to my room and my parents started to leave and suddenly I was feeling sad, my eyes were filled with tears just about to roll down. Suddenly there was so much of hustle in the hostel building, what I saw was all the boys coming back to their rooms from the sports area and changing into towels and running in to the huge bath rooms at the end of the corridor and coming back all of them changed in to white kurta and pyjamas.

All of them gathered in the TV hall for the evening prayers “Asthachal” which

Meant praying the setting sun, the TV hall was full of excitement, for some time I did not understand the cause for such excitement. A boy sitting beside me told me that it was a Thursday and Giant Robot will be on TV. The Giant Robot show on TV made me feel better and the day ended with dinner and introduction to all my classmates.

Will keep posting all the incidents that I remember from my 6 memorable years of stay in Bhavan’s Bhimavaram