Prevention of Equating Animals with …

There are numerous associations for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals around the world and some millions of pet lovers are rendering yeomen service to the cause they believe in. The situation is fast changing like every other thing around us. Cruelty to Animals has become secondary. What can cruelty to animals do? It can cause physical pain, curtail freedom, isolate from its kith and kin, partly crush its spirit, make it a victim of medical trials, convert into a stuffed decorative item and even cause its death – yes, death to its body and not soul which is imperishable. By the way, what is a body without soul? The atman is all-important.

In the good old days, parents used to name their children after their elders out of respect and call them by a pet name out of affection, convenience, brevity, preserve hierarchy among children (ex: Chotu) and so on. When a child does something mischievous, they used to call the child after a pet or domesticated animal; they meant no offence to the child or animal. If any, it used to be a way expressing their concealed admiration of the child’s mischief.

Karna got a shaap for inadvertently killing a cow, and paid for it with his life during the Great War. Yudhistir refused to enter Swarg until the dog following him is given the same red carpet entry and with equal respect. Some animals acquired divine status. Yes, examples galore. India has a rich tradition of treating animals as equals or superior.

Our politicians have forgotten the vast cultural heritage and spirit with which Indian languages in vogue are spoken. All politicians, metaphorically speaking, are the birds of the same feather. Our Constitution has not denied them their fundamental right/freedom to address their brother politicians with choice expressions and expletives. Yet, by calling other politicians by the name of an animal, they are insulting our revered animal world. This is not acceptable. This hurts the soul (of animals); crushes their spirit completely on being equated with most unholy of His creation.

The need of the hour is to set up an Association for Prevention of Equating Animals with Politicians.

33% Reservation and After

Rajya Sabha gave us entertainment by way of passing 33% Women’s Reservation Bill in March 2010. The next logical step of passing it by Lok Sabha got stalled thanks to Yadav trioka and few other friends who have united for this particular cause. Some groups of MPs started giving their support to ruling coalition in exchange of Clean Chits in the long pending corruption cases against them to run the day-to-day business of the Parliament, when in session. It appears that on one fine day, Lok Sabha will eventually complete this long pending transaction of passing the Bill and send it for Presidential assent.

CEC may find it equitable to declare 33% seats in coming General Elections as reserved for women and rotate them in future general elections. It requires political ingenuity to understand and circumvent the rules. That being the case, let us explore the possible situation when Saran parliamentary constituency, a bastion of RJD supremo, is reserved for women in the next election in 2014 or so.

Lalu Prasad Yadav will spring a surprise in the list of RJD candidates that comes out. An unknown woman candidate called Labri Devi Yadav gets RJD ticket for his Saran Parliamentary constituency! His own name does not appear in the final list of RJD candidates! Some people cry fowl. Nation becomes deeply interested and curious to learn about Ms. Labri, a hitherto unknown political figure. Rabri Devi, in contrast, prefers to re-contest from her Assembly constituency.

Some people observe that Lalu and Labri Devi were not seen together on any platform or in public. They get suspicious. Some activists are bound to file a complaint with CEC and file a public interest litigation in Supreme Court, claiming that since Labri Devi is contesting for a seat reserved for women, it is only fair to ascertain the sex of the candidate. Supreme Court, in all its wisdom, is bound to dismiss the petition, in an analogous manner to most recent judgments, stating:

i) who are you to file a case against Labri Devi? ii) in what way you are affected? iii) Every citizen has a fundamental right to keep his/her private parts private and hence subjecting them to sex-determination tests is unconstitutional iv) even though few criminal might misuse such a fundamental right and get away, SC has a duty to protect the fundamental rights of common people of the country.

Taking a cue from the judgment delivered by SC, CEC will declare sex-determination of the candidates is unwanted intrusion into the privacy of contesting candidates and prohibits the inclusion of the details of private parts in the mandatory disclosures of assets of the candidates. CEC also observes that in sports, sometimes, sex-determination is done to ensure men do not participate in the women’s events. There is no such need in higher form of Sports like Politics.

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For the general elections coming after another lapse of a five-year term, by rotation, Saran seat becomes open. The beauty is that in the RJD list of candidates, Labri’s name does not figure and she disappears into thin air; and there comes back the RJD ticket for our Lalu.