The latest instance in this direction is the comment made by Prime Minister Modi while addressing a joint conference of the Judiciary including the chief justice of India on Easter Sunday (April 5). This conference was attended also by chief justices of 24 High Courts and the sitting judges of the Supreme Court. Addressing them, PM Modi said: “There is a need to be cautious against perception-driven verdicts that are often driven by five-star activism.” Mr Narendra Modi had used this term `five star activists’ even before he became the Prime Minister in relation to legal proceedings that were initiated through public interest litigations (PILs) on aspects concerning the Gujarat 2002 riots.

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Such disparaging comments against the PILs have come in for major criticism, justifiably, by legal luminaries. One of them said, “PILs are an important part of the Supreme Court jurisdiction. There is nothing to suggest that the Supreme Court has ever entertained PILs which are not bonafide or where the cause is not just. Supreme Court is not misled in the PIL cases it hears. Eventually this becomes a criticism of the court with a gun being fired from mythical five-star activists.” Further, “PIL jurisdiction was started in the Supreme Court in the 1980s to ensure that others would come forward and fight for the rights of the marginalised. Maligning these others as `five star activists’ is against the letter and spirit of the Constitution.” Another said, “To say this before the higher judiciary – Supreme Court judges and High Court chief justices were sitting there – that they would pass orders based on public opinion rather than on constitutional arguments is extremely insulting.”

People's Democracy, Editorial, April 12

Thirty three years ago, on February 19, 1981, an incident of mass conversion shook the nation. A small town of Meenakshipuram near Madurai witnessed mass conversion of 800 Hindu brethren from Scheduled Castes to Islam. An Islamic organisation called Isha-ad-ul Islam was instrumental in making those conversions a reality. Thanks to Hindu awakening, further attempts of conversion were curbed and the Justice Venugopal Commission was constituted to file a report and recommendation on the issue. Unfortunately, because blatant communal politics in the name of ‘secularism’ had put the report under wrap, the same Meenakshipuram is now called Rahmat Nagar.

Almost, another Rahmat Nagar was in the making in a more horrendous incident at Rampur of Uttar Pradesh. More than 800 Valmikis were forced to consider conversion to Islam to save their houses from demolition. While protesting for almost a week they alleged that civic authorities painted red marks on their houses a few days ago as signs of encroachment. According to them, the demolition of their houses would pave the way for building a shopping mall, allegedly backed by the UP minister and Rampur strongman Azam Khan. They also claimed that similar localities with Muslim inhabitants were kept out of this anti-demolition drive. The role of Azam Khan in UP politics and his reign of ghettoism and fear is reported time and gain. According to media reports, the proposed road to the mall where the recent protest by Valmiki community took place is actually planned for the Zohar University, a pet project of the Rampur strongman.

Organiser, Editorial, April 18