Comment by Riaz Haq on May 23, 2023 at 4:36pm

In India and Israel, a Common Threat to Judicial Independence – and to Democracy

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-05-23/ty-article-magazine/.pre...

Both India and Israel are celebrating their 75th birthdays, amid strikingly similar conflicts about the balance of power between courts and government, fueled by an acute dissonance between each country's religious and secular populations

On March 26th, when Israel was upended by a national strike, Nageswara Rao, a former judge on India’s Supreme Court was in Jerusalem speaking at an emergency conference on threats to judicial independence.

He used the moment to speak out in support of those marching and protesting across Israel against the government’s planned judicial overhaul which, if successful would neuter Israel’s Supreme Court and grant more power to the government, which prompted the strike.

The “appointment of judges is an essential ingredient for independence of judiciary,” he told those attending the conference sponsored by the Israel Democracy Institute.

This year, both India and Israel are celebrating the milestone of 75 years of independence.

Both are multiparty parliamentary democracies that boast individual rights, a free press, and active civil society. Both have populations that span multiple faiths, cultures and modern as well as conservative outlooks. The secular-religious divide in both nations is acute.

There are some fundamental differences between the two countries’ legal systems. India, unlike Israel, has a constitution, and it defines itself as a secular, socialist democratic republic.

But interestingly, the autonomy of the judiciaries of both countries are coming under attack, as the more religious and politically conservative elements of each country push back against them.

There’s a striking similarity to the debates, issues and emotions surrounding what the role of the judiciary should be and who the judges are – and who they should be.

Looking back, western ideas of neo-liberalization of the economy transformed both nations into free-market economies even as they remained socialist-planned economies until the late 1980s.

Their founding leaders, David Ben-Gurion of Israel and Jawaharlal Nehru of India respectively, were secular, rational and liberal minds who were deeply influenced by the Western modernity.

They both thought religion and cultural traditions could and would be reformed through rational and legal tools for the sake of modern state-building.

But they both erred in underestimating the level of religiosity among some segments of their society. Although the more traditional religious communities were in the minority during their lifetimes, today those populations have ballooned, and they now enjoy more political clout and popular support for their nationalist and religious values than ever before.

As in Israel, the question of how judges are appointed has become a major issue in India.

In India, what is known as a collegium system exists, in which judges appoint other judges with limited government power over the process. At best, the government can only delay the appointment of a given judge.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 23, 2023 at 4:36pm

In India and Israel, a Common Threat to Judicial Independence – and to Democracy

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-05-23/ty-article-magazine/.pre...

Currently, in Israel judges are appointed by a committee that includes equal representation for politicians, sitting judges and lawyers. While there is widespread support for reforming the committee system, there is disagreement over how it should be done. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal would give itself total control over all judicial appointments.

In striking similarity to the arguments for the judicial overhaul in Israel, Indian governments did have a direct role in the appointment of judges before 1993, but the Supreme Court decided unilaterally that from then on, judges would be chosen independently and not be appointed by the executive.

Indian politics went through a major social and cultural transformation following the period during the 1970s and 1980s when the lower castes and other less educated and marginalized sectors of society were labeled “Other Backward Classes.” In recent years they have tried to gain stature and power in the political space.


There’s a backlash by some, including from these formerly marginalized groups, against the Indian judiciary, much of it under the hegemony of upper castes, not unlike the disproportionate number of Ashkenazi Jews (Jews of European descent who, historically have held more prominent roles in the Israeli establishment) in Israel’s Supreme Court.

Although the lower castes are a majority within the Hindu population, they are vastly under-represented among Indian judges, not unlike the relative lack of representation of Jews of North African and Middle Eastern descent among judges in Israel

Modi’s government passed a bill back in 2014 that would have seen a national judicial appointments commission share the power with the judiciary in appointing judges.

But the Supreme Court of India rejected this law.

Many government officials, including Jagdeep Dhankar, the vice president of India, and a Modi appointee, have criticized them, saying the dismissal of the law that had been passed by parliament was anti-democratic. He claims the Supreme Court has “undone the power of the people.”

This issue of judicial activism is another major issue for governments in India, as it is in Israel. In Israel there has been pushback to the perception promoted by the Netanyahu government that the Supreme Court has been overly liberal and interventionist in its interpretation of the law.


Kiran Rijiju, the recently ousted law minister in India, has been vocal against what he sees as judicial overreach in his country

“Does the judiciary run the country or the elected government? If the judiciary gets into the domain of the executive, they are venturing into a sphere where they are not supposed to. We are a democracy, and our sovereignty lies with the people of India. People elect their representatives who run the country,” he said.

One contentious example in India is the legality of homosexuality. Although it was a crime on the books (a hold-over from British rule when it was passed in 1861), it had mostly been a forgotten law.

India’s Supreme Court decriminalized homosexuality in 2018. Most governments had previously ignored this issue out of fear it could stoke a backlash from the majority of Hindus, as well as the Muslim minority that tends to be socially conservative.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 23, 2023 at 4:37pm

In India and Israel, a Common Threat to Judicial Independence – and to Democracy

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-05-23/ty-article-magazine/.pre...


Currently, an ongoing case related to same-sex marriage is before the Indian Supreme Court and has brought the issue back into the fore. For conservative Hindus and Muslims, the concept of same-sex marriage is an affront to their conservative values, and dismissed as an “urban elitist concept” by some government officials.

Modi’s government has requested the court dismiss this hearing and let this matter be decided in the parliament, where elected leaders could consider whether it is socially acceptable by the majority of lawmakers.

But the court has refused to drop the matter, and appears to be giving some degree of recognition to same-sex marriage. The public, however seems more supportive. According to some surveys, almost 50 percent of Indians would support same-sex marriage, with support even higher in urban areas.

The case serves a reminder of how deeply divided the people are when it comes to the role of religion in public matters and how those issues intersect with the highest courts in the land. Again, echoes of Israel.

People of traditional cultures find it difficult to accept top-down laws which do not confirm to their ideas of morality. That’s why the more liberal-minded courts are bound to clash with them again and again.

The sight of tens of thousands of Israelis filling the streets for 20 weeks straight now in mass protests, firmly standing against tampering with the independence of Israel’s courts in the name of protecting democracy is a true inspiration for the people of India and the broader region, where such peoples’ movements are extremely rare.

As an educator, I believe that critical-minded, open learning reveals to the younger generation that education does not only expand one’s horizons but reveals that it is free and fair societies which do better than undemocratic ones. For that reason the judiciary must remain independent and a key check and balance if democracy is going to be safeguarded.

Khinvraj Jangid teaches at the Jindal Center for Israel Studies at the OP Jindal Global University in Delhi. He is currently adjunct professor at The Azrieli Center for Israel Studies at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sde Boker Campus’.

Comment by Riaz Haq on July 18, 2023 at 5:37pm

Romila Thapar - India's Past and Present: How History Informs Contemporary Narrative (2010)

https://youtu.be/J8HhLJzpx3Y

In conversation with IDRC President David M. Malone, historian Romila Thapar, widely recognized as India's foremost historian challenged the colonial interpretations of India's past, which have created an oversimplified history that has reinforced divisions of race, religion, and caste.

Comment by Riaz Haq on August 28, 2023 at 8:31am

India closes school after video of teacher urging students to slap Muslim classmate goes viral

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/india-teacher-viral-video-tells-studen...


New Delhi — Authorities in central India's Uttar Pradesh state have shut down a private school after video of a teacher asking her students to slap their Muslim classmate went viral and sparked outrage. The state police registered a case against the teacher, identified as Tripta Tyagi, as the video of the August 24 incident spread online.

The scandal erupted at a time of growing tension between India's predominantly Hindu population and its large Muslim minority.

The video, which was verified by police, shows Tyagi telling her students to slap their seven-year-old Muslim classmate. At least three students come up to the Muslim classmate one by one and hit him.

"Why are you hitting him so lightly? Hit him harder," the teacher is heard telling one child as the Muslim boy stands crying.

"Hit him on the back," she tells another student.

Satyanarayan Prajapat, a senior police officer in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district, said the teacher told students to hit the boy "for not remembering his times tables."

But the teacher also mentioned the boy's religion, according to Prajapat.

The teacher from the Neha Public School admitted she'd made a "mistake" by asking other students to hit the boy as she is disabled and couldn't do it herself, but she also defended her actions as necessary discipline.

"This wasn't my intention. I am accepting my mistake, but this was unnecessarily turned into a big issue," Tyagi told India's NDTV news network. "I am not ashamed. I have served the people of this village as a teacher. They all are with me."

The Muslim student's parents took their son out of the school and reported the incident to the police, but they were not pressing charges against the teacher.

"My seven-year-old was tortured for an hour or two. He is scared. This is not a Hindu-Muslim issue. We want the law to take its own course," the boy's father told Indian news networks.

Several politicians accused India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of creating an atmosphere in which the incident was able to take place.

Rahul Gandhi, senior leader of the main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, accused the teacher of "sowing the poison of discrimination in the minds of innocent children."

"This is the same kerosene spread by BJP which has set every corner of India on fire," Gandhi wrote in a social media post.

The BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has consistently said it does not discriminate against the country's more than 200 million Muslims.

In June, during a visit to the U.S., Modi told journalists there was "absolutely no space for discrimination" in India.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh government officials said the school was being shut as it did not meet the education department's "criteria," with all students set to be transferred to other schools.

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