Murali's Writeups...

Nowadays, Indian social media particularly those sympathetic to the ruling establishment have been articulating stories against the Qatari government, after one of their courts (in a secret trial), found former Indian defense officers guilty of espionage on behalf of Israel. Mercifully, unlike the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, the families of the accused were intimated, and they also received Consular Access. However, the rest of the world does not know the specific charges against them or the contents of the judgment. Qatari law provides for statutory appeal against the Judgement. The appellate proceedings have been initiated with sufficient inputs from the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Indian social media reports recently gloated about the fact that the IT infrastructure of the Qatari government suffered a serious cyber-attack. Some of these posts indicated that this demonstrates the increasing Indian clout in global affairs. I am of the opinion that the Indian general public react

The recent Hamas attacks on Israeli civilian targets and the taking of women and children as hostages as a protest to Israeli interference in the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex has added one more armed conflict situation, constituting a serious breach of World Peace. It is true that by the end of the 19th century, the Israel population did not even have 2% of the Jewish population. It was essentially a Palestinian territory. Palestine then was a part of the Ottoman Empire. After the First World War, Britain took over the administration of Palestine, encouraged Jewish settlements, and aided the creation of a Jewish state. Between the First and Second World Wars, Jews around the world gravitated to Palestine (as it was known then) and started acquiring properties aggressively. We have to recognize that prior to World War 2, there was no right to self-determination. The purchase of properties was at par with military conquests, and both were legal. After the Kellogg-Briand Pact and the subseque

    Disclosure of Prejudice One of my sons has just become a Canadian citizen, and another son is in the race for the H1B/green card process. I have applied for a visa to visit these countries. I got interested in International Relations due to my participation in Jessup Moot Court. Thereafter, I pursued my Master's Degree in International Law from the Department of Legal Studies, University of Madras. I have been an active participant in the Justice delivery mechanisms within the territories of India. I have been teaching, blogging, and experimenting in different areas of Justice administration. Hence, I am upset with the recent happenings in Canada following the murder of Late Nijjar on Canadian soil, allegedly with the connivance of Indian Intelligence Agencies; these have driven a big wedge between India and Canada. Canada and India have many things in common; besides being democracies and members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Canada became a fairly independent Domi

Recently Mr Donald J Trump appeared as the Accused (Opposite Party) in a contempt trial. Some of his supporters who stormed the Capitol building after he lost the popular as well as the electoral vote, have started serving their sentences. The accused police officer Thomas Lane in the infamous ‘Black Lives Matter’ trial had been convicted and started serving his sentence. Whereas, we really do not know when the cases lodged against the protesters in the Citizenship Amendment Act will conclude. In our neighbourhood, Imran Khan has already been convicted for violating the Official Secrets Act. Most likely he will face another conviction in the Toshakhana cases. In India, many of the opposition leaders today are facing serious financial fraud prosecutions. But, none of those who are in the camp of ruling dispensations are bothered too much about the pendency of criminal cases against them, because they have been moving at (satisfactorily) a snail's pace. The recent conviction of Rah

Disclaimers/Mandatory disclosure: 1. The Author is a one-time hater of Imran Khan, then became an admirer, and is now clueless about Imran Khan’s status. 2. The Author had voted for BJP in the Parliamentary elections and had voted for other parties in State Assembly elections. 3. The Author has not yet decided on his voting preference for the 2024 elections. In August 2018, I wrote a blog titled “ Imran Khan Leads Pakistan, who should lead India ?” 5 years have elapsed since then. I thought I would revisit the contemporary issues and my views 5 years ago. Hence, this blog. Thiruvalluvar, a great Tamil poet said that it is more satisfying to carry a spear with which you attempted to kill an elephant (unsuccessfully), rather than carrying an arrow with which you successfully killed a rabbit. When I look at the Indian subcontinental scenario, the wisdom of Thiruvalluvar squarely applies to Imran Khans' case. He became PM after he was a celebrity for a long time. He has been in politic

1. The Constituent Assembly of India, comprising of people of great eminence drawn from all walks of life, and representing linguistic and religious minorities thought it fit to include Article 44 in the Constitution of India as one of the Directive Principles of the State Policy. Everyone in India nowadays knows that DPSPs, unlike fundamental rights are not enforceable in a court of law. The makers of the Constitution felt that the objectives of Art. 44 (though not possible under the then prevailing highly polarised and charged situation) should at some point of time work to accomplish these objectives. Under the constitutional law, the DPSPs are not legally enforceable. Yet, when it comes to pronouncing on the Constitutionality of the Legislations passed by the Indian Parliament and various State Legislatures, Constitutional courts in India will pronounce on the challenges to Constitutional validity in the light of desirable guidelines provided in part IV of the Indian Constitution.

A few years ago, I wrote a blog on the topic “Imran leads Pakistan, who should lead India?” In that blog , I concluded that among all the leaders, Mr Narendra Modi is a better bet. In fact, I was once a very ardent admirer of Imran Khan. My admiration for him was essentially because he had an Oxford degree, led his country to a World Cup victory and married a Jewish lady (now divorced) notwithstanding the strong anti-semitism in his country. Most importantly he established a state-of-the-art cancer hospital in Pakistan. I thought he was head and shoulders above most of the cricketers that I had seen in India and abroad. While it was known to everybody that Imran Khan as a political leader was propped up by the Pakistani Army-which has been given a greater right under their Constitution to control the destiny of Pakistan than its Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. Imran Khan as the Prime Minister of Pakistan was an unmitigated disaster. During his tenure, he did something which is un

ORIGINAL INCIDENT  The entire Nation was stunned when Shahrukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan was arrested and kept in judicial custody for more than 3 weeks for consuming prohibited drugs. Mr Sameer Wankhede is a Dalit IRS officer hailing from a family of Muslims. He is a Law Enforcement Officer with an active service record of effecting more seizures and initiating prosecutions. When he was a Collector of Air customs in Mumbai, he was shot into prominence because he stopped and detained (for a short while), many influential members of Bollywood.  Subsequent to the arrest of Mr Khan and a few more high-profile arrests, the Government of Maharashtra initiated proceedings for the revocation of the SC certificate issued to him. The matter was duly transferred to the National SC Commission for examination of wrongdoing or malpractice in Mr Sameer Wankhede becoming an IRS officer under the SC quota. He was exonerated.  Apparently earlier, when his father was an Excise Inspector in the Government o