Making a call for drawing deep out of the wisdom of our seers , Dr.Mohan Bhagwat, Sarsanghchalak of the RSS said that our NeetiShastra has a lot to offer which modern day law makers should take a leaf out.
He was speaking at the valedictory program of the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad held at Saroornagar Indoor stadium in Hyderabad on Sept 10th, 2017.
Dr.Bhagwat said that while Laws and legislation are necessary for running society, we must build such a system where morality of the society is at a level where the society in general and law are not at loggerheads with each other.
The Adhivakta Parishad was formed in 1992 under the guidance of Sri Dattopant Thengadi during a time when the Shah Bano Case judgment, and the discussion on Hindutva was raging. The nation was in a huge debate as to who were were as a nation. Couple of the key functions of the ABAP was to fight many of the legal issues that were emerging during such time and also to give voice to the millions of the people who could not afford legal assistance. The gap between those to whom justice is not accessible should be reduced, he said.
Dr.Bhagwat said that enforcement of law is necessary no doubt but it will be 100% effective when there is education of the masses; Secondly, this education cannot be just by information, but should include moral based education. Thirdly, unless we develop examples of honesty by living Bharatiya values by ourselves, we will not be able to transform society.
Pitching for reforms in the law, he said, while our constitution was written based on the understanding of Bharatiya ethos of our founding fathers, many of the laws that we are still using are based on the foreign sources. This is something we must address.
Drawing lessons for history of our battle against British, he recalled that Birsa Munda and 400 other tribals were was tried by the British for their battle against the British. Unfortunately, what tribals were saying was being mispresented by the interpreters and there was a huge gap between what Judge was saying and what accused were saying. This gap even today doesn’t seem to have been resolved and it remains. Our justice system’s ambit is under legal framework but many a time what is legal may not be morally right. For example, during Emergency, police had the right to shoot anyone and shot, but could not ask a question. Legally the police was right but morally ?
I recently asked former President Pranab Mukherjee about what is the definition of legality. He said “In Bharat, “Morality is legality” . But, then I asked is vice versa true ?
Unlike western society which believed that the king could do no wrong, In our society, during the coronation (rajyabhishek), the King used to say Adandosymi, (none can punish me). The purohit used to say “Dharma dandyosi” meaning Dharma will punish you if you do wrong. It means Dharma was placed highest because it stood for truth.
Other nations have their own jurisprudence. But does our jurisprudence reflect the moral and value systems of our society, he asked?
He pitched for working for transforming our legal system by working towards solutions that the poor and deprived are facing. He also appealed to the members of the legal fraternity to help those in duress beyond the boundaries of ideology. He also appealed for more introspection in those in the higher echelons of the legal system stating that an error of character of those at higher levels have a higher impact on society.
Finally, he said transformation without destruction is possible only by association of people committed to a positive change and each one in the society must work towards this.
Sri Justice L.Narasimha Reddy, Chairman of Reception committee said modern law does not have a proper definition of how a judgement must be but ancient texts like Vyaasa’s Dharmakosa was able to deliver the same.
Sri Bharat Kumar, All India General Secretary spoke about the achievements and the tasks at hand for the ABAP. Other dignitaries included Justice Rama Jois, Sri Justice Parvath Rao, Sri Sri Vinayak Dixit, Sri Jaideep Roy, Sri Dr.Manmohan Vaidya, Sri Chunnilal Arora, Sri Lal Bahadur Singh, Sri K Mohan, Sri K Laxman, Sri Gourish, Sri M.B Nargund, Sri Kishore bhai Kotak and Smt Meeratai khadaka.
