Archive for August, 2009

Judges at India’s Supreme Court have agreed to make public details about their financial assets following an intense public debate. Analyst Manoj Mitta says a lot more needs to be done to make India’s judiciary transparent.

Given the circumstances in which judges of India’s Supreme Court finally agreed to make declarations of their assets public, it seems to be a case of too little, too late. A lot more needs to be done to restore the huge amount of credibility they have lost in recent months over this issue of transparency. The decision taken by the 23 sitting judges at a special meeting this week seems to be more a damage control exercise than a change of heart. This is because Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, for instance, has said nothing yet on whether he has changed his mind about his oft-quoted fear that the disclosure of assets might prompt people to harass judges with frivolous allegations. Read the rest of this entry »

A former leader of India’s opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has challenged the decision by an Indian state to ban his book.

The BJP government in Gujarat banned Jaswant Singh’s book on Pakistan’s founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Mr Singh has filed a case in the Supreme Court challenging the ban. He was expelled from the party last week. The state said it banned the book for “defamatory references” to India’s first home minister Vallabhbhai Patel. The late Mr Patel is a political icon in his home state of Gujarat. Described often as the “Iron Man of India”, Mr Patel played an important role in the country’s independence and the integration of the different states in the Indian union. Jaswant Singh said he was “saddened” by the ban. Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) – U.S. envoys and lawmakers have bluntly warned Afghan President Hamid Karzai that American patience is running out, citing concerns about allegations of fraud and corruption and attempts to prejudge the outcome of last week’s election, participants said on Thursday. Karzai met twice with U.S. President Barack Obama’s envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, after the Aug. 20 presidential election, including a private lunch in Kabul that turned “tense” when the U.S. envoy raised the possibility of a run-off. After that confrontation, the two finished dessert and shook hands, officials said. U.S. tensions with Karzai, in meetings with Holbrooke and a visiting delegation of U.S. senators, reflected both election-time stress and growing discord in American relations with the man who has been leading Afghanistan since the Taliban was overthrown in 2001.
Endemic government corruption and his close ties with former militia leaders have eroded Karzai’s support, both with the Afghan people and with Washington policymakers. The Obama administration was particularly disturbed by Karzai’s last-minute alliance with Uzbek General Abdul Rashid Dostum, officials said. “He (Karzai) has hurt himself in the eyes of a lot of people,” a Western observer close to U.S. deliberations explained of Dostum’s role in Karzai’s campaign. U.S. officials say Dostom, who fought for Afghanistan’s Soviet-backed Communist government and later switched sides repeatedly during years of factional civil war, may be responsible for war crimes. Karzai justified the move to Washington, telling officials he believed Dostum, who enjoys the overwhelming backing of ethnic Uzbeks in the north of Afghanistan, delivered key votes that could put him over the top. Read the rest of this entry »