WRITTEN LIKE A TRUE JUDGE

HERE'S some really nourishing food for healthy and robust thought: A democratically elected government should be pleased when it faces dissent as this tells it what is going wrong with its administration and how to rectify wrongs. Handling it with an imperial heavy-handedness through the police is self-destructive and ultimately counterproductive.

-  INDERJIT BADHWAR

This is not my pearl of wisdom but rather a distillation of a remarkable piece a penned in this issue by the evergreen Judge Kamaljit Singh Garewal whose ceaseless outpourings of sagacity never cease to astound as well as to amuse me. I have no idea why they retire judges of this calibre especially when age-as Ruth Bader Ginsburg demonstrated-may have little to do with insight, perspicacity and professional competence.

In the context of the ceaselessly burgeoning farmers' agitation now enveloping major parts of India, with the mainstream media playing Cheshire Cat now-you-see-it-now-you-don't-our very own Marie Antoinettes seem to be telling farmers they can't have gur, but promise chocolates, and ask them to accept the farm laws, Justice Garewal writes in his inimitable style.

On the other hand, “a child screaming for chocolate is given gur, his mother says he should eat something Indian and not foreign. The farmers are practical people, they know when they are being led up the garden path. The child does not understand the distinction. His screams become louder. In childish anger, he hates his mother, he shall burn the house down unless he is given chocolate.” says he