In Episode 20 of South Central, hosts Dhanya Rajendran, Pooja Prasanna, and Leena Reghunath discuss the absurdity of targeting Kunal Kamra, why the contempt of court law needs to go, and what the Kiran Bedi tapes reveal, alongside Alok Prasanna Kumar, Co-Founder and Lead, Vidhi Karnataka, and independent journalist Nikita Saxena.
On the BMC demolition, Alok says, “All of this is a sign of power being insecure at some point. That you can't exactly make a clear claim that my power is legitimate, so you react this way. It’s a test now for the courts. They’ve laid down the guidelines on these kinds of so-called bulldozer actions.”
Dhanya points out, “This has been a little more dangerous than previous instances. Considering it did not stop at vandalism, you saw BMC going and demolishing a part of the building where Kunal Kamra actually performed.”
Surprised by the reaction, Pooja Prasanna highlights the political context behind the backlash: “Calling him a ‘gaddar’ (traitor) is almost accepted. It’s a norm. Literally every other person in Shiv Sena, the UBT faction, has called him that. All opposition leaders, including Ajit Pawar, have called him ‘gaddar’ (traitor) in the Assembly. So it’s very mild.”
Nikita says, “The vigilante sort of actions right now are particularly horrific... every level of the democratic machinery [has] a very low threshold for what is considered offensive.”
As the conversation moves to Contempt of Courts law and Judicial accountability, Dhanya says, “If we truly believe in freedom of expression, we have to also do something about the contempt of court law...there is a sword hanging over your head all the time, which is why people cannot criticise judges or question judgements.”
Alok highlights the judiciary’s resistance to scrutiny, “There is an intolerance within the judiciary to have this kind of open discussion about issues which—bizarrely—there are open discussions in the bar canteen.”
Leena questions the lack of institutional oversight over the judiciary, “This is the biggest dispenser of justice in this country. And why don’t we have a professional system of vetting, a performance appraisal, a system of appointing them?”
All this and more—tune in.
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Audio Timecodes
00:00:00 - Intro
00:39:00 - Kiran Bedi Tapes
00:02:11 - Headlines
00:13:05 - Kunal Kamra Row
00:33:38 - Judicial Accountability
00:54:25 - Kiran Bedi Tapes
01:12:57 - Recommendations
References
Recommendations
Nikita Saxena
Alok Prasanna Kumar
Judges of the Supreme Court of India
The Flaming Feet and Other Essays
Pooja Prasanna
Justice Madan Lokur Intv by Karan Thapar
Leena Reghunath
The inside story of how a journalist was sent White House war plans
Dhanya Rajendran
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Produced by Bhuvan Malik, edited by Jaseem Ali.