‘Kohinoor’
Solicitor General of India and concerned ones at Union Ministry of Culture having briefed about so-alleged 'gifting' of Kohinoor diamond to British monarchy have already made big damage to India's case for asking Britain to return $200 million worth world's biggest diamond when Solicitor General of India mentioned in Supreme Court of India on 19.04.2016 that "Kohinoor cannot be said to be forcibly taken or stolen as it was given by the successors of Maharaja Ranjti Singh to East India Company in 1849 as compensation for helping them in the Sikh wars".

It is absolutely illogical for Government of India that now it is being argued that it is not the stand of Government of India since affidavit in this regard is still to be filed at Supreme Court of India. Argument is totally senseless because even oral statements by any legal counsel on behalf of its client in the court have full importance regarding the case being argued. It is significant that in case of the matter reaching in some international court/arbitration, statement made by Solicitor General of India will be forcefully argued in favour of Britain. Solicitor General of India needs to be sacked because he made such an oral statement at Supreme Court of India without even thinking that such a statement would ultimately harm its client (Government of India) at India and abroad as has now been proved when following anguish of members of public, Government of India and ruling BJP are now giving useless clarifications.

British Prime Minister Cameron during his February-2013 on specific question on return of 'Kohinoor' diamond to India, stated that he did not believe in 'returnism'! British rulers are self-conscious by themselves of their big loot in India when Queen Elizabeth did not use 'Kohinoor' studded crown during any of her visits to India, even though she did use it in Pakistan during her same tour of 1960's to twin nations.

India and other member-countries of Commonwealth nations for their self-respect should withdraw from this group which is nothing but a shameful sign of colonial British era still giving Britain a special status on member-countries of Commonwealth Nations. Everyone is aware of big controversy that arose during infamous CWG-2010 in New Delhi on 'sharing' importance between President of India and representative of British monarchy.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal, Delhi

Not Many Judges
It refers to Chief Justice of India becoming emotional on aspect of quite low number of judges in the country at the conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts held at Vigyan Bhavan (New Delhi) on Sunday 24.04.2016. Indian Judicial Service (IJS) should be constituted for better quality of judges. Regarding appointments in higher judiciary, a permanent National Judicial Commission (NJC) should be constituted with retired Supreme Court judges as member-nominees of Prime Minister, Opposition Leader, Chief Justice of India and Bar Council of India with Chief Vigilance Commissioner as member-secretary of the Commission. Such a Commission will thus have a judicially-refined say of legislature in appointment of judges. Moreover sitting judges and others on posts will not have to be involved in appointment-process which affects their normal judicial task. Complete appointment-process should be made public after completion of appointment-process as also suggested by retired Chief Justice of India R M Lodha. Since any fresh legislation in this regard is very cumbersome, it is for Supreme Court to come out with such suggestions also because Supreme Court in its verdict has itself admitted improvement in present appointrnent-process of judges.

Enquiry-commissions set up by political rulers even though headed by retired judges are usually an eye-wash with panels usually giving findings in tune with requirement of political rulers having appointed them like happened in two different enquiry-panels one each by Gujarat government and Union Railway Ministry on Godhra incident with both panels giving contrast reports. National Judicial Commission should be the only authority to suggest names of retired judges in all judicial panels/commissions appointed by the centre and/or states. Either same or another Commission on similar lines should be formed for looking into complaints against judges of higher courts with power to order punishment and/or removal of guilty-found judges.

There should be a ban of two years in post-retirement postings of retiring judges. Even chairpersons of Human Rights Commissions at national and state level should be selected from amongst retired judges of Supreme Court by National Judicial Commission, after two years of their retirement. Retirement-age of High Court judges should be 65 years to be at par with that of Supreme Court judges to effectively check lobbying by some High Court judges for elevation to Supreme Court. Chief Justice of India should be made for one year by rotation amongst senior-most judges with at least one year of tenure left to avoid contrast cases with Justice Kamal Narain Singh having been CJI for just 18 days (25.11.1991 to 12.12.1991) while Justice Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud having been CJI for more than seven years (22.02.1978 to 11.07.1985). All High Court judges should be compulsorily appointed from outside their home-states to avoid chances of locally-appointed judges being approached/influenced through former bar-colleagues and local relations/friends, etc.
Madhu Agarwal, Delhi

Africans
The harassing, beating up and killing of people from Africa is hardly surprising, given that India's "untouchables" have been treated thus for millennia. Such behaviour is integral to the idea of "Hindu India".
Mukul Dube, Delhi

Rebellion in Donbass
Editorial Board of the "Proletarian Gazette" appeals to the progressive public all over the world, especially to the proletariat and the Marxist-Leninist forces, to provide support to the oppressed masses of Donbass, who have organized themselves into an armed people's militia on the territory of the proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, in the fight against direct military aggression of the Ukrainian army and the Ukrainian nationalist gangs of the puppet Kiev-regime, representing the interests of US imperialism and Western Europe, and at the same time help to expose the reactionary selfish class essence of the Russian imperialists and their puppets from among the bourgeois forces of Donbass, as well as "volunteers" from among Russian nationalists.

Editorial Board of the "Proletarian Gazette" calls on the progressive public all over the world, especially the proletariat and the Marxist-Leninist forces to use all available measures of public pressure on the United Nations and the governments of their respective countries in order to :

1.    take decisive action to end the hostilities in Donbass and withdrawal of the Ukrainian army beyond the administrative borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. The agreed terms of the Minsk Minsk armistice agreements in the region are just temporary and unstable measures to end the bloodshed in the territory of Donbass. The next step in ensuring the transition from truce to peace, should be the withdrawal of the Ukrainian army and the expulsion of various "volunteer" armed gangs out of Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

2.   compel the instigators of the devastating war in the Donbass—US and Western European imperialists, the Russian imperialists and their puppets—the Ukrainian government and the bourgeoisie of Donbass—to unconditionally and fully restore the war-shattered industrial and agricultural facilities of Donbass, housing and communal structures, repair damage caused by war, and compensate the families of the killed and injured citizens of Donbass and the like.

Editorial Board of the "Proletarian Gazette" recommends that the population of Donbass re-elect the authorities under the control of the People's Militia without any outside interference. The board recommends in these elections, to deprive all the volunteers and those residents who at the time of the elections are out of the territory of Donbass and do not live there permanently of the right to vote and be elected. The Board also recommends to conduct elections according to the proportional social and class principle, that is, the organs of power must include the workers' militia, the intelligentsia, the petty bourgeoisie, officials and other segments of the population in proportion to their quantitative presence as that would constitute real democratization of power in the Donbass.

"Militia constitutes military formations, created during the war, of the civilian population which is not in military service..."

Editorial Board of the "Proletarian Gazette" recommends not to dissolve and disarm the people's militia till a full and democratic resolution of the status of the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic is achieved, and to form a people's militia and other security forces on the basis of an armed people's militia, as well as of fully armed troops for the protection of the borders of these People's Republics.
The decision of the administrative and public affairs is an internal affair of the population and the newly elected government of Donbass.
Editorial Board of the
"Proletarian Gazette"
E-mail : proletarskaya.gazeta.leningrad @gmail.com

Muhammad Ali (1942-2016)
Gandhiji? Martin Luther King? No, Muhammad All, a man who truly moved like a butterfly—and by doing so, and in his own way, changed the world.

Boxing great Muhammad Ali, known around the world as a humanitarian who spoke out forcefully against racial inequality, social injustice, and the Vietnam War during the 1960's, has died at the age of 74.
Though regarded as one of the great boxers and individual athletes of all time and widely cherished for his tenacious wit and swagger, Ali—who was born Cassius Clay on January1 17, 1942 before converting to Islam and changing his name later in life—was equally heralded for his humanitarian work and taking bold political stances, even when they put his career in jeopardy.

Drafted for by the US government into the Vietnam War in 1967, Ali refused to go.

"My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America," he famously said. "And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn't put no dogs on me, they didn't rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. ...Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail."

And separately, he is quoted as saying :
"Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I'm not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn't have to draft me, I'd join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I'll go to jail, so what? We've been in jail for 400 years."

Dipping his toes into the political ring during this year's presidential race in the US, Ali made a point to release a statement following declarations by Donald Trump that he would, if elected, institute a total ban on Muslims entering the country.

"I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world," Ali said in a statement. "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion." He also called on Muslims to "stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda."
A Reader, New York

Frontier
Vol. 48, No. 50, Jun 19 - 25, 2016