Former CJI Ranjan Gogoi’s Rajya Sabha nomination, four months after retirement, is shameful. More so as it comes just when you thought the image of higher judiciary couldn’t sink further. Gogoi must decline to avoid imputation of motives to his landmark judgments. Rules for judges’ post-retirement sinecures must be rewritten.
RBI must show more agility in its fiscal, monetary policy responses amid coronavirus scare
Coronavirus has hit the Indian economy just when some sectors had begun to show tiny green shoots. But RBI has adopted a cautious stance instead of announcing a rate cut to help businesses like other central banks. India needs to be nimbler in coordinating its fiscal and monetary policy responses.
If higher judiciary is a pipe line for judges to join and retire. Both the entry and exit must be treated on par. No questions are asked once a judge is selected and appointed to the bench and at that stage we trust the selection process. If the individual was up-right and good at that stage how can he be a suspect at the exit. Possibly because when the individual joins he has authority and the cowards are scared of that authority, but the minute he retires he is defenseless and any one with old scores to settle will is free to jump at the opportunity.
Many people are holding back from expressing themselves with the candour this development justifies. Not because of any reverence they feel for Shri Ranjan Gogoi but because this is an institution Indians have come over the decades to trust, admire, even love, above any other. Countless decisions of the apex court must count amongst the finest in the world. After an entirely forgettable tenure, gentleman has pushed the envelope beyond what propriety can accept. Not a good day for the judiciary.
How Gogoi came out unscathed out of sexual harrassment charge still remains mystery.
The RBI needs to proceed with both caution and patience. This crisis has just started, it is not going away any time soon. At the moment, it is difficult to judge how deep the gash to economic growth will be. For China, a contraction of about 9% in the second quarter – the first time since 1976 – perhaps 5% for the US. According to some commentators, this could be worse than 2008. 2. Governor Das should conserve his gunpowder. The US Fed made two emergency rate cuts of 50 and 100 basis points which have in fact unnerved the markets. It is down to zero. Is offering $ 700 billion of bond buying support. The US government is planning to ask for a $ 850 billion fiscal support programme. Even as it was running a $ 1 trillion fiscal deficit when the economy was doing well. 3. The government should now focus on the economy to the exclusion of all else.