DLRC organises Surjit Das Memorial Lecture
By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun, 8 Feb: Doon Library and Research Centre organised the Second Surjit Kishore Das Memorial Lecture in its premises, here, today. It is instituted in memory of SK Das, a former Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand and a mentor to the institution. The topic for this year’s lecture was Public Interest Litigation as a Tool of Social Change: The Civil Society Experience. It was delivered by Dr Vipul Mudgal, who heads Common Cause India, known for its high-impact PILs, and is a trustee of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a reputed election watchdog. Dr Mudgal is also a former Editor of Hindustan Times in Jaipur and Lucknow and a BBC journalist in London and Delhi.
Delivering the lecture, Dr Mudgal said that ruling governments may have disdain for civil society, but social change often comes from democratic interventions made by independent organisations. He said public interest litigations or PILs are a great example of citizen interventions. He cited many examples including the revocation of the Electoral Bonds Scheme and the landmark Supreme Court judgments in the matters of 2G Spectrum and Coal Block allocations. Common Cause and ADR were among the petitioners in these cases. Thanks to a PIL filed 25 years ago, the voters know about the criminal antecedents, financial assets, and educational qualifications of candidates contesting elections, he said. There is no meaning of ‘free and fair elections without transparency’, he said.
Dr Mudgal said terms like ‘PILs’ and ‘judicial activism’ gained currency in post-emergency Indian politics when the spotlight was on civil liberties. He said the imposition of emergency in India was an example of institutional failure and India cannot afford a repeat of such a failure. And that is why, he added, one of the biggest challenges in today’s India is to defend and strengthen the judiciary and independent institutions. He said the future of Democracy hinges on citizen participation, regardless of ideologies, and that civil society interventions are vital to secure constitutional values and good governance.
Defining civil society as a platform for citizen participation, Dr Mudgal said it occupies the space between family, state and the market. He said civil society must rise above narrow politics of ideologies and work for a morally grounded vision as espoused by the Czech poet, playwright and dissident, Vaclav Havel. He said Havel’s call for civility in social relations was particularly relevant in today’s time of mutual mistrust.
Dr Mudgal highlighted two public health PILs filed by Common Cause, one about the citizens’ right to die with dignity through a “Living Will” and the other about a complete ban on the unsafe and unethical business of human blood by unlicensed shops. It is due to a PIL that today citizens can deny unwanted medical intrusions by writing an advance medical directive, should they be terminally ill. He said the impact of the PIL on the business of human blood was so huge that today the storage, disposal and distribution of blood is subject to strict regulation and statutory provisions monitored by autonomous councils.
Dr Mudgal ended with a note of caution that the PILs are vital but not sufficient for continuous social change. He cited the example of the Char Dham Highway Development Project in Uttarakhand which continues to threaten the fragile ecology of the Himalayas despite multiple PILs filed by citizens and civil society organisations. He reminded the audience that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
Apart from a strong civil society, Dr Mudgal said, social change requires an impartial judiciary, a vibrant media, a conscious citizenry and an ecology of enabling laws for whistleblower protection, RTI, and accountability in governance.
At the beginning of the lecture, a humble tribute was paid to Surjit Das by garlanding his portrait. Advisor and Chairman of Doon Library and Research Centre, Prof BK Joshi in his welcome address highlighted the contribution made by Surjit Das in the founding of Doon Library. He said that the late Das was not only an efficient administrator but also an intellectual and social thinker as well as a very sensitive person. On this occasion, a book of English poems of Surjit Das was also launched.
Programme advisor Nicholas Hofland also read two of his poems. On this occasion, former Principal Secretary, Uttarakhand Government, Vibha Puri Das, social thinker and writer Geeta Sehgal also expressed their views. The programme was coordinated by Gandhian thinker Biju Negi.
On this occasion, many social thinkers, writers, litterateurs, social workers, library members and young readers of the city including Vijay Shankar Shukla, Himanshu Ahuja, Chandrashekhar Tewari, Vijay Bhatt, Col SS Rautela, JB Goel, Megha, Sundar S Bisht and Jagdish S Mahar were also present.
