{"product_id":"the-wages-of-impunity-power-justice-and-human-rights","title":"The Wages of Impunity - Power, Justice and Human Rights","description":"\u003cp\u003eAuthor: K G Kannabiran\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Orient Longman\u003cbr\u003eYear: 2004\u003cbr\u003eLanguage: English\u003cbr\u003ePages: 372\u003cbr\u003eISBN\/UPC (if available): 812502638X\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e Description\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Wages of Impunity consists of essays on human rights and civil liberties in India. Reiterating the indispensability of fundamental rights, read in the context of the Indian Constitution's Directive Principles, the essays focus on aspects such as secularism, socialism, and right to life, liberty, free speech and association. Using the Constitution as the point of departure, the author opens up the complexity of rights through incisive analyses of case law on each of these aspects.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExamining the basis of repressive legal regimes in India and their history, K G Kannabiran traces discourses on rights along multiple channels, all inextricably linked yet separate and autonomous-the courts (both the judiciary and the bar), the government, and politics (progressive and reactionary). What is particularly striking about the essays is the manner in which each addresses a distinct point of law, but all of which converge on a single point that is in fact the core of rightlessness-the habit of impunity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn one track, the book looks at the origin of preventive detention laws in the country in the context of the debates during the colonial period on the issue. Arguing that, starting from 1950, the Constitution has been interpreted by the courts in a manner that breaks the critical link between it and the aspirations of a newly liberated people, The Wages of Impunity traces the whittling down of civil liberties in the emergency, which saw the suspension of free speech and freedom of association. The book shows that the years after 1980 saw the use with impunity of preventive detention in the political and legal fabric of governance and justice delivery through the enactment and validation of a series of antiterrorist laws. On a second track, the essays look at the practices of politics-the undermining of mass struggles and left movements and the rise of right-wing nationalism. On a third track, the essays explore possible remedies to a seemingly hopeless situation. These include absolute accountability, transparency and the rule of law in institutions of governance and justice and in political praxis. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eREVIEWS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe veteran Indian human rights hero, K G Kannabiran recounts a lifetime of fighting harrowing human rights violations in India. This work describes how human rights are repeatedly violated in a society that is otherwise governed by a constitution and the rule of law. Anecdotal and didactic in turn, this volume highlights the virtue of the author's relentless integrity in the pursuit of the democratic rights of the disenfranchised. No one concerned with the future of human rights in India can ignore this eminent voice in a rapidly globalising country that is being buffeted by the forces of Hindutva.\u003cbr\u003e-Upendra Baxi, Professor of Law,  University of Warwick\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKanna, as Mr Kannabiran is known by all, is first a human being, second a fighter for true democracy, and a lawyer only third. His experiences compel him to a brutally frank view of the exent to which the constitutional vision of India has been achieved. Examining the relationships between law, violence and dominant power structures, these essays portray depth of feeling and intellectual commitment. The views expressed concerning the meaning of justice, the relationship between justice and law, the debate concerning law and violence, as well as the relationship between dominant power relations and the legal system make for serious, moving reading. Above all, they point to the possibility of a better future, Kanna truly cares.\u003cbr\u003e-Justice Zak Yacoob, Justice of the Constitutional \u003cbr\u003eCourt of South Africa\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eContents\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePREFACE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Saga of Impunity\u003cbr\u003eJustice Must be Seen to be Done\u003cbr\u003eColonial Baggage\u003cbr\u003ePersonal Liberty after Independence\u003cbr\u003eProgressive Decay of democratic Institutions \u003cbr\u003eThe State as Terrorist\u003cbr\u003eTADA: More repressive than Rowlatt\u003cbr\u003eCrime and Punishment\u003cbr\u003eThe Weird Jurisprudence of a Dead Act\u003cbr\u003eThe Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958\u003cbr\u003eA Lament for the Constitution\u003cbr\u003eWhy a Human Rights Commission?\u003cbr\u003eGranting the Freedom to Misuse Freedom: Secularism and Minority Rights\u003cbr\u003eSanjay Dutt in the First Person\u003cbr\u003eCan Anti-Secular Parties Govern?\u003cbr\u003eNarendra Modi's Hindutva Laboratory\u003cbr\u003eScheduled Castes: Who's Afraid of the Law?\u003cbr\u003eMr President, the Game was Unequal\u003cbr\u003eWe, the Other People\u003cbr\u003eCompetent but Uncommitted Judges\u003cbr\u003eWhat is Wrong with Judicial Activism?\u003cbr\u003eWhat Shall We do with Our Judiciary?\u003cbr\u003eA Code of Conduct for Judges\u003cbr\u003eOn the Selection of Judges: An Open Letter to the Chief Justice of India\u003cbr\u003eCollective Action: The Andhra Pradesh Lawyers' Strike\u003cbr\u003eGovernors and Politics\u003cbr\u003ePrivilege and Obligation\u003cbr\u003ePolitical Justice through Concerted Protest\u003cbr\u003eDefining Right as Wrong: Reflections on Associational Freedoms and Free Speech\u003cbr\u003eCoca-Cola and the Peoples War Group\u003cbr\u003eVeerappan and the Rule of Law\u003cbr\u003eThe Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee\u003cbr\u003eKoyyuru: Reflections on a Kidnap\u003cbr\u003eIn the First Person\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eList of Cases\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eList of Statutes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSelect Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The India Club","offers":[{"title":"K G Kannabiran \/ Orient Longman \/ Hardcover","offer_id":68153687540080,"sku":"13524","price":47.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1041\/5203\/9792\/files\/13524.jpg?v=1793912572","url":"https:\/\/marketcalvexa.shop\/products\/the-wages-of-impunity-power-justice-and-human-rights","provider":"Alderstone House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}