"Don't Lay Your Liberties At Feet Of A Great Man": Chief Justice Gogoi
New Delhi, Nov 26: Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi today underscored the primacy of the Constitution and warned that to preserve democracy and the country's institutions, the constitutional liberties must be safeguarded.
"We must observe the caution which (British political economist) John Stuart Mill has given to all who are interested in maintenance of democracy, namely not to lay their liberties at the feet of even a great man. Or to trust him with power which enables him to subvert their institutions," the Chief Justice said at an event to mark Constitution Day. "There is nothing wrong in being grateful to a great man who has rendered life-long services to the country. But there are limits to gratefulness," he added.
The Constitution Day, marking the adoption of the constitution in 1950, is "inextricably entwined" in our lives and it is in our best interest to pay attention to its advice, the Chief Justice said. "If we do not, our hubris will result in sharp descent into chaos," he said.
His warning comes amid Congress allegations of subversion of institutes by the government, which have been sharpened after the recent crisis at the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Over the last year, the Congress and the BJP have levelled tit-for-tat political attacks, accusing each other of failing to uphold the Constitution.
In April, following a spate of attacks on people from the Scheduled Castes, the Congress had launched a year-long "Save the Constitution" campaign.
Hours later, BJP chief Amit Shah accused the Congress of trampling on the Constitution for 60 years. The Congress, he said, had also tried to impeach the Chief Justice of India and accused the party of attacking every institution, including the national auditor CAG, the Election Commission, the Army and the Supreme Court at different points of time.
Over the last few months, the Congress has alleged that the BJP-led government was tearing apart the judiciary, the Election Commission, the CBI and the Reserve Bank.
Courtesy: www.ndtv.com
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
