Quotes from Prashant Bhushan

The rule of law is the most basic principle on which our Constitution is based.

No public servant or legislator can claim any privacy to take money for conducting their official functions.

It does not take much technical knowledge to understand why the interlinking of rivers is an absurd idea and a ruinous project.

When a few people control the bulk of money, they can not only influence elections by money power - which enables various forms of advertising and propaganda campaigns - they can also corrupt and misuse all institutions of the state to influence elections.

I said that there is considerable alienation among the people of Kashmir which is primarily because of the human rights excesses by the security forces in Kashmir and the impunity from prosecution given to them by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

The wide and unregulated power of contempt given to the courts has been deliberately interpreted by the courts in a manner which has served to intimidate the media from exposing corruption and misbehaviour by the courts and judges.

Man's endeavour to cross even the most difficult terrain with railway lines has produced some of the most stunning marvels of engineering of the modern age.

Far from curbing terror, we find that draconian laws used by a corrupt and communal police are creating conditions which will only exacerbate the problem.

Implementation of reforms within the Police and Intelligence agencies should certainly improve security and reduce terror attacks. But that will not eliminate the problem. Israel, with the most efficient intelligence, security and police has not been able to eliminate the problem, despite the small size of the country.

No amount of intelligence or security can stop terrorists who are willing to give up their lives. They can only be stopped if their motivation is eliminated.

Eventually, understanding the motivations of the terrorists and dealing with the injustices that pervade our society, and repairing the institutions of justice, particularly the police and the judiciary, will be a much more effective way of fighting terror, than laws which give more draconian powers to corrupt and insensitive police organisations.

In order to keep the judiciary independent of the executive, the constitution provided impeachment as the only method for disciplining errant judges.

If public servants are freely allowed to take up lucrative post retirement jobs with companies to whom they have awarded contracts while they were in government, it would open up an easy way for companies to bribe public servants by offering them lucrative post retirement jobs.

The illegitimate money made by corrupt public servants and the power that it gives them is then also used to perpetuate them in office. This corrupt money is one of the main factors responsible for the continued reelection of such politicians. They become masters of the people they are supposed to serve.

The retention of the power to punish for contempt for acts of speech alone, which do not directly interfere with the administration of justice, has removed the last shred of accountability of the higher judiciary in the country.

During Manmohan Singh's formative years, it was a matter of great pride to be called to the Indian Civil Service for serving the Empire.

Bringing accountability to the judiciary must be preceded by frank public discussion and debate. Unfortunately that cannot get started with the threat of contempt looming over people.

The U.S. diplomacy in trying to bring around small-undecided nations to support its resolution to attack Iraq has been marked by threats and blandishments. The blandishments held out are a piece of the pie of the post-war reconstruction of Iraq.

When the entire administration of the state connives with the perpetrators of violence to thwart justice at every step, clearly there is no rule of law in that state.

Those is power being largely corrupt, recognize that a non functional and corrupt judiciary will allow them to escape punishment even when they get caught.

Joseph Stiglitz was the chief economist of the World Bank for three years till January 2000. Before that he was the chairman of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers. No one can speak more authoritatively or with greater inside knowledge about the functioning of the Washington consensus institutions.

Though all soft drinks are acidic, dark ones like Coke and Pepsi are the most acidic and it has been found that it takes 32 glasses of high PH alkaline water to neutralize a glass of cola. So acidic are some of these drinks that they can be and are often used to clean corrosion of car battery terminals, and can even be used to clean toilet bowls.

Unless there is a strong movement of citizens, who are the consumers of justice, we are hardly likely to see any serious judicial reforms in this country.

One should at least have some self-righteous ego. Not in the sense that you refuse to apologise even when judges reason with you to apologise. Self-righteous ego in the sense that nobody can force you to apologise if there is no reason to do so.