It’s one India, SC ends son of the soil debate

Apex Court Says Every Indian Has The Right To Settle Anywhere In The Country
PTI NEW DELHI
IN AN apparent rebuff to Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on the issue of North Indians, the Supreme Court on Friday asserted that every Indian has the right to settle anywhere in the country. “India is not an association or confederation of states, it is a union of states and there is only one nationality that is Indian. Hence every Indian has right to go anywhere in India, to settle anywhere, and work and do business of his choice in any part of India peacefully,” a bench of justices HK Sema and Markandey Katju remarked.

The apex court deplored the growing tendency of some sections in indulging in violence on issues that they differed on. “These days unfortunately, some people seems to be perpetually on the fuse, and are willing to protest, often violently, about anything under the sun on the ground that a book or painting or film has hurt the sentiments of their community,” justice Katju, writing the judgement, observed. The apex court said such tendencies leading to Balkanisation of the country should be curbed with an iron hand.

“We are one nation and must respect each other and should have tolerance,” the bench said. Quoting Tamil poet Subramaniam Bharti, the apex court said, “This Bharat Mata has.... crores of faces! But her body is one. She speaks 18 languages! But her thought is one.”

The apex court made the stinging observations while upholding the Gujarat government’s decision to ban sale of meat for nine days during a Jain festival. The apex court during hearing of a petition against Raj Thackeray on his controversial remarks regarding North Indians had said it would not allow the Balkanisation of the country and would also not accept the ‘son of the soil’ theory.

According to the petition in the present case, the said ban on sale of meat was ordered by the Ahmedabad municipal corporation for nine days between August 19 to 26, 1998 in connection with the “Paryushan” festival observed by the Digambar sect of the Jain community. However, the Gujarat High Court struck down the ban as unconstitutional after the Mirzapur Moti Kuresh Jamat, an umbrella organisation of slaughter houses, challenged the ban. The high court quashed the ban on the ground that it violated Article 19(1)(g) which guaranteed every citizen fundamental right to practice any trade. A division bench of the high court which passed the order held the view that eating vegetarian or non vegetarian food was a private affair and hence the court should not make any pronouncement about it.
Taken from http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Daily/skins/ET/navigator.asp?Daily=ETH&login=default