Does the spirit of Magna-carta alive today in the desired form and degree?

Our communication with the Sr.Journalist Sh. Prasannan at 'THE WEEK' magazine, June 7th issue 

( Magazine link: http://week.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/theWeekSectionView.do?tabId=13&programId=1073755753&BV_ID=@@@)


Subject: Prasannan's cover story ' A chartered flight to liberty' , June 7th,2015 issue :

 Does the spirit of Magna-Carta alive today in the desired form and degree?

From: "Abraham Joseph"<ajoseph1@rediffmail.com> Sun, 31 May '15 12:21a

To: "prasannan@theweek.in"<prasannan@theweek.in> and others


Dear Prasannan,


Warm greetings from 'conscience of the society', the non-profit initiative at NCR,
( National capital region of Delhi) that stands for philosophical research into freedom, reason, mind and polity !

Appreciate you for bringing out this important and very relevant cover-story on Magna-Carta treaty, the first document in human-history that introduced the concept of Freedom, outside the Royal family. Your story was so exhaustive, that it read more like an extended history of Great Britain.

Though it seems your intention behind writing the said cover story was to highlight the 800th anniversary of the great Treaty, and its role as a great base for many of the important documents on freedom in the world like constitutions of many nations, including that of India, it naturally and automatically brought-out some very central facts about the eternal plight of man for genuine human-freedom !


It brought-out a fact that ( though indirectly) freedom and rights are very fragile propositions when Power
( Royal or otherwise) is present as an over-riding influence. ' Trial by law' and similar prescribed formalities remain mere rituals when Power is present in the scene as a real, all overriding force !


In one of the most interesting incidents in your story, wherein Edward-11 was killed by his wife Isabella by inserting a red-hot poker into his anus, a 'trial of law' had also took place !


Edward-111 also killed his mother's lover, of course after a similar ritual of a 'fair-trial' !


Then your story confirms that, though the Tudor King-Henry-X111 did not ever listen to parliament, the parliament ' did not dare to question him'! Means, when Power is present, tenets of rights and freedom stand null and void, or melt !


The heroic story of Sir Thomas More also was same. Even at death, he could only recite the tenets of freedom and rights, but they could never save his freedom, or life !

During Charles-1's time, both the parliament and the King had to take arms to settle the question of Freedom and rights ! Both the groups evoked the name of 'parliament' while fighting for supremacy ! It should remind us the trend of present day, wherein every political party, and even totalitarian regimes like in Communist China evoke 'PEOPLES' name when indulging in power-wars to capture the thrones, or for unleashing oppressive acts upon real people ! Peoples’ name or brand is falsely taken to avail power in their name, but to use it against him in actual act of governance ! It is the greatest fraud and self-deception of our times !

Your story clearly teaches readers another silent lesson: rights and freedom act like dew when Political or other power is present. Rights and freedom turns REAL for people, only as a 'mercy', or as chance 'weakness', or chance sense of MORALITY possessed by some ‘chance’ RULERS, at chance periods in the history of nations!

In real and concrete sense, rights and freedom are still NOT different from that in those antique days of Kings and autocrats, because, even today in modern democracies like in India, rights and freedom of common-citizens has to seep through with great-difficulty, the corridors of POWER that still remain as the chief fuel of modern DEMOCRACY !

It will always remain my luck ( the citizen’s luck) if I escape an encounter with Police during my life time, similar to my luck of not turning a direct victim of the POWER-tactics of a tax official ! If I remain a rights- activist, or a Muslim, or a Maoist ideologue, chances of such LUCK will turn half or even zero !. See the struggle for rights and freedom undertaken by Irom Sharmila of Manipur, since 2000 ,for the abolishment of the AFSPA ? ( Armed Forces Special Power Act ) She had to abandon her normal life under our welfare state, as she had to remain under home-arrest and forced nasal feeding ever-since she had started her protest !

Where is the relevance of Magna-Carta or its influence in the modern world ? If you caught talking against any reputed leader, whether it is Jayalalitha in the Southern state of Tamil Nadu where citizens treat her as semi-God, or Modi in Delhi, their cronies and devotes will see to it that you will get behind the bars for sure !

You mentioned in your story that, Coke was able to ' stir the minds of people' through his writings in 1634 , when newspapers were absent. Today, there is 24x7 printed and electronic media outlets are there to STIR the minds, but do our media STIR, or even remind people about the above calamity of FREEDOM and RIGHTS getting melted and VANISHED in the presence of Political-Power ?


They (The media) have turned partners in the business of power, with the assigned task of 'manufacturing consent", as clearly explained in our blog: http://mediaandcontentrelevance.blogspot.in/

Dear Prasannan, I politely appeal to you to utilize the convenient means already available at your disposal ( this magazine column) to write more and more, and again and again on the evil of keeping POWER as the fuel for running govts of EQUAL -MEN ! If mankind get-rid of the necessity of POWER as the fuel of RULING over people, which is the prime cause of all human violence as described at our blog: http://understandinginflationinanewlight.blogspot.in/, world could achieve a PARADIGM-shift in her intellectual, social and even spiritual direction !


Could we ever think of allowing people to enter inside the shops to pick-up their merchandise and pay later at counter till a few years ago ? See, how naturally people could adapt to FREEDOM, and behave responsibly in our uncountable Malls these days ? Think of the days wherein to meet the urgency of even for Rs.100/ -we had to approach the instant gold-loan companies a few years ago, before Credit cards have become popular. Credit cards were a similar revolution in 'believing' in the responsibility and sense of dignity of men; now, people responsibly avail such credit, and repay with equal sense of responsibility !

With govts. not infected with the mythical political Power urge, one day, similar citizen responsibility could be expected and envisioned ! Please see our blog, what should a true democracy represent to people, at link: http://anewtheoryondemocraticestablishment.blogspot.in/

Prasannan, kindly plan a cover story on FREEDOM of citizen vis-a-vis Governmental-power soon !

warm regards,

Abraham Joseph

www.conscienceofthesociety.com