Justice Rajindar Sachar will be most-remembered for having Chaired a committee constituted by the Government of India to document the social and economic condition of Muslims in India. The committee’s report documented their poor condition in devastating detail and included a host of suggestions about the sorts of initiatives that ought to be taken to improve the situation. The report did substantially begin to be implemented while the country was under the leadership of the Congress Party. However, sadly, under the rule of Prime Minister Modi, has gone from bad to terrible: with official support and the covert mobilisation of unemployed youth, Muslims are routinely pilloried, vilified, discriminated against, and even physically attacked.
Muslims were not the only community for whose rights Justice Sachar struggled. He attempted to secure justice for the victims of the anti-Sikh riots in 1984. Indeed, he worked hard all his life to fight corruption and executive over-reach, and to protect the rights of the poor and the disadvantaged.
As In Pursuit of Justice puts elegantly, Justice Sachar was “a great jurist who was an even greater human being. … a socialist, an egalitarian, a defender of civil liberties, a deeply engaged citizen of India, and, above all, a humanist. A man who believed in standing for the last man in the line, he was ‘armed’ with a moral compass that never wavered. Born into an influential family from Lahore in 1923, he witnessed the pain of Partition. Yet, amazingly, he never bore any animosity towards Pakistan or its people. Son of Bhimsen Sachar, a prominent Congressman and Gandhian in pre-Partition Punjab and Chief Minister of Punjab post-1947, Rajindar did not disclose his famous surname during his early life to ensure people would not give him special treatment. He joined the Delhi High Court in 1970 but was transferred out of Delhi for voicing his opposition to the Emergency. During those dark days he shared a close bond with Justice H.R. Khanna, the lone voice of dissent in a Supreme Court that chose to side with Indira Gandhi. Brought back to Delhi after the Emergency, he rose to become the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. Post-retirement, Sachar helmed the People’s Union for Civil Liberties for many years. … his fight to preserve the secular fabric of India continued till the day he died. His autobiography comes at a critical time when India’s democracy is under siege from within.”
It is so very appropriate to have the autobiography of such a man as our Book of the Month for December, during which the human rights and civil society festivals of Christmas and Hanukkah are celebrated.
For some curious reason, the formal though virtual launch of In Pursuit of Justice is scheduled on Tuesday, 22 December 2020 at 5.00 p.m. with a discussion moderated by Rajdeep Sardesai, and featuring Justice (Retd.) Madan B. Lokur, Kapil Sibal, Mukul Rohatgi & Medha Patkar.
However, In Pursuit of Justice can be ordered from Bookshop
