So Ham-Handed and desperate for representatives of any stature in Assam has the Congress(I) become that it has jettisoned all concern for decorum and dignity in the loftiest institution of the land, the Supreme Court. Exactly four weeks after he delivered a judgment that granted Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra a reprieve from trial for forgery and criminal misconduct, Justice Baharul Islam tendered his resignation from the Bench to President Zail Singh.

Coming as it did on January 13, six weeks before he was due in any case to retire from his judgeship, Islam’s action detonated intense controversy in legal circles. “After I retired from the Gauhati High Court in March 1980,” Islam told INDIA TODAY, “I had spent some months trying to help solve the Assam crisis. Today I feel Assam is in a difficult situation, and my services are more necessary for the people of Assam.”

There were significances galore in Islam’s move. He was an Indira Gandhi Government appointee to the Supreme Court in December 1980, nine months after his retirement from the Gauhati bench. For 10 years from April 1962, he had been a Congress member of the Rajya Sabha. The last date for filing nominations for the Assam Assembly elections is January 19, and Islam said he would be in Gauhati “within the week” although he refused to say if he was standing for election. Sources, however, indicate that he may even be put up for the chief ministership if he stands and wins. Islam believes all communities in Assam ought to live together in peace; “It is impossible to deport all the foreigners,” he says, “and nor will the elections be peaceful. I know where my duty lies. I am a staunch believer in the Bhagavad Gita.”

—Chaitanya Kalbag

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