Union minister of law Kiren Rijiju on Monday said that anyone who attempts to discredit India and its institution will never succeed.
The comments come in wake of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attacking Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and accusing him of attempting to defame and denigrate India on foreign soil after the latter’s speech at Cambridge.
Addressing the inaugural session of the 23rd edition of the Commonwealth Law Conference which began on Monday in Goa, Rijiju said, “If anybody tries to discredit the Indian system, Indian democracy, Indian institutions, he will never succeed. As a country of 1.4 billion people, India will have to play a critical role in not only within the committee of nations in the commonwealth but across the globe”.
Gandhi, as a visiting fellow at the Cambridge Judge Business School, alleged that the Indian democracy is under attack and called for new thinking to promote a democratic environment globally as opposed to a coercive one. Delivering lecture on “Learning to Listen in the 21st Century”, the former Congress president listed five key aspects of the alleged attack on Indian democracy — capture and control of media and judiciary; surveillance and intimidation; coercion by federal law enforcement agencies; attacks on minorities, Dalits and tribals; and shutting down of dissent.
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Rijiju stressed on the need to respect the mandate of the people.
“We must respect the mandate of the people — which follows due process of law — at any cost. This cannot be challenged by a smear campaign. I’ve seen in recent times that in the name of freedom of expression, attempts are being made to attack democracy itself,” Rijiju said.
“I can assure this august house, in India, democracy cannot be overthrown because Indians are inherently democratic. There was an attempt in 1975 when the emergency was imposed, but the people of India resisted fiercely and rule of law, the constitutional law prevailed and it will prevail forever to come,” he added.
Rijiju also stressed on the need “for a clear-cut separation of powers between the judiciary, executive and legislature.”
“If any wing tries to encroach on the territory of another wing, that must be fiercely resisted because that poses great danger to democracy itself. If the legislature, executive or judiciary tries to overstep, it must be a concern for everybody. It is not one wing. It is for all to come together,” he added.
Rijiju also spoke of his government’s efforts to reduce the pendency of cases in the country.
“We want there to be a reduction in the pendency of cases. It is staggering to see more than 4.90 crore cases (49 million) cases pending in various courts of India. It is not easy to reduce the pendency in Indian courts simply because the new cases are more than double the cases being disposed off. Indian judges are working extraordinarily hard, but it is becoming more challenging as the days go by,” he said.
“In normal circumstances in India, every judge handles 50-60 cases a day. In the last few years, some of the judges have disposed of more than 200 cases in a day,” he said.
“Our ultimate target is to make the Indian judiciary completely paperless. There’s no alternative to face the challenges of the rising pendency of cases. We are also exploring alternative dispute redressal mechanisms, especially arbitration, and mediation. The mediation bill is pending in Parliament now, intensely being scrutinised by the parliamentary standing committee. I hope, we will be able to push through the mediation bill really soon. So that both mediation and arbitration is completely institutionalised in our country. Because we are so used to moving in a kind of ad hoc arbitration and mediation,” he said.
