Union law minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday alleged that calibrated attempts were being made to tell the world that Indian democracy and judicial system are in crisis and spoke out against social media “abuses” against judges.
“I find that there are calibrated attempts being made from inside and outside the country…There are attempts being made to speak in forums inside India and outside India that the Indian judiciary is in crisis. The message which is being sent is that Indian democracy is in crisis,” Rijiju said, addressing ‘Nyaya-Yajna,’ the first conference of the central government counsels of eastern states, in Bhubaneswar.
The law minister’s comment came after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his speech at Cambridge University alleged that Indian democracy is under attack and Parliament, media and judiciary were getting constrained in the country. Rijiju, however, did not name anyone in his comments.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused Gandhi of tarnishing India’s image at a global platform and stooping low to destroy the country’s fabric. “You (Gandhi) are not a bright kid doesn’t mean that India is not in a bright spot. India is bright and India is doing good,” BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said in New Delhi on Saturday.
The Congress hit back at the BJP saying that Gandhi has always stood for and espouses the causes of the common man and that the counts on which the BJP has been attacking their leader were rather, baseless. “That video will widen your (BJP) world view and it may make you understand what the values are on the basis of which our country is built,” Congress spokesperson Supriya Srinate said.
The ruling party and the government had also recently come at loggerheads with the BBC over a documentary criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Hungarian-American businessman George Soros over his controversial comments on Indian democracy.
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Speaking on the judiciary, Rijiju said, “It is unfortunate that there are abuses on social media platforms against judges. It is welcome if the government is criticised but it is definitely not a good sign when the judiciary is subjected to some kind of criticism. The judiciary must be far away from public criticism,” he said.
“I have never seen even a single person of India who says that he will not abide by Indian laws or I have never come across anybody in the country that he will say that he would not follow the court order. Indians are inherently democratic, which is why we proudly claim that we are the mother of democracy in the world. The US may say they are the oldest democracy, but India truly is the mother of democracy. No campaign whatsoever with ulterior motives can succeed in defaming India and its democratic set-ups,” the minister added.
On judicial appointments, he said, “The opinion of executive and opinion of judiciary differ at time. There may be differences within the judiciary. There could be differences in opinion between two judges on the same bench. Differences may come when we say Judges’ appointments cannot be done by judicial order. This was the stand taken by the government because the Constitution says so. But this does not mean that the government is disregarding the judiciary. There are misinterpretations.”
Batting for stringent laws in the country, Rijiju said, “When we want to make India a safe and secure place, we have to make stringent laws. Without that freedom will not exist. As long as we have a secured boundary and as long as we have a strong State, all the things guaranteed in Constitution will prevail. Otherwise, there will be complete lawlessness.”
“In the name of freedom, if everybody runs freely where will be the law and order and discipline in the society? We have to make our society full of provisions that make it fully secure. Security does not just come like that. One has to sacrifice many things for coming to shape. Even for a sportsperson or bodybuilder, one has to really sweat out and sacrifice to get a shape. In a similar fashion, to guarantee individual freedom, rights, and liberty, we have to sacrifice many things,” he said.
On the issue of repealing obsolete laws Rijiju said once Parliament reconvenes, 65 acts, including eight principal acts, 16 amendment acts, and 41 appropriation acts would be repealed. “We are making efforts to repeal all obsolete and redundant laws. So far, 1486 of such laws have been repealed,” he said.