New Delhi, July 26 (UNI) The Congress today slammed the BJP, accusing it of double standards by showing “selective outrage” and maintaining “selective silence” in it handling of judicial issues.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi questioned the “silence” of the BJP and the government on matters related to Justice Varma and justice Yadav.
“This is typical of the BJP’s double standard and yet another example of the BJP and the Modi government’s theatre of the absurd. The BJP’s game of motions is less about law and more about optics — a desperate dance to distract and dominate. It’s a petty game, revealing their obsession with dominance,” the senior Supreme Court lawyer said.
Stating that former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s perceived display of independence may have led to political repercussions, Singhvi said, “It appears that Dhankhar’s display of some minimal independence, possibly belatedly, was his real mistake, and no other mistake”.
“In this climate of selective outrage and politicised morality, we must also ask both the former Vice President and the Government of India to explain their continuing eloquent silence on Justice Yadav,” the Rajya Sabha MP said, calling for a transparency.
Singhvi further accused the government of attempting to deflect attention from serious constitutional processes related to allegations against Justice Varma.
Singhvi stated that on July 21, Congress and several other parties had moved a decisive constitutional motion in the Rajya Sabha, citing multiple improprieties by Justice Varma. The motion also called for the formation of a statutory inquiry committee, as required by law, and had the signatures of 63 Rajya Sabha MPs. In addition, a similar motion in the Lok Sabha had garnered the support of 152 MPs.
“When Mr Jagdeep Dhankhar, the former Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, asked the Law Minister whether the second motion had been moved in the Lok Sabha, Mr Meghwal replied in the affirmative,” Singhvi said.
“But yesterday, a former Law Minister, Kiren Rijiju, was dispensing wisdom, claiming that no motion had been admitted in the Rajya Sabha at all,” the senior Congress leader said.
“There’s no doubt in anyone familiar with parliamentary affairs that Mr Dhankhar intended to make the motion the property of the House that day and clearly proceed further with it in collaboration with the Lok Sabha,” Singhvi asserted.
Calling the current controversy a distraction, Singhvi said, “Today, all this drama is being staged for what? The Modi government is insecure because it can’t control the narrative.”
Accused the Modi government of undermining democratic institutions, Singhvi said, “This is about the very architecture of our democracy. When power intoxicates the ruling regime to the point where it’s prepared to institutionally sabotage its own Rajya Sabha Chairman, democracy is imperiled”.
“The Modi government has shown today, that no institution is safe — not Parliament, not the judiciary, not even the chair of the Upper House. This is governance by dictatorship, governance by tantrum, governance not by law,” he said.
