Congress party chief Rahul Gandhi. (Express photo by Anil Sharma/Files)
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit out at the NDA government over huge pendency of cases in courts and shortage of judges, and accused Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad of “peddling fake news.” His attack came after Prasad accused the Congress of hiring the services of controversial data firm Cambridge Analytica, accused of harvesting data stolen from Facebook, in previous elections. The Congress had countered the charges saying it was the BJP that had hired the firm for elections.
In a series of tweets, Gandhi said while the number of cases pending in the courts were rising, the Law Minister was busy peddling fake news. “Legal system collapsing under Pending Cases: Supreme Court 55,000+, High Court 37 Lakh+, Lower Courts 2.6 Crore+. Yet, a staggering 400 High Court and 6,000 Lower Court judges not appointed, while Law Minister preoccupied peddling fake news,” he tweeted.
Reacting sharply to Rahul’s accusation, Prasad also tweeted that the data claiming the hiring of high court judges had actually increased during the NDA regime as compared with the UPA tenure. “Average appointments of High Court Judges under UPA-1 was 86 per year, and in UPA-2 it was 79 per year. Under NDA it has been 109 per year,” he posted.
“Mr Rahul Gandhi, the notice given to Cambridge Analytica for Data Manipulation has naturally worried you. Angry, frustrated and apprehensive, you are now dragging the judiciary. Deeply reprehensible,” Prasad tweeted.