Oppn motion seeking CJI’s removal 'despicable attempt' to weaken democratic institutions: Amit Shah

NEW DELHI: BJP chief Amit Shah on Monday said the motion brought by Congress and other parties seeking the CJI’s removal was a “despicable attempt” to weaken the country’s democratic institutions.

Mocking Rahul Gandhi over his attack on PM Narendra Modi, Shah dismissed the ‘Save the Constitution’ campaign, launched by the Congress chief on Monday, as a “farce” and said it was actually a campaign to perpetuate the Nehru-Gandhi family’s rule.

“The so-called campaign to save democracy is not just a ploy to mislead people but a comical one at that. History since independence is replete with examples of Congress mangling constitutional institutions of the country to protect the interests of one family,” he said.

In a hard-hitting statement that came on a day when Congress kicked off its ‘Save the Constitution’ campaign and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu rejected a notice to remove CJI Dipak Misra, Shah said the “irresponsible action” came as a reminder of the effort by Congress to control the judiciary before and after Emergency.

“Congress superseded three SC judges — Justices G MShelat, K S Hegde and A N Grover — to appoint A N Roy as the CJI and the then law minister justified the unconstitutional act by declaring that government needed to factor in the philosophy and outlook of the individual before deciding who should head the Supreme Court. Clearly, by ‘philosophy and outlook’, he meant commitment to the Nehru-Gandhi family,” Shah wrote in his blog.

Stating that Congress also superseded Justice H R Khanna to make “family loyalist” M H Beg the CJI, Shah said the party had not even spared the Army chief or the Army itself as it demanded proof of surgical strikes carried out on Pakistan in retaliation against the killing of jawans.

In an apparent reference to the SC rejecting pleas to put off hearing in the Ayodhya case until after the 2019 polls and rejecting a probe into the death of judge B H Loya, the BJP chief said “everyone knows” the reasons for which the judiciary has “invited the wrath of Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty” but refused to get into that.

Shah said Congress attacked the CAG when the federal auditor exposed mega scams under the UPA, and responded to the run of its defeats in elections by attacking the Election Commission and EVMs.

He also accused Congress of dismissing opposition-run governments in states, and of suppressing its opponents.