Epic fail

In its attempt to target a rival by going after the CJI, Opposition has scored a self-goal

Let's for a minute look at the initiation of the process to remove the Chief Justice of India — termed impeachment in popular parlance and rejected at the threshold itself on Monday by the Vice-President of India who is the Constitutional authority tasked to take a call on the issue — by the Congress-led Opposition from their point of view. Let us also be realistic and discount the rhetoric and bombast about preserving democracy, the rule of law and other such noble intentions which all political parties whether national or regional indulge in at periodic intervals when they can see the potential for political mileage. Because it is clear to even the most casual observer that the target of the Opposition's move against the CJI Dipak Misra was the ruling BJP in general and the party president Amit Shah in particular. Whether it is the so-called “doubts” over the genuineness of suspected terrorist Sohrabuddin Shiekh's killing in a police encounter or the “suspicions” expressed at the natural death of the CBI court judge hearing the case or indeed the reference by the radical justices of the apex court to bench allocation to hear the plea for an independent probe into the judge's death in their infamous Press conference, the Opposition's target is one man. That's par for the course, unfortunately, given what was meant to be an adversarial form of democratic politics in India after she gained her Independence has long since degenerated into vicious enmity between competing political forces — who started it and when is a debate for elsewhere. But even looked at in that rubric, the Opposition must to ask itself: Has the move to impeach the CJI helped them get any further in achieving their political objective of discrediting Amit Shah?

The short answer to that question is: No. In fact, if anything, even neutrals are questioning the targeting, indeed maligning, of Shah by the Congress as a result of their impeachment labours. And remember, they tried it on and failed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi too over the Gujarat riots. Public memory while short is not so short as to forget a defamatory narrative against political opponents twice over in a relatively short span coinciding with the electoral rise of the party that is helmed by the two leaders mentioned. Forget the legal issues involved for a moment; even as a vicious and cynical political tactic, the Opposition's move has backfired.