The Congress on Thursday said “the law has to be applied in an even-handed, fair, balanced manner” in the contempt case against advocate Prashant Bhushan, who has been held guilty by the Supreme Court.

At a virtual press conference, Congress spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Abhishek Singhvi also raised issues such as recession, decline in the GDP and joblessness and asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not talk about these issues in his speeches at the Red Fort or on television.

“The law has to be applied in an even-handed, fair, balanced manner. The concerns raised by those after the judgment are certainly not in any manner false, frivolous or vexatious and certainly. They cannot be dismissed off hand,” he said.

Though the party was yet to adopt any ‘formal resolution’ on the contempt case, the issues raised in public domain deserved careful examination. “They deserve a lot of careful thinking because they include former judges of that very court, they include precedents and the basic spirit of law now that the Supreme Court’s chest is larger than any other in India...Today itself there is a fourth facet that it shiuld be considered by a larger bench and the speed is also very worrying,” he stated.

Economic scenario

Talking about the economy, the Congress said the total job loss was just under 2 crore (1.9 crore) in July and the GDP, which was 4.2 in 2019-20 before COVID-19, would become zero going by the World Bank warnings on contraction of economy post the pandemic.

“This government cannot be a ‘Ram bharose’ government, because even Ram helps only those who help themselves. I want to ask why our Prime Minister, who is such a great orator, does not talk about employment and the issue of economic decline, which are crucial,” Mr. Singhvi said.

IPL sponsorship

The party also lodged its protest against the main official sponsor of IPL, Dream 11, because of substantial Chinese investment in the company and asked if IPL was ‘exempt’ from respecting national sentiments with regard to Chinese companies because ‘powerful people’ from Gujarat were associated with IPL.

CPI general secretary D Raja, commenting on Mr. Bhushan’s case, said, “Today what happened in Supreme Court shows the courage and commitment of Prashant Bhushan. People should revisit the views of Dr B.R. Amdedkar on judiciary and the Supreme Court. The integrity and credibility of the judiciary must be upheld. Just as people demand executice accountability, pople also demand judicial accountabliy”.