New Delhi:
The landmark and important Supreme Court order a few hours ago over the country’s colonial-era sedition law has already sparked a war of words between the ruling BJP and the opposition congress. In a series of tweets, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju called Congress “the antithesis of freedom, democracy and respect for institutions” after Rahul Gandhi, former head of Congress and Wayanad MP, laughed at the Center for “telling the truth crushed”.
The controversial sedition bill will be suspended while the government reviews it, the court said today, allowing those detained for sedition to go to court for bail. The Center had objected to the suspension of the law, arguing that it would review the law and allow a police officer of the Superintendent’s level or above to decide whether to file a sedition charge in the meantime.
Rahul Gandhi immediately took to Twitter to share the news as he trained his weapons on the BJP-led union government, without naming anyone.
“Speaking the truth is patriotism, not betrayal. Speaking the truth is love of the nation, not betrayal. Listening to the truth is the duty to the nation. Crushing the truth is arrogance to the nation,” he wrote in Hindi while the news.
,
देश प्रेम है, नहीं।है,
है।— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 11, 2022
Mr Rijiju lunged at Mr Gandhi, pointing to instances where the great old party and its celebrated leaders were less than examples of free speech.
“Empty words by @RahulGandhi If there is one party that is the antithesis of freedom, democracy and respect for institutions, it is the Indian National Congress.”
This party has always stood behind the Breaking India forces and left no chance to divide India,” the minister tweeted, citing Gandhi’s joke.
Empty words by @RahulGandhi
If there is one party that is the antithesis of freedom, democracy and respect for institutions, it is the Indian National Congress.
This party has always been behind the Breaking India forces and has not left any chance of dividing India. https://t.co/Rajl1pG2v8
— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) May 11, 2022
He then went on to mention the First Amendment to the Constitution tabled by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. It sought to limit fundamental rights to protect against “abuse of freedom of expression and expression”. Mr Rijiju also said that Mr Nehru had dismissed the elected government of Kerala.
He then referred to the imposition of a state of emergency by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, often using Article 356 that gives the Center control over states, and her attempts to weaken the judiciary.
And
When it comes to trampling on the freedom of expression, Ms. Indira Gandhi Ji is a gold medal winner! We all know about the state of emergency, but do you also know that she has imposed Article 356 more than 50 times! She came up with the idea of a “Committed Judiciary” to weaken the Judiciary, our 3rd pillar!— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) May 11, 2022
He continued his scathing attack in subsequent tweets, also pointing out that “it was Indira Gandhi’s government that made Section 124A a recognizable crime for the first time in India’s history”.
In more recent examples, he targeted the former Congress secretary in the UPA P Chidambaram, who said it has “the worst track record of filing sedition cases”.
Immediately after the order, Mr Rijiju had said, while “respecting the court and its independence”, there is a “Lakshman Rekha” that cannot be crossed.
“We have made our positions very clear and also informed the court of the intention of our Prime Minister (Prime Minister Narendra Modi). We respect the court and its independence. But there is a ‘Lakshman Rekha’ which has been written to letter by all the organs of the state and spirit. We must ensure that we respect the provisions of the Indian Constitution and existing laws,” the justice minister told reporters.
“We respect each other, the court must respect the government and the legislature, just as the government should also respect the court. We have a clear boundary and that Lakshman Rekha should not be crossed by anyone,” added Mr Rijiju.
While making the sharp remark, Mr Rijiju dodged a question as to whether he believed the Supreme Court decision was wrong.