Brazen impudence

Emboldened by Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s tirade against the judiciary, two BJP MPs have brazenly targeted this vital pillar of the State whose role is to uphold the Constitution and ensure justice. Referring to the Supreme Court’s order setting a deadline for granting assent to Bills, former UP Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma declared that “no one can challenge the President, as the President is supreme.” Nishikant Dubey, who represents Jharkhand’s Godda constituency in the Lok Sabha, disturbingly upped the ante — he said Parliament and state Assemblies should be shut if the Supreme Court took it upon itself to make laws. He didn’t even spare Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, holding him responsible for “civil wars” in the country. Stooping to a new low in no time, Dubey accused former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi of being a “Muslim commissioner”.

Both BJP leaders have shown that they are more loyal than the king. And their ‘loyalty’ seems to have been rewarded. The saffron party has merely given them a rap on the knuckles, while distancing itself from their “personal comments”. The BJP has also affirmed its respect for the judiciary as an inseparable part of democracy. But this assertion will remain unconvincing unless exemplary action is taken against the erring duo.

The BJP top brass had not exactly covered itself in glory when it let rabble-rousing MP Pragya Singh Thakur run riot. Pragya caused a furore in 2019 when she called Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse a ‘deshbhakt’. All that the party did was to issue a showcause notice and remove her from a parliamentary panel. She apologised in the Lok Sabha twice, and the dust settled in due course, just as the BJP-led government had expected. A similar outcome this time would be very unfortunate, considering that Dubey and Sharma have crossed a huge red line. It’s a clear-cut case of contempt of court — and also contempt for the Constitution — and they should not be spared.

Editorials