Handling of judges list was assault on democracy: Abhishek Singhvi

Congress spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Abhishek Manu Singhvi has said the recent events leading to Gopal Subramanium asking for his name to be withdrawn from the nomination list for Supreme Court judges showed “vendetta politics” and was an “assault on the independence of the judiciary.” He added that the Supreme Court should have reiterated its recommendation and stood up against such an assault. “It is a sad day for Indian democracy,” he said.

Speaking to Business Line on the sidelines of an event here, he said while a month was not enough to judge the new government’s performance, the period was marked by “a mad scramble to remove governors, a mess up of the Gopal Subramanium case, reversal of UPA-initiated schemes without regard for merit and the rail-fare hike.”

He said the Gopal Subramanium issue indicated a misuse of the CBI and the IB.

“The real reason is simple. Anyone who disagrees with Mr Modi’s stand should be hounded or punished,” he said.

On the Modi government seeking dismissal of UPA-appointed governors he said, “The principle is you cannot remove governors unless there is a specific valid cause or reason. It cannot be according to one’s whims and fancies. It is clear that the Modi sarkar is doing this because of ‘pure imagination’ and only because it wants to accommodate BJP persons.”

When it was pointed out that the UPA too had removed BJP-appointed governors in 2004 and was pulled up by the Supreme Court for it in 2010, Singhvi replied that the comparison was incorrect. He elaborated: “There is no doubt that all governments have moved governors but there is a difference now…The UPA did it but during the UPA’s time the judgment was not there. Now the judgment is there. And everyone is obliged to follow it.”

Asked about the IB report on foreign funding of NGOs he said: “I think a blanket approach and generalisations are bad…Unless and until I see that part of the report which talks in specifics about a particular NGO, I am not prepared to castigate all NGOs as bad.” He added that if the IB has mentioned particular NGOs, the government is within its power to act against them.

The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (2010) was passed during the UPA II. And when protests against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant were at their peak, the UPA government had raised questions on funding of the NGOs behind the protest.

Defending the previous government’s action, Singhvi said the UPA did not “distrust NGOs in general.” However, he added: “Kundankulam stands on a different footing. It is a national atomic energy project. NGOs did try to sabotage it and I have no hesitation in saying: NGO opposition to Kudankulam was anti-national.”