Rajasthan
If judiciary is confident of its autonomy, it is going to stick to its principles: Shashi Tharoor in Jaipur | Jaipur News
JAIPUR: Reacting to vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar‘s statement on judicial overstep, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday said that if the judiciary exists and is confident of its autonomy, it is going to stick to its principles.
Tharoor was speaking at a session on ‘Sustaining Democracy: Nurturing Democracy’ on the second day of the Jaipur Literature Festival on Friday.
Dhankhar, in his keynote address during the presiding officers’ conference in Jaipur early this month, had remarked that the Supreme Court ruling that Parliament cannot amend the basic structure of the Constitution set a bad precedent by seeking to establish judicial supremacy.
“If you want to change the basic structure of the Constitution, you have to convene a constituent assembly and write a new Constitution which I am sure nobody is contemplating doing it. We are struck with the basic structure of the Constitution unless you are over the years a more plaint judiciary that decides to undo its own doctrine. The basic structure is the doctrine of the judges not of the Constitution,” said Tharoor.
Calling the present BJP government taking autocratic steps, Tharoor said, they have been able to get away from the spirit of the Constitution on various issues while never having to declare an emergency.
“Look at the tightening of the Unlawful Activities Protection Act (UAPA) which has resulted in people thrown in jail without charge and bail. In some cases, imprisonment is up to two years as it happened with journalist Siddiqui Kappan. This raises questions about whether our Constitution has become too easy to suppress in an undemocratic way,” said Tharoor.
Responding to a question on as Parliament’s success in holding the government accountable asked by the moderator Tripurdaman Singh, Tharoor, said, “No. It was in the 50s that under our the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru that the ruling MPs could question the government. We saw the finance minister was forced to resign due to a scandal which was exposed by the Congress backbencher MP. We have seen PM having to be accountable to parliament even during the ongoing war with China. It was a different story then.”
He charged the present government to ‘notice board and rubber stamp’ for passing every bill as it comes in the form from the cabinet. “It doesn’t matter what you say in the debates which wasn’t the case in the past. As recently the UPA government, I remember that one debate on health bills in which doctors raised some important points. Our then-health minister Gulam Nabi Azad recalled the bill and come back with the appropriate amendments. You never see this happening in the BJP government,” said Tharoor.
Calling Kerala’s civil society the most democratic and powerful, Tharoor said, “I have lived in various parts of India and find Kerala civil society most civilised. It is here that the elected representatives are in no doubt that the voter as their boss.”
Tharoor was speaking at a session on ‘Sustaining Democracy: Nurturing Democracy’ on the second day of the Jaipur Literature Festival on Friday.
Dhankhar, in his keynote address during the presiding officers’ conference in Jaipur early this month, had remarked that the Supreme Court ruling that Parliament cannot amend the basic structure of the Constitution set a bad precedent by seeking to establish judicial supremacy.
“If you want to change the basic structure of the Constitution, you have to convene a constituent assembly and write a new Constitution which I am sure nobody is contemplating doing it. We are struck with the basic structure of the Constitution unless you are over the years a more plaint judiciary that decides to undo its own doctrine. The basic structure is the doctrine of the judges not of the Constitution,” said Tharoor.
Calling the present BJP government taking autocratic steps, Tharoor said, they have been able to get away from the spirit of the Constitution on various issues while never having to declare an emergency.
“Look at the tightening of the Unlawful Activities Protection Act (UAPA) which has resulted in people thrown in jail without charge and bail. In some cases, imprisonment is up to two years as it happened with journalist Siddiqui Kappan. This raises questions about whether our Constitution has become too easy to suppress in an undemocratic way,” said Tharoor.
Responding to a question on as Parliament’s success in holding the government accountable asked by the moderator Tripurdaman Singh, Tharoor, said, “No. It was in the 50s that under our the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru that the ruling MPs could question the government. We saw the finance minister was forced to resign due to a scandal which was exposed by the Congress backbencher MP. We have seen PM having to be accountable to parliament even during the ongoing war with China. It was a different story then.”
He charged the present government to ‘notice board and rubber stamp’ for passing every bill as it comes in the form from the cabinet. “It doesn’t matter what you say in the debates which wasn’t the case in the past. As recently the UPA government, I remember that one debate on health bills in which doctors raised some important points. Our then-health minister Gulam Nabi Azad recalled the bill and come back with the appropriate amendments. You never see this happening in the BJP government,” said Tharoor.
Calling Kerala’s civil society the most democratic and powerful, Tharoor said, “I have lived in various parts of India and find Kerala civil society most civilised. It is here that the elected representatives are in no doubt that the voter as their boss.”
