Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi government of indulging in ‘pick and choose’ in the appointment of judges of the Supreme Court.
Referring to news reports that the government had decided to elevate Supreme Court lawyer Indu Malhotra to the Bench and overlook the collegium recommendation to elevate Justice K.M. Joseph, Mr. Yechury cited the no-confidence motion against the Modi government not being admitted in the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha Chairman’s decision not to admit the impeachment motion against the Chief Justice of India and the government’s decision not to go by the recommendations of the Supreme Court collegium on judges’ appointments as ‘onslaughts on the parliamentary democracy’ by the BJP government. He was offering fraternal greetings at the opening session of the CPI’s 23rd party congress here.
“The government is picking and choosing from the collegium recommendations on who should be elevated to the Bench,” he noted, deviating from the text of his speech.
The CPI(M) general secretary accused the BJP government at the Centre, ‘whose reins are controlled by the RSS’, of pursuing policies that have imposed unprecedented miseries on the people and, at the same time, ‘grievously threatening’ the unity and integrity of the nation’s social fabric.
“The dehumanisation of our society is seen in the chilling incidents of rape in Kathua, Unnao and elsewhere recently. It is shameful to see rape being used as a weapon for communal polarisation. This must be resisted and defeated.”
He said the CPI(M) had, at its recently concluded 22nd party congress, had identified as its main task ‘the defeat of the BJP and its allies by rallying all the secular and democratic forces’, but ‘without having a political alliance with the Congress party’. “There can be understanding with all secular opposition parties including the Congress in Parliament on agreed issues. Outside Parliament, we should cooperate with all secular opposition forces for a broad mobilisation of people against communalism. We should foster joint actions of class and mass organisations, in such a manner that can draw in the masses following the Congress and other bourgeois parties,” Mr. Yechury added.
