Attempts are being made to ‘attack’ democracy in the name of freedom of expression, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Monday, delivering a keynote address at the 23rd Commonwealth Law Conference in Goa.
The Minister said one of the success stories of democracy was a strong constitutional provision that called for clear separation of powers among the judiciary, executive and the legislature and “if any wing tries to encroach upon the territory of another, it must be fiercely resisted”.
Though the Law Minister didn’t name anyone, his comments on democracy are being seen as a rebuttal to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s speech to a group of students at Cambridge University last week in which Mr. Gandhi said “the democratic architecture in India under pressure and attack”.
Mr. Rijiju shared a six-minute video clip of his address in which he said the “mandate of the people that follows the due processes of law must be respected at all cost”.
“This cannot be challenged by mere campaign. I have seen in recent times that, in the name of freedom of expression, attempts are being made to attack democracy itself,” Mr. Rijiju said in his inaugural address.
1975 Emergency
“I can assure this august house that in India, democracy cannot be overthrown because Indians are inherently democratic. There was one attempt in 1975 when Emergency was imposed but the people of India resisted fiercely. And rule of law prevailed again and it will prevail forever,” he added.
The Law Minister also said that the Narendra Modi government had so far repealed 1,486 obsolete and redundant laws and 65 more such laws would be repealed in the second part of the Budget Session of Parliament that begins on March 13.
Talking about more than 4.98 crore pending cases in various courts in India, Mr. Rijiju said the pendency would be handled using technology and a “paperless judiciary” was the ultimate aim of the government.
The five-day conference, in which representatives from 52 countries are participating, was attended by Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Governor P.S. Sreedharan Pillai among others.
