Former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said the legal system which denied bail to civil society activists Sudha Bharadwaj, Professor Shoma Sen and revolutionary poet Varavara Rao was ‘turning the law on its head and has become a dysfunctional system’.
All the activists who were arrested in 2018 in the Elgaar Parishad case, under investigation by the National Investigation Agency, have not managed to secure bail for themselves.
“Sudha Bharadwaj suffers from diabetes, high BP, arthritis and ischemia. Poet Varavara Rao has coronary heart disease and hypertension. Shoma Sen is afflicted with osteoarthritis, glaucoma and high BP. A legal system that keeps them in jail indefinitely on questionable charges of aiding the Maoists is a dysfunctional system. A legal system that denies them bail, having regard to their age and ailments, is turning the law on its head. Who remembers Justice Krishna Iyer’s dictum?” Mr. Chidambaram said on Twitter.
Row with China
In a separate set of tweets on the border stand-off with China, the senior Congress leader questioned why India has not mentioned about restoring status quo ante before May 2020 even as he welcomed the Ministry of External Affairs’s (MEA) statement on disengagement by China on the Ladakh border.
Mr. Chidambaram said the statement also “rebuffs” the comment that “none had intruded into Indian territory”.
Though he did not name Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Chidambaram’s reference was to his June 19 statement.
“MEA’s statement last night speaks of India’s expectation as ‘complete disengagement and de-escalation and full restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas’. So far, so good. But why is the statement silent on India’s demand of ‘restoration of status quo ante as on May 5, 2020,’ ” he asked.
“The statement is another admission that China has changed the status quo that was prevailing on May 5. It is another rebuff to the claim that ‘no one has intruded into India and no one is in Indian territory,’ ” he stated.
Rahul’s tweet
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi too cautioned the government on China. “I kept warning them on Covid19 and the economy. They rubbished it. Disaster followed. I keep warning them on China. They’re rubbishing it,” he tweeted.
