Continuing its offensive against the government over Jagdeep Dhankhar’s resignation as Vice President, the Congress Saturday said the government was indulging in “petty politics” rather than bothering about constitutional principles and good governance by not admitting the Opposition motion to remove Justice Yashwant Varma in Rajya Sabha.
The Congress also said that “it appears Mr Dhankhar’s showing of some minimal independence, possibly belatedly, was his real mistake. No other mistake.”
At a press conference at the Congress HQs Congress MP and spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi also alleged that the government was adopting “double standards” on the issue of judicial accountability by acting against Justice Varma but ignoring the motion against Justice Shekhar Yadav of Allahabad HC, who allegedly made a hate speech at a VHP event in December last year.
Singhvi said Dhankhar’s resignation was a “political exit camouflaged as a constitutional lie”. He said the Congress is “very concerned” about the “selective outrage and selective silence on the issue of two judges — Justice Varma and Justice Yadav”.
“This is typical of BJP’s double standards and yet another example of BJP’s and the Modi Sarkar’s ‘theatre of the absurd’. The BJP’s game of motions is less about law and more about optics…
“On judicial propriety, on anti-corruption movement and on judicial accountability, the BJP’s mantra is ‘talk the talk, never walk the talk, Keep talking the talk’. It is the worst example of doublespeak and hypocrisy on this entire episode,” he said.
Singhvi also claimed that while creating this “confusion” on not taking up motions in both Houses to jointly constitute a committee, the government is “either deliberately or at best unwittingly, giving an additional ground or excuse to the legal challenges which Justice Varma has mounted and is entitled to mount”.
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Singhvi said that on July 21, Congress and other parties moved a constitutional motion in Rajya Sabha against Justice Varma and, in particular, for creating a statutory inquiry committee, as required by the statute. He said the motion of the Opposition had 63 signatures across parties. “Additionally, another motion had the signatures of 152 Lok Sabha members also cross-party,” he said.
“… When the Vice President was speaking, he was talking of a motion, physical thing in his hand and numerical requirements being satisfied,” he said.
He added that as per the Act of Parliament if there are two motions in the Houses, then the two have to be both joined to form a statutory committee. Singhvi said there is no doubt in the mind of anyone familiar with parliamentary affairs that Dhankhar intended to make the motion the property of the House that day and clearly proceed with it in collaboration with LS. “Today, all this drama is being staged for what? The Modi government is insecure because it can’t control the narrative,” he said.
“It shows many facets of this government… it ignores the clear cooperation, collegiality, the togetherness of both the Houses intended by proviso to section 3 of the Act of Parliament,” he said. “Here, this government and this ruling party’s talking of competition, a race as to who declares and announces first, was this the statutory intent.”
