Yet another ‘supreme’ whomp

 

    The Supreme Court dismissed a joint petition filed by 14 opposition parties alleging that the central investigating agencies – the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are being used to harass the members of the Opposition parties. The Supreme Court once again muzzled all those members who keep on raising barrage against the Modi government for misusing these agencies. In the past also, petitions making similar allegations against the Modi government have been dismissed by the judiciary. Of course, that doesn’t mean that from now on, people who are against Modi government will get any wisdom.

    This decision of the Supreme Court is definitely an eye-opener for all those who are spreading false propaganda to defame the Modi government. The opinion expressed by the Supreme Court while dismissing the petition is important in many aspects. In the petition it was stated that over the last eight years i.e., since the Modi government came to power in 2014, there has been a 600 per cent rise in the number of cases taken up by the central investigating agencies like the ED and the CBI and that these agencies are being used by the Modi government at the Centre to vindictively frame and take revenge on their opponents.

    Abhishek Manu Singhvi, lawyer of the Opposition parties argued that, of the investigations carried out against 121 political leaders by the ED, 95 per cent leaders belong to the Opposition parties. Also, of the 124 cases initiated by the CBI, more than 95 per cent of the persons are from the Opposition parties. The Supreme Court rejected Singhvi’s argument. Singhvi had also argued that due to the rampant actions by the central investigating agencies, the existence of the opposition is in danger. While giving his judgement, Chief Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud expressed a clear opinion that “the opposition parties’ fear that their existence is in danger can be addressed only by the political system and not by the judiciary.” The Supreme Court had also asked the petitioners to present their grievances before the Parliament.

     In order to prove their point that the central investigating agencies were dancing to the tunes of Modi government, the petitioners had submitted a compilation of cases taken up for investigation after the Modi government came to power. After comparing the number of cases taken up by these agencies before 2014 and after 2014, the petitioners alleged that the Modi government was deliberately doing it with a vindictive approach. But the Supreme court rejected this argument and maintained that there cannot be separate rules for political leaders.

    The Modi government initiated a host of decisions in order to boost the country’s economy and make its operations transparent. Decisions like demonetization and introduction of goods and services tax (GST) were taken. The common man experienced benefits of demonetization. There has been a considerable rise in digital transactions grossly benefitting the country’s economy. But when the Modi government had decided to implement demonetization, a certain section of the media deliberately planted stories of how the common man had to wait in long queues in front of the banks to get their old currency notes exchanged. Also, news that hundreds of people died due to standing in these queues spread like wildfire. The members of the Opposition had crossed all limits to accuse and criticise the incumbent government without realising its ramifications. They had also filed petitions calling the decision unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court had dismissed that petition as well.

    Later, the leaders of Opposition also tried to spread false information about the Rafale purchase deal from France and a petition was filed in the Supreme Court alleging that there were malpractices in the deal. At that time also, after duly examining all the documents, the apex court had stated that there was no malpractice in the Rafale transaction. Unfortunately, Congress’s prince Rahul Gandhi failed to understand the meaning of the court’s decision and so he once again went around proclaiming that even the apex court had admitted that there were malpractices in the deal. That’s when the court came down strongly and criticised the Gandhi clan for his ignorance and later, he retracted his allegation.

    That was not all. It may be recalled that earlier also, there was a petition filed in the Supreme Court against the functioning and scope of work of the ED. Former union finance minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti had filed a petition seeking Supreme Court’s intervention on whether ED had the powers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to seize a particular property and also to arrest the person concerned and to raid the person’s residence. While dismissing this petition, the apex court had clearly stated that ED had the powers to seize a particular property, arrest the concerned person and also conduct raids at the residence of the said person. The Supreme Court, in its verdict on July 27, 2022, had stated that the ED was performing in accordance with the powers vested under Section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. This was a befitting reply from the Supreme Court to all those who spread false propaganda that the Modi government was acting vindictively against only the leaders of the Opposition parties. Still, the campaign of spreading false information about Modi government did not stop. Now again, the Supreme Court has clarified that there is nothing wrong in the actions taken by the central investigating agencies. And hence, at least now I hope that the Opposition will realize and stop accusing the Modi government for falsely implicating them.

 

(Article Pre-Published in Times of India Online –10 April 2023)

Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson