Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday showed a mirror to the Congress by reminding it of the excesses of the Emergency era to claim that the party which subverted the Constitutional provision to strike down the fundamental rights of the citizens is today talking about growing intolerance in the country. During his speech Jaitley once named former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who imposed the Emergency, and compared that dark era of Emergency with Adolf Hitler’s Germany.
While initiating a discussion on the “Commitment to India’s Constitution,” as part of the 125th birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar, leader of the House Arun Jaitley lauded Ambedkar’s foresight while drafting the Constitution and criticised the Congress, for subverting it.
He compared the imposition of Emergency with sequence of events in Germany leading to Nazi rule when the Constitution was changed by using its provisions.
“There are worst illustrations in history when Constitutional systems are used to subvert the Constitution... You have the most glaring example in the world when in 1933 in Germany Emergency was declared,” he said.
Hitler, using the pretext of a threat to “set ablaze the German Parliament by Communists, imposed Emergency, detained Opposition leaders to gain majority for amending the Constitution, censored press and came out with a 25-point economic programme.
Moreover, a law was promulgated there that no action taken by Government was challengeable in court, Jaitley said adding Hitler’s adviser Rudolf Hess in a speech said, “Hitler is Germany, Germany is Hitler.” The BJP leader was making an apparent comparison with a similar slogan “India is Indira, Indira is India” coined during the Emergency era. Also, a 20-point programme was implemented during that period in India besides censorship and Opposition leaders jailed.
“The biggest challenge we faced (during Emergency) was that Article 21 was suspended and citizens lost even the right to life and liberty. This was dictatorship at its worst,” Jaitley said. When some members from the Opposition benches said comparisons should not be drawn, the Finance Minister shot back “of course, there is no comparison. The difference is between a mouse and a molehill.”
He noted that after the Emergency period was over, the Morarji Government brought about amendment in the Constitution making Article 21 “permanently non-suspendable and remarked “so, today we are far more safe.” In this backdrop, Jaitley said all systems by which Constitution or constitutional systems could be used to subvert democracy should be blocked.
Carrying the battle to the Opposition camp on the intolerance issue, Jaitley then said how the House would react if Ambedkar had made his 1949 speech in present times for implementing Article 44 (that calls for bringing in Uniform Civil code) and Article 48 prohibiting cow slaughter. He also said Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi goaded State Governments to ban cow slaughter and now most States have implemented such laws.
Referring to threat of terrorism, Jaitley termed it as the “biggest challenge” to any Constitutional system in the world and there should be united fight against it instead of adopting a “soft” approach for vote-bank politics. Calling for fighting terrorism in a spirit of togetherness, he said the entire country should speak in one voice and nobody should be seen soft on terrorism.
In this context, he referred to the 2001 attack on Parliament, Mumbai blasts of 1993 and serial blasts on local trains in Mumbai in 2006.
Jaitley also made a veiled reference to the 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon who was hanged few months back and said “the manner in which he was passed off as a martyr ...Somebody who virtually massacred Mumbai. How would have Dr Ambedkar reacted to thisIJ”
When some Congress members asked him to clarify reference to Ambedkar’s famous speech delivered on November 25, 1949 in which he expressed apprehensions about people from within the country siding with the enemies, Jaitley said he was only referring to acts of terrorism. “I have no hesitation in saying that nobody in this country should ever be seen as soft on that kind of terrorism.”
On judiciary, Jaitley pointed out Ambedkar’s insistence on maintaining a fine balance between different institutions and said this ‘lakshman rekha’ was in danger of getting breached. He said the Constitution ensures independence of judiciary but stressed that at the same time Parliament too is part of basic structure of Constitution.
“Today, the absolute contrary to what Dr Ambedkar had envisaged is happening,” Jaitley said, adding “today we have reached a position where Chief Justice of Indian will appoint judges and everyone else is irrelevant. No position of law can ever justify it.”
He said activism by courts many a time has raised questions that it should not cross the “lakshman rekha” and the “delicate” balance between different organs prescribed in the Constitution should not be affected. “A court cannot decide how many calories a terrorist has to be fed or how bullets could be fired by security forces in an encounter,” he said.