– Abdul Bari Masoud
New Delhi, Jan. 9: Welcoming the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Bilkis Bano case overturning the Gujarat government’s remission of 11 rapists and murderers, major opposition parties took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP, saying the “Modi government preaches “Beti Bachao” but practices “Criminal and Rapists Bachao.” The opposition called the SC verdict a revolutionary judgment because it simply speaks the truth; it shows the mirror to power, to arrogant power, to punch drunk power.
On Monday, the Supreme Court overturned Gujarat’s August 2022 order of en masse remission for 11 men who had been given life sentences for gang-raping Bilkis Bano and killing her family members, including a two-month-old baby, during the 2002 genocidal riots. The BJP-led Gujarat government is sharply indicted by the SC ruling for facilitating the release of convicts on the eve of the assembly election.
Following the pronouncement of the judgment, the main opposition party, Congress leaders Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Alka Lamba, addressed a press conference. They said it’s a revolutionary judgment while quoting noted author and journalist George Orwell, who said, “In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
“This judgment, the content, the contours – it’s a revolutionary judgment because it simply speaks the truth; it shows the mirror to power, to arrogant power, to punch drunk power. Hypocrisy and double standards cannot be worse than these kinds of double standards in hypocrisy. It’s condemnable. What’s condemnable is what happened; what’s condemnable is what happened after what happened; what’s condemnable is what happened after the release; the suppressions, the avoidance, the delay, the obstruction, and we also cannot and should not be allowed to forget; the true Chaal, Charitra, and Chehra of this party with a difference,” said Singhvi, an MP and noted lawyer.
He underlined that in remission, humanity has been kept aside because everything is audaciously judged in the matric of cheap politics. He suggested reading the judgment, and for a minute, each citizen of India – not each Mahila, not each man – must put himself or herself in the shoes, in the mind, in the face of Bilkis Bano. Ask yourself how she must have felt all these years. It’s a different matter that the Supreme Court has brought the whole full wheel; it’s a different matter that there is justice delayed but not justice denied. But not every institution of the ruling BJP in Gujarat and at the center has failed this moment completely, he added.
He slammed the BJP, stating that it’s a very special, unique party that preaches to the whole world. “The Prime Minister and the Home Minister give so many sermons from the ramparts of Red Fort. Is this not the party? Are these not the state governments of this party or the central government of this party? State governments of this party or the central government of this party that have great souls and giant men like MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh?”
How much direct condemnation of Bhushan Singh has accrued from the Prime Minister or the Home Minister is all for you to see for the last one year, he asked.
On this correspondent question that the Supreme Court should have taken suo motu cognizance of this case, Dr. Singhvi said that so-called, the case has been going on for two years already. What about Suo-Moto? When this matter started, yes, then who delayed it? That is the question. If this case is going on, the Supreme Court, like all the courts, believes in giving opportunity, which is called natural justice, giving time to be heard. In this case, first a person comes, and he says that I have to answer in this case. I have to give; give me time. Then comes the second one. Two weeks later, I’ve come into it; now I need time. Then the third organization comes, and I have to support them. Give me an opportunity too. After that comes the fact that not a single paper in the service is complete. If you keep doing this indefinitely, then who has caused the delay? Has the court caused the delay? You knew that such a terrible injustice had happened, and you did not want to be allowed to be corrected by the court, but you tried your best. On the contrary, it exposes more. Now that articles will be written on it, you will know the dates and the way it happened.
Congress spokesperson Singhvi also enlisted the names of BJP leaders who were accused or convicted on rape charges, including former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, former Haryana Minister Sandeep Singh Saini, Ramesh Jarkiholi, BJP MP Chinmayanand, former BJP MLA Ramdular Gaur, and so many others.
Referring to convicted holy man Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Singhvi said there is a name from the north: a so-called holy person from the BJP state of Haryana who seems to be coming out on parole every time anybody sneezes. It’s almost certainly not true arithmetically, but it’s almost true that he spends more days out on parole than more days inside.
“I only wish that the undertrials were far less guilty than this person from Haryana who got these fantastic releases, rest, parole, and exits somehow; other people are not as fortunate as this gentleman. All this is happening under this government’s nose. It is happening with this government’s active connivance. It is happening with this government’s clear approval, implied or explicit. It is happening because these are cheap political tactics; there is a worse part to them,” he added.
Reacting on the same lines, the Polit Bureau of CPI (M) said the Supreme Court verdict nailed down the Gujarat government’s illegal actions of granting remission to eleven convicts who had been sentenced to life for gang-raping pregnant Bilkis Bano, members of her family, and also mass murdering at least fourteen of them in the 2002 Gujarat communal carnage. The court has categorically asked the convicts to surrender to prison within two weeks.
It further noted that the Supreme Court division bench, going beyond the ‘competence’ of the Gujarat government to pass the remission order, has actually stated that it acted in ‘complicity’ with the convicts. The bench has also stated that fraud has been played by the Gujarat government in presenting the facts to justify the remission order.
The scathing judgment has stated that if the convicts can “circumvent the consequence of their conviction, peace and tranquility in society will be reduced to a chimera.” The fact that the Gujarat government has stated that the decision was also based on the concurrence of the Central government makes the Central government equally complicit in this complicity with the convicts’. The fact that the remission did not take into account the brutality of the crimes and their larger consequences for society and the rule of law is obvious. CPI(M) also came down heavily on the Modi government, saying governments are constitutional entities and if they act in violation of the jurisdiction and considerations of law, it will play havoc with our very existence as a democracy.
