Ministers must speak up like judges: Sinha

New Delhi, January 13

Firing a fresh salvo at the government, disgruntled BJP leader Yashwant Sinha today asked his party colleagues and ministers to “get rid of their fear” and “speak up for democracy” like the four Supreme Court judges who came out publicly against the Chief Justice.

The former Union minister referred to the comments of the four judges to claim that the prevailing atmosphere was like the Emergency in 1975-77 and voiced concern over short parliamentary sessions. If Parliament is compromised, the Supreme Court is not in order, then democracy is threatened, he told reporters.

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Sinha said “if four seniormost Supreme Court judges say democracy is under threat, we have to take their words very seriously”.

Sinha, however, insisted that it was for the apex court to sort out the crisis after the four senior judges virtually revolted against the CJI.

Like the Chief Justice of India in the Supreme Court, the Prime Minister is also first among equals in the government and his Cabinet colleagues should speak up, he said. Sinha, who has been a vocal critic of the Modi government on issues like demonetisation, GST and Kashmir, claimed that he was “personally aware of the fear in which members of the Cabinet in this government are working, and that also is a threat to democracy”.

In his press conference, Sinha also rejected suggestions that politicians should not wade into the judicial crisis, saying when four seniormost SC judges have gone public, it was no longer an internal matter of the court and it was imperative for every concerned citizen to raise his voice. — PTI