VP, Cong lock horns over Sonia’s remark on judiciary

New Delhi, December 23

The “judiciary versus government” debate continued to create ripples in the political landscape on Friday with Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar defending his criticism of Sonia Gandhi and the Congress writing a stinging letter to him alleging interference by the government in the functioning of the judiciary.

Chairing the Rajya Sabha session, Dhankhar said he would have failed to abide by his constitutional obligations had he not reacted to the UPA chairperson’s accusation against him that he was becoming party to a design “to delegitimise judiciary”. “Delegitimising judiciary means death knell for democracy,” Dhankhar said in the House while responding to Congress members’ appeal to expunge the statement issued by him yesterday criticising Sonia.

Congress’ Pramod Tiwari and Mallikarjun Kharge and Tiruchi Siva of the DMK also argued that Dhankhar’s statement — that Sonia’s remark was “inappropriate and displayed lack of faith in democracy” — was unwarranted since her address to party MPs was made outside and not in the Rajya Sabha.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, in a letter to Dhankhar, said while the Vice-President advocated the view that the three pillars of democracy scrupulously confine to their respective domains, the fact was that no government had ever before interfered in the working of the judiciary as much as the Modi government.