In their response, they said, “He must remember that the government of the day is not the nation, and the nation is not the government.”
Over 320 lawyers from across the country on Wednesday issued an open response to Law Minister Kiren Rijiju’s “hectoring and bullying” of retired “activist’ judges at a media house conclave by calling them part of an “anti-India gang”, asking him to publicly withdraw his “outrageous” remarks and “threats” unbecoming his office.
The response is signed by senior advocates like Iqbal Chagla, Janak Dwarakadas, Kapil Sibal, A.M. Singhvi, Dushyant Dave, Arvind Datar, Raju Ramachandran, C.U. Singh, Sriram Panchu, R. Vaigai, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Nitya Ramakrishnan, advocates Prashant Bhushan and Shadan Farasat, and other advocates from various High Courts.
They said the Minister has made it clear that “no voice of dissent will be spared”.
“Such hectoring and bullying are unbecoming of the high office held by the Minister. We may remind the Minister that criticism of the government is neither against the nation, nor unpatriotic, nor ‘anti-India’. He must remember that the government of the day is not the nation, and the nation is not the government,” the response said.
They reminded the Law Minister that these retired judges, against whom he has levelled allegations of anti-nationalism, were people “who have dedicated their lives to upholding the rule of law, and the naked threat of reprisals against them, marks a new low in the public discourse of our great nation”.
The response reminded Mr. Rijiju that, as a Member of Parliament, he was “sworn to uphold and bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India”.