Does Modi govt have respect for judiciary?

Shocking new revelations about the Rafale scam appearing on a regular basis in media. Modi government has been running from pillar to post to get rid of the stigma Rafale deal has created. The impunity and insolence with which the government has so casually mentioned to the court that the file has been stolen points to a larger perspective of things.

Attorney-General K K Venugopal’s averment in the Supreme Court seemed to echo the Prime Minister’s stump speeches as he campaigns across the country, claiming sole guardianship over national security. So how does the government know the file has been taken away? What proof does it have to show that the file was stolen?

The government had given a sealed envelope with the details of the deal to the court and had stated that it contains sensitive information of national security and had pleaded that it should not be revealed to the public. All that information obviously came from the Rafale file with the MoD.
By stating that the file has been stolen, the government is pointing the finger squarely at itself for not being able to protect files of national security.

The same scenario is likely to continue on March 14 also as continuous stress will be on obstructing the judicial scrutiny by taking the plea of national security and India’s interests more fervently so that the corruption issue and the breaking of rules by the PMO are not probed. It is up to the Court bench now to decide whether the learned judges will go by the semantics of the Modi government’s highest law officer.

First of all, it shows that the government has no respect for the judiciary. It has become abundantly clear that the government and specifically the BJP will show no value to the judiciary’s judgments if they don’t fit into their scheme of things. The country has seen how the BJP and RSS openly violated SC’s Sabarimala judgement and tried to foment violence.

It is clear by now that any judgement against this government will be ignored. A government trying to curb the judiciary and having little value for it is a clear sign of eroding democratic values and the Constitution of the country in danger. In a democracy which government will appear before the apex court of the country and have the audacity to state that files of national security have been stolen and nothing has been done about it?

In spite of carte blanche to snoop and decrypt any information generated, transmitted, received or stored ordinary citizens, government’s failure to prevent crucial documents related to the Rafale deal from being stolen seems mockery of surveillance and inviting multiple dangerous precedents.

While the BJP's minions seize `anti-nationals' and mobs kill people from minority groups in the name of cow protection while beating up Kashmiris on the side, a targeted little burglary is executed in the building that houses the defence and foreign ministries and the Prime Minister's Office.

To distract attention from a mess that is obviously far from simple, the government, through its mouthpiece in court, is talking of the newspaper's supposed violation of the Official Secrets Act. Wielding laws is the easy way out. More dangerous, however, is the Narendra Modi-led government's attitude towards journalism. Independent thinking, analysis, criticism and pursuit of truth for public interest are simply impermissible.

Javvadi Lakshmana Rao, Visakhapatnam