Sidhu's praise for Imran insult to India: BJP
New Delhi, Sep 7 : The BJP on Friday slammed Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu for praising Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on the issue of opening of the Kartarpur corridor to enable devotees pay obeisance at a gurdwara associated with the first Sikh Guru Nanak Dev. The praise was an "insult to India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi".
"This has become a habit with the Congress to insult our Prime Minister and praise that of the neighbouring country. The entire country is watching this. (Congress President) Rahul Gandhi should clarify the issue," BJP Spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told a press conference here.
Hussain said that Sidhu's remarks came at a time when Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Jawed Bajwa has vowed to avenge the blood shed on the border by his country's soldiers.
"On one side, Pakistan's Army chief is speaking of 'khoon ka badla khoon' and in India a Congress leader is thanking Pakistan. It is very sad and unfortunate," he said.
"We reject Bajwa's statement. India is capable of responding to them," he added.
Seeking to know if it (praise) was the Congress statement or of Sidhu, he said that until the opposition party clarified, the BJP will consider it a statement by Congress President Rahul Gandhi.
"Sidhu is not an individual. He is a Congress leader and a Cabinet Minister in Punjab," the BJP leader said, adding that his statement thanking Pakistan is an indication of what the Congress feels about that country.
He said that India and many of its Prime Ministers had tried many a time to improve bilateral relations but to no avail.
Addressing reporters in Chandigarh, Sidhu earlier in the day thanked his "friend" Imran Khan for enabling the opening of the corridor that would allow pilgrims from India to go to the gurdwara close to the international border in Pakistan.
"Ajj meri zindagi safal ho gayi (today, I have succeeded in life)," Sidhu told the media.
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36 ex-judges slam Opposition move to impeach Justice Swaminathan
New Delhi (PTI): Thirty-six former judges on Saturday gave a call to people, including parliamentarians, to denounce opposition leaders' move to impeach Madras High Court judge Justice G R Swaminathan, saying such an attempt, if allowed to proceed, would cut at the very roots of democracy and independence of the judiciary.
On December 1, Justice Swaminathan held that the Arulmighu Subramania Swamy Temple was duty-bound to light the lamp at the Deepathoon, in addition to the customary lighting near the Uchi Pillaiyar Mandapam.
The single-judge bench said that doing so would not encroach upon the rights of the adjacent dargah or the Muslim community.
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The order sparked a row, and on December 9, several opposition MPs, led by the DMK, submitted a notice to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to move a motion for the removal of the judge.
Taking serious exception to the move, the former judges in a joint statement said this is a "brazen attempt to browbeat judges who do not fall in line with the ideological and political expectations of a particular section of society".
"If such an attempt is permitted to proceed, it would cut at the very roots of our democracy and the independence of the judiciary," they said.
"We therefore call upon all stakeholders -- Members of Parliament across party lines, members of the Bar, civil society, and citizens at large -- to unequivocally denounce this move and ensure that it is nipped in the bud at the very inception," they added.
The statement emphasised that the judges must remain answerable to their oath and to the Constitution of India, not to "partisan political pressures or ideological intimidation".
"The message from all constitutional stakeholders must be clear and firm: in a republic governed by the rule of law, judgments are tested by appeals and legal critique, and not by threats of impeachment for political nonconformity," it said.
The statement was signed by former Supreme Court judge Krishn Murari J as well as ex-chief justices and former judges of different high courts.
The statement said the opposition party's move is not an "isolated aberration". It fits into a "clear and deeply troubling pattern" in India's recent constitutional history, where sections of the political class have sought to discredit and intimidate the higher judiciary whenever outcomes do not align with their interests, it added.
"The unprecedented bid in 2018 to initiate impeachment proceedings against then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, the sustained campaigns of vilification directed at Chief Justices Ranjan Gogoi, S A Bobde and D Y Chandrachud while they were in office," the statement noted.
"The targeted attacks now being mounted against the incumbent CJI, Justice Surya Kant, whenever a judgment/remark displeases a political constituency, are all manifestations of the same trend," it said.
"This is not principled, reasoned criticism of judicial decisions; it is an attempt to weaponise impeachment and public calumny as instruments of pressure -- a practice that strikes at the heart of judicial independence and the basic norms of constitutional democracy," the statement added.
