Congress threatened SC judges, who tried to hear Ayodhya cases, with impeachment: PM Modi
Alwar, Nov 25 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged Sunday that the Congress threatened Supreme Court judges with impeachment when they tried hear the Ayodhya dispute cases earlier this year.
Without naming anyone, Modi claimed that Congress party's Rajya Sabha members, who are also lawyers, had tried to scare away the apex court judges to ensure the hearing in the cases is delayed until after the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
In an unprecedented move, seven opposition parties led by the Congress had moved a notice for the impeachment of then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in April this year, accusing him of "misbehaviour" and "misuse" of authority.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu rejected the notice, saying the case against the then CJI was based on "suspicion and conjectures".
At the political rally in Rajasthan's Alwar district, Modi said the Congress has no faith in democracy and judiciary. "It does not hold dialogue and stall proceedings in Parliament, but the new game they are playing now is dangerous and this must be debated for a bright future of the country."
"If a Supreme Court judge does not prepare the time-table (for hearing cases) as per their (Congress's) political intentions and wants to hear all to deliver justice on a serious and sensitive issue, such as Ayodhya, then the party's lawyers, who are Rajya Sabha members, start the game of scaring the judges in the name of impeachment," Modi said.
He urged intellectuals to analyse this "dangerous game" of the Congress in the interest of the country.
"They are working to scare judiciary on the ground of their numbers in Rajya Sabha. But we will not let this 'kaala kaarnama' happen in the temple of democracy," he said.
The prime minister said the opposition party has "no courage" to talk about development and hence "they ask about the caste of Modi."
"Will you vote on the basis of the caste of Modi? Will the future of Rajasthan be decided on basis of birthplace of Modi," he asked the crowd gathered at his rally.
Modi's remarks were a reaction to former Union minister CP Joshi's statement when he had questioned the caste of Modi and others during a speech in Rajsamand district's Nathdwara.
Joshi is the Congress candidate from Nathdwara assembly constituency.
"They are deep neck involved in casteism. Casteism and feeling of hate against poor, deprived, underprivileged is in their veins and such statements reflect the basic behaviour and conduct of the Congress. It does not matter who spoke that (Joshi's renmarks) because everyone knows about the 'naamdaar' who make them speak," he said, apparently referring to the Gandhi family.
Modi also targeted the Congress over issues and discrimination faced by Dalits, saying the party "forgot" to give the Bharat Ratna to B R Ambedkar.
Ambedkar was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1990, 34 years after his death.
"Congress has only divided the country. For them, Dalits are a votebank while our values and traditions are different," Modi claimed, trying to contrast his party's attitude to the community, of whose members have been assaulted and beaten by right-wing activists for allegedly indulging in cow trade, with that of the Congress.
In Rajasthan, Modi praised the BJP's Vasundhara Raje government, saying it has done lot of work.
He also attacked Congress over a recent video in which a Congress candidate is seen stopping a party supporter shouting "Bharat Mata ki jai" and then the supporter starts shouting: "Sonia Gandhi ki jai".
"For us, the country is bigger than the party but Sonia Gandhi is bigger than Bharat Mata for them," he said.
Modi recalled BJP leaders like former vice president the late Bhairo Singh Shkhawat and said he had started election campaign during the 2013 assembly elections in Rajasthan from Alwar.
Chief minister Raje and the party's candidates on all 11 constituencies of Alwar district were present at the rally.
In Lok Sabha bypolls earlier this year, the BJP had faced defeat in Alwar.
In the 2013 assembly election, the BJP won nine out of the 11 seats in Alwar but one of its sitting MLAs, Dharmpal Chaudhary, died in April this year; the party has given ticket to his son Manjit Chaudhary from Mundawar seat.
Located in eastern part of the desert state, Alwar shares border with Haryana and forms a part of Mewat region having a sizable population of Mev (Muslim) community people.
It also touches Jaipur, Bharatpur and Dausa districts.
Alwar's Ramgarh, a constituency represented by Gyan Dev Ahuja, who has been dropped by the BJP this time, was in bad light following the mob lynching of Akbar Khan on suspicion of cow smuggling in July this year.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
