Criticizing our Prime Minister today is risky, says Srikrishna; Minister Rijiju hits back hard.
Criticizing our Prime Minister today is risky, says Srikrishna; Minister Rijiju hits back hard.
Criticizing our Prime Minister today is risky, says Srikrishna; Minister Rijiju hits back hard . Those people who complain about freedom of speech are the ones who constantly criticize the Prime Minister who the people rightly elected! They will never dare to criticize some Regional Party CMs or bring up the Emergency imposed by the Congress Party, Rijiju claimed in a tweet.
The speaker emphasizes that freedom to criticize the government is a fundamental right in democracies, and no one has the right to limit that. However, former Supreme Court justice Justice B N Srikrishna expressed concern about the state of affairs, saying that “things are terrible today” and that “I must confess, if I were to stand in a public place and say I don’t like the face of the Prime Minister, someone might raid me, arrest me, and throw me in jail without giving me any reason.”
The Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju responded angrily to his comments, which he made in an interview with The Hindu newspaper.
Rijiju slams hard this time.
Those people who complain about freedom of speech are the ones who constantly criticize the Prime Minister, who the people correctly elected! They will never dare to criticize some Regional Party CMs or bring up the Emergency imposed by the Congress Party, Rijiju claimed in a tweet.
“I’m unsure if a former Supreme Court justice said this. But, if it is true, the statement itself denigrates the organization he has worked for, the man said.
When contacted for comment, Justice Srikrishna, the chair of a committee of experts tasked with researching, identifying, and recommending solutions to pressing data protection issues, a civil servant exercising their fundamental right to free speech, said to The Indian Express. Their service policies shouldn’t be impacted by criticism, as long as it is polite and delivered decently. However, the rule of law and how the government handles complaints also concern me.
In a recent interview with The Hindu, he was questioned whether an IAS officer from Telangana who tweeted in support of Gujarat riot gangrape victim Bilkis Bano from her personal account was wrong to do so.
When one joins the government workforce, there are a number of disciplinary rules that must be followed, Justice Srikrishna retorted. In his statement, he cited two decisions by the High Court and said, “I think the trend is that judges are taking the view that IAS officers have a right to express themselves in a legitimate and decent manner.”
As a member of the Supreme Court, Justice Srikrishna retired in 2006. He has led several committees for both the BJP government and the Congress-led UPA government since his retirement.
For the Bharatiya Janata Party in North East India, Kiren Rijiju is regarded as its spokesperson. From 2000 to 2005, at the age of just 29, he was a member of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission. India’s Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Rijiju, was appointed to the position in 2019. He publishes occasional articles on socioeconomic and security-related topics.
Kiren Rijiju
He was elected to the 14th Lok Sabha in the general election of 2004 to represent the Indian Parliament’s Arunachal West constituency, which is the country’s fourth-largest parliamentary district by area. In the 14th Lok Sabha, he was among the most well-spoken and eloquent lawmakers. From the Arunachal (West) constituency of Arunachal Pradesh in India, Rijiju was elected to the Lok Sabha for the second time in 2014.
One of the top five opposition MPs was Rijiju from 2004 to 2009, based on the treasury bench’s peers’ evaluations of their conduct during debates, discussions, and decorum. He was ranked alongside luminaries like L.K. Advani in this list. Many national news organizations and publications also selected him as the best young MP.
The Congress candidate defeated Rijiju in the general election of 2009 by a razor-thin margin of 1314 votes in highly controversial circumstances that included widespread violence and accusations that the Indian National Congress Party had captured many polling places.
Rijiju won the Arunachal West constituency’s seat in the 16th Lok Sabha in the general election of 2014 and was re-elected as a member of parliament. A margin of 43,738 votes separated Rijiju from Takam Sanjoy of the Indian National Congress. Immediately after, he was named Minister of State for Housing; he ranked among the top 45 on Narendra Modi’s list of ministers.
“Rohingyas are illegal immigrants and stand to be deported,” the speaker said in a contentious statement in 2017. He added that “since India has taken in the greatest number of refugees in the world, nobody should try to teach India a lesson about how to handle refugees.”
As Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs and Sports and Minister of State for the Ministry of Minority Affairs in 2019, Kiren Rijiju was re-elected with the highest margin of votes ever.
As part of the second Modi ministry’s cabinet reshuffle in July 2021, he was appointed Cabinet Minister of Law and Justice.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
