Kiren Rijiju’s loyalty is first to India, and only thereafter to the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the Modi government. With his assertion of the existence of an “anti-India gang”, and a “few retired judges who are part of the gang”, it is imperative for India’s Law Minister to name and shame the “retired judges”. Otherwise, he is cool with the few retired judges and their nefarious game-plan.

Can it be that the “few retired judges” are a concoction? The allegation has willy-nilly put the needle of suspicion on the sitting judges of the Supreme Court, too. It requires two hands to clap, and if the “few retired judges” are plotting against the Modi government, there also must be a clique of sitting judges with skin in the game.

Rijiju is the same man who stood up in the Lok Sabha and questioned Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi’s loyalty to India after the Gandhi scion went to London and said he was foxed why the United States, and the European Union, were “oblivious to a whole chunk of democracy falling off the planet."

The aftershocks of Rahul-gate led Kiren Rijiju and three other Modi ministers to demand an apology from the Gandhi scion. All four BJP MPs are angry that far from being properly and terribly recalcitrant, Rahul Gandhi had gone ahead and said he wasn’t afraid to call a spade a spade, as he had done during his London visit. “What Rahul Gandhi says is the same language used by those who are anti-India both in the country and outside,” Rijiju said, the audio in the Lok Sabha clearly not muted!

Kiren Rijiju was taking his Modi-given task to tame Rahul Gandhi seriously. Nobody “anti-India”, he said, would escape the Kiren Rijiju-dragnet. Which is why it stumps India why Rijiju wasn’t naming the retired judges who according to him are part of the “anti-India gang”, retired judges who allegedly have a partnership going with some sitting judges of the higher courts of India.

Now that the Law Minister has attested to this “fact” about “some retired judges being part of the anti-India gang”, he should spill the beans and not hide behind meaningless talk. He has to back his claims with evidence. At the India Today Conclave, Rijiju said the “retired judges” were urging sitting judges to take on the role of the Opposition, adding that “those working against the country will have to pay a price”.

But why is Rijiju playing a guessing game with the public? Shouldn’t he put an end to this “menace”, if indeed there were a set of retired judges plotting against the Modi government? Kiren Rijiju called it “a calibrated effort” to turn the judiciary against the Modi government.

Rijiju should walk the talk with action. It is a serious charge against retired judges. And every retired judge is a suspect unless Kiren Rijiju names the retired judges and puts an end to speculation.

If Law Minister Kiren Rijiju knows the identities of the retired judges in the “anti-India gang”, it cannot be that the Prime Minister and the Home Minister were “oblivious” to the catastrophe brewing right under their noses? Also, Rijiju isn’t the first BJP heavyweight to talk of anti-India forces. Not too far back, Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar had warned of “anti-India forces orchestrating pernicious narratives.”

Rijiju spoke of seminars of academic nature turning into “seminars on how the executive is affecting the judiciary”. The retired judges have become “activists” and were trying to turn the judiciary against the government, said Rijiju. “Some people even went to the Supreme Court to rein in the government.”

Kiren Rijiju must be understandably concerned. But the gut feeling that some “sitting judges” could also be party to the retired judges’ gameplay, transforms the situation. The retired judges have to talk with sitting judges to put their game into play. Rijiju says the judiciary should be neutral, but why is the Modi government “oblivious” to some retired judges planning to take the government head on?

Isn’t the Modi government shirking its duty? Or, does it believe that such treachery should be left unresolved and unpunished? If Congress leader Rahul Gandhi placed India in jeopardy with his remarks about India made on foreign soil, isn’t the Modi government placing India and India’s democracy in serious jeopardy by not naming and shaming the “few retired judges” who are part of the “anti-India gang”? The Modi government it appears has much to hide. (IPA Service)