Jaipur/Kolkata: Vasundhara Raje led Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government has been at the receiving end ever since she has issued an ordinance which makes it impossible for people to lodge FIRs against judges and bureaucrats, without seeking permission from the government. The ordinance, also bars media from covering such complaints till then it get cleared by the government. The ordinance is being sharply criticized by journalists, media organizations, activists and opposition parties.
However, amid all crying foul, criticism came from unexpected quarter– from lawyer cum politician Subramanian Swamy, the BJP leader, tweeted on Sunday, stating that the ordinance tabled by Raje is against Article 4 of the Indian Constitution, and that P Chidambaram had tried to bring such ordinance in favour of bankers, but Supreme Court had struck down the step on his plea.
The Article 4 of the Indian Constitution stresses on Right to Equality. Equality, before law.
The senior BJP leader tweeted: The draft Rajasthan law to dilute PCA etc for bureaucrats violates the SC’s 2015 Constitutional Bench judgment in Subramanian Swamy vs CBI.
The leader got more than 2600 likes and over 1100 retweets for this particular tweet.
Earlier, The Editors Guild of India, had issued a communiqué opposing Raje’s attempt to gag media and said that it will stop journalist in doing public interest stories.
Partika Group Chairman, Gulab Kothari has also vehementaly criticized the step and wrote a front page editorial on it.
The President of Press Club, Jaipur LL Sharma has called upon journalists to stand up against the draconian law. “Think again before having such a draconian law implemented. This law aims at suppressing freedom of press. It will not be tolerated,” he warned Raje.
Organizations working for Human Rights, Public Union for Civil Liberties, PUCL has also condemned the government’s decision to shield judges and babus by putting a gag on media.
Congress’ state president Sachin Pilot made it a point to mention before the journalists that this was an attempt by Vasundhara Raje to protect her corrupt officials.
However, some senior journalist based at Jaipur, questioned the opposition parties for their lack of knowledge on this law being in the anvil. Narayan Bareth said, “It is not surprising that the opposition came to know about the ordinance only after some media organization reported about it. This ordinance was tabled on September 7 itself. This happens when opposition parties follow calendars to assess when they are coming into power.”
