Narendra Modi Is Taking The Judiciary For Granted

I have never been a Supreme Court judge, nor am I likely to be, alas. But as a citizen that holds the institution in high esteem — particularly now when most recourses of redress seem compromised and closed to all independent-minded citizens — I ask myself: Had I been a judge of the highest court, and one deputed to a constitution bench tasked to deliberate upon the reading down of Article 370, what might have been the thoughts going through my mind listening to current political discourse on the issue.

Of course, judges are expected to remain indifferent to averments made on cases by parties outside the proceedings of the court; and, commendably, remain so. But being also citizens themselves, it would be an indulgence for anyone to think that remaining indifferent means being deaf and blind to public statements, especially when these come from agencies and individuals that bear crucially on the life of the republic.

Assuming that judges read newspapers and also watch television, they would inevitably have heard Prime Minister Modi say during the recent Maharashtra election campaign how all those opposed to the scrapping of Article 370 should go “drown themselves.” Most recently, senior BJP leader Ram Madhav declared that Article 370 is “like a dead body, it’s gone and won’t return”. The fact that a constitution bench is due to hear the case seems of little account to the prime minister, who has already made a final pronouncement on the matter – that opponents to the measure are supporters of terrorists who deserve death by drowning.