It’s been only a day since Rahul Gandhi was convicted in the Defamation case. In retaliation, 14 opposition parties which also includes congress approached the Supreme court. On Friday, the supreme court admitted their plea regarding the misuse of the CBI and Enforcement Directorate by the government. The Supreme court has also announced that there will be a hearing on 5th April.
The 14 opposition parties include Trinamool Congress, DMK, Bharat Rashtra Samithi, RJD, Congress, and many more. All these parties represent at least 42 percent of the political system.
Senior Advocate A M Singhvi has informed regarding the case that almost 95 percent of the cases, that have been filed by Central agencies such as CBI and ED are always against the opposition leaders.
14 Opposition parties
Looking at the plea, it is no surprise that DMK and RJD are involved since they are Congress allies. But, the BRS and TMC have also taken part in this, albeit reluctantly. Both leaders of these two parties have been facing cases by these Central agencies.
All the parties have made a valid point in the petition saying that democracy is in jeopardy. They are simply not demanding the cases to be removed but simply put down some pre and post-arrest guidelines.
Reports have been made that since September 2022, there has been an increase in the number of times ED scanners have been put to use against opposition politicians and their close relatives.
Entry of BJP Party among all the Parties
Ever since the Modi government came into power in 2014, 121 politicians have been raided and questioned, and 115 have been arrested. The report concludes exactly what Advocate Singhvi informed that all these cases sum up to 95 percent of the cases filed by these Central agencies.
Before 2014, in the last ten years, it was reported that there have been only 72 political leaders were total investigated out of which 43 were of opposition parties.
On the other hand, the BJP leaders have all got off scot-free. The opposition parties also claimed that when someone against whom there has been a case, it has been quickly buried or dropped once they have switched parties and joined BJP. Leaders like Narayan Rane, Himanta Biswa Sarma, and Shivraj Singh Chauhan are quite good examples of such cases.
The petition has also gained momentum since then and parties like Jammu and Kashmir National Conference and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha have also joined in. So much so that currently, it has become the biggest joint opposition action against the current government. The petition Makes it clear that this has certainly become a pattern for the BJP government to eradicate any opposition and vocal citizen.
The opposition parties said they were quite serious regarding this petition as this misuse of Central agencies can be very dangerous if not stopped. It is systematically destroying the level of playing the political field. It is also hindering everyone’s democracy and free speech.
The petition also claimed that democracy is only there in the form, in the country and actual democracy is being removed from within. It is starting to look more and more like a dictatorship rather than a democracy.
The plea has been heard by the Supreme Court. Advocate Singhvi, who is also a Congress leader appeared in the court for the petitioners. It has been decided that the Supreme court will hear the petition on the 5th of April.
