The BJP-led government at the Centre is a control freak and an atmosphere of fear is prevailing in the country which was never seen before, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said on Sunday.
“If any organisation publishes articles against the government, advertisements to them are stopped. This government is even sending direct messages to judiciary,” Singhvi alleged.
“People have made up their mind, now the eviction decree needs to be get executed,” he said, addressing a state-level ‘Vidhik Vimarsh’ (legal discussion), a convention organised by the Rajasthan Congress’s legal human rights and RTI department at Birla Auditorium here.
He suggested that community libraries be built at district and tehsil levels for lawyers and law books be provided online. “Lawyer chambers will be built through MPLAD funds, and advocates will get insurance after the Congress forms government.”
Addressing the advocates, department’s national president Vivek Tankha, also a member of parliament, said there are now two ideologies in the country – of Narendra Modi and the RSS, and of the Congress, which is “democratic and protecting the country.”
“Congress’s disadvantage was that advocates made a distance with the party. Our party was leading till advocates were with us since freedom. Gradually advocates distanced themselves due to their own issues and the party sidetracking from the values and principles, which were espoused by the advocates,” Tankha said. “But now advocates have to come to the front to save democracy. Today it’s not about Congress but of the country.”
{{/usCountry}}“Congress’s disadvantage was that advocates made a distance with the party. Our party was leading till advocates were with us since freedom. Gradually advocates distanced themselves due to their own issues and the party sidetracking from the values and principles, which were espoused by the advocates,” Tankha said. “But now advocates have to come to the front to save democracy. Today it’s not about Congress but of the country.”
{{/usCountry}}Tankha demanded that an act for protection of advocates and journalists be brought in after the Congress forms government in the state. “In addition, the party manifesto should have something for the young advocates.”
‘Residential colonies for lawyers’
State Congress president Sachin Pilot promised residential colonies for lawyers through cooperatives, advocates and journalists’ protection act, and POCSO court in every district.
“We will bring all this in our manifesto along with improvement in judicial infrastructure and efforts to fast-track cases related to girls and women,” Pilot said, addressing the lawyers at the convention.
He said the atmosphere of insecurity and fear the country is facing was not there before. “Four judges of the Supreme Court are calling a press conference, journalists are threatened and people are afraid to express their feelings,” he said.
“We have to think how are we going to reply and who are responsible? There are such people in government who want to fulfil their wish at any cost, by sidelining all norms, and the constitution.”
Only four months are left for elections in the state, Pilot said. “I assure that this dictatorial government will be ousted.”