New Delhi: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government is “versus the citizens” and the level of intolerance in India since 2014 is unprecedented, Rajya Sabha MP and eminent lawyer Kapil Sibal said, elaborating on the agenda of his newly floated “Insaaf”, a non-electoral but political platform.
In an interview to ThePrint Tuesday, he said that the initiative may work as a common platform for Opposition parties and its leaders to come together ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Amid growing tussle between the judiciary and the executive over the Collegium system, Sibal said that citizens’ platform Insaaf will raise the issue of a “representative” system, which may have government representation and the involvement of the Bar association. “The present debate around the issue heralds terrible times. Both solutions at the moment are producing unpalatable results.
According to Sibal, the collegium system needs to be made “more representative”.
“We need to get the bar involved in it. We need to maybe get government representation. But the process must be unanimous so that nobody can stall. If you give the decision-making process to one person, whether it is the government or any three people, there has to be consensus,” he said.
He added: “The bad pennies will be moved from the system and the level of injustice will be much less in the appointment of judges. The biggest problem right now with the collegium system is that high court judges look to the Supreme Court judges to get into the Supreme Court. The chief justice of the high court is looking to come into the Supreme Court. That’s not good. In the other system, every judge would come to the government to go to the Supreme Court. That’s also terrible. We need to devise a system which is more palatable than both these options.”
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Insaaf, a common platform for opposition?
Sibal also spoke about Opposition unity and what form it can take ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. And though he said that he isn’t trying to bring the Opposition together through Insaaf, he agreed that different parties could use his platform as a common minimum programme.
“Who am I to get all parties together? I’ve just said that parties should join this platform,” he said. “Each of them (Opposition parties) have been targets of injustice one way or the other. So, this can be a common platform through which we can all move forward. Ultimately, we have to convey to the people through clear articulation as to what we are up against. And how this unjust government is destroying, step-by step, everything that is the bedrock of this Constitution. This is political.”
He also stated that “politics doesn’t always happen with an agenda”.
“It happens in an environment where people think something is wrong,” he said.
When asked if Insaaf is an “anti-BJP, anti-Modi front”, Sibal said it’s “anti the policies of the government but for the people of this country”.
“This government is versus the citizens. We want a government for citizens. Imprison someone, send ED, CBI to people’s houses, get students and teachers arrested under UAPA — these are anti-people policies. I’ve never seen this level of intolerance in this country as I have seen since 2014,” he said.
Speaking of state governments ruled by parties other than the BJP, he acknowledged the injustices — for instance, talk about a Congress spokesperson being arrested by the Mamata Banerjee (TMC) establishment in West Bengal — as “wrong” but didn’t elaborate on whether the Insaaf platform will take on such issues as well.
He, however, did say that he would be okay with BJP leaders wanting to join Insaaf. “It will just show Modi ji that some beinsaafi (injustice) is happening in his party,” he said, laughing.
The 3 broad goals of Insaaf
While announcing ‘Insaaf’, Sibal had said that he would hold a public meeting on 11 March at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, where he would further delineate the goals of the platform.
“I have been thinking about this for 1-2 years — what we can do in the context of where the country is going. I had no desire to create another political party. We set up G-23 (a ginger group of senior leaders within Congress) in the hope that we would be able to do something politically within the party. And after that I said to myself, ‘if we couldn’t do something politically within the Congress, then I must do it at an individual level’. I’m doing this individually and I hope that people in the country will support me in this agenda,” he told ThePrint.
Sibal’s Insaaf has three broad goals. First, a long-term one to be a “counter-point” to RSS shakhas.
“This idea came to me in the context of how the BJP has been able to galvanise the support of the community by setting up these shakhas within the community and taking that agenda forward. How do you counter that? Political parties will find it difficult to counter it because these shakhas are wedded to an ideology but they also have ordinary people who take it forward,” he said. “The longer-term agenda is to galvanise people to be a counterpoint to the shakha.”
Its second goal, he said, is to get people to articulate what is happening on the ground.
“The third idea (goal) is to give a new idea of India, a vision radically different from Modiji’s,” he said. “A large part of the (Modi’s) vision has benefited only the creamy layer of society. Eight to nine hundred million people are not touched by that vision.”
He also stated that lawyers would be at the forefront of the movement.
“Anywhere in the world, where radical changes have taken place, at the forefront have been lawyers. We (lawyers) need to coalesce with the people of the country for yet another struggle,” he said.
But, he clarified, Insaaf is not a “lawyers only” collective.
Sibal said that the idea was to create a “decentralised” platform with lawyers and citizens that could collectively take on “injustices” at a community level.
A website has been created on which anybody, including lawyers, can sign up to be ‘Insaaf Ke Sipahi’.
“Individual instances will be dealt with individually through the platform. For example, if a case comes to the SC and somebody needs my help, I’ll help. Shakhas are also decentralised. So, the power has to flow from the bottom,” Sibal said.
The Rajya Sabha MP also steered clear of calling the platform “Left” or “Right”.
“It depends on what we are talking about. If you ask me whether by nature I’m on the complete Left, my answer is no. If you ask me, if I’m on the complete Right, my answer is no. In today’s world, which is integrated in large measure, you need to be very nuanced about where your national interest lies,” he said.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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