New Delhi: From exemption under section 80G of the Income Tax Act to industrialists who build schools for girls, to four constitutional courts of appeal in all regions — independent Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal Saturday laid down six demands to be made to the government by his new citizens’ collective called ‘Insaaf’.
The former Congress leader also sought a five-year bar on contesting elections for defectors, who left one political party for another.
Sibal, who had announced the platform a week ago, reiterated that lawyers would be at the “forefront” of the platform. Present with him on stage, as he laid down the demands, was lawyer and former party colleague, Congress leader and MP Vivek Tankha.
Tankha and Sibal were both part of the Congress’ G-23 group, which had written a letter to then party president Sonia Gandhi in 2020, demanding reforms within the Congress. Sibal thereafter went on to quit the party last year, and became an independent Rajya Sabha MP with the support of the Samajwadi Party (SP).
In his speech at Jantar Mantar Saturday evening, Sibal delineated goals that the platform seeks to achieve in education, health, political and legal sectors.
Before ending his speech, Sibal announced that he and Tankha will take the movement forward and that the next public meeting of ‘Insaaf’ will probably be held in Madhya Pradesh.
“This is the beginning. We appeal to all bar associations in all states to become ‘Insaaf Ke Sipahi’. Wherever there is injustice, they should fight against it. If required, they should fight in court. We will also talk to political parties and ask their people to become Insaaf Ke Sipahi, irrespective of party”, he added.
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Six-point demand
For his first demand, Sibal pointed towards “low salaries” earned by teachers in both government and private schools.
“There are 91 lakh government teachers in our country and their salary is 25 thousand. That of private teachers in 12 thousand. Almost 40 per cent of teachers have no contract. So, how will your kids study? If someone is earning 12 thousand rupees and their expense is 14 thousand rupees, will they worry about their salary or the children. What will they teach your kids?”, he asked.
Sibal then went on to demand that salaries for school teachers across the nation be fixed at Rs 50,000 a month.
Further, talking about the need to introduce educational reforms, Sibal said that more schools should be set up for girl students.
“Industrialists who build such schools should be given 80G tax exemption”, he said, placing his second demand from the government.
Sibal proposed that since many among the youth prefer to start earning after passing school, to facilitate this, factory owners should be incentivised to train class 12 passouts in their factories and then absorb them. Sibal proposed a 80G exemption also for those who followed this as his third demand.
For his fourth demand, Sibal spoke about the anti-defection law, which penalises elected members of Parliament for leaving one party for another, adding that eight elected state governments had been made to fall by the Bharatiya Janata Party with the support of defectors.
“Those people who defect to other parties should not have the permission to contest elections for five years. They should not get any public post or support from the government for five years”, he said.
Sibal added: “If Modi does this then from tomorrow defections will stop. But they won’t because injustice runs in their veins.”
As his fifth demand, Sibal spoke about the tyranny of distance for those seeking redress on constitutional grounds.
“There should be four courts of appeals in this country. People from Arunachal or Kerala can’t come to the SC (Supreme Court) in Delhi. In all regions there should be a final court of appeal after HC (High Court). And this court should just be a 13-judge constitutional court”, he said.
Sibal’s final demand was one he’d stated in an interview to ThePrint earlier this week.
Commenting on the ongoing controversy over the collegium system of appointing judges, Sibal said, “The Law Minister is saying that the government will decide who will become judge and judges say our collegium will decide. Both are problematic. There must be a third, consensus-based option.”
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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