‘Be on watch out’, VP Dhankhar tears into Cong leader’s ‘B’desh can happen here’ comment
Jaipur: Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday urged people to guard against a narrative being floated by some people that what happened in Bangladesh can happen in India too, as he expressed shock at the comparison drawn between the neighbouring countries.
To recall, after Sheikh Hasina quit as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh on Monday in the face of a massive student-led uprising and fled to Delhi, Congress leader Salman Khurshid during a book release function had said that though “everything may look normal on the surface, what is happening in Bangladesh could happen in India”.
Speaking during the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Rajasthan High Court in Jodhpur on Saturday, the Vice President said: “Be on watch out. Efforts by some to infuse a narrative that what happened in our neighbourhood is bound to happen in our Bharat is deeply concerning. How can a citizen of this country having been a Member of Parliament, and the other who has seen enough of Foreign Service, take no time in saying that what happened in the neighbourhood will happen in India!”
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who was also present at book launch event on Tuesday, had said a day later that he could not explain what Khurshid meant, but the larger message that Bangladesh has given is about the “importance of democracy and free and fair elections”.
Addressing judges and lawyers from across the country, Dhankhar said these forces are ready to divide the country and run a fabricated narrative to derail the development and democracy of the nation.
The Vice President also warned that national interest is paramount, which can never be compromised.
Praising the role of the judiciary in strengthening the roots of democracy in the country, the Vice President said that only once in the history of Independent India the judiciary bowed down before the ‘dictatorship’ of one person which was during the Emergency in 1975.
He also said that the new generation has very little knowledge about the dark period of Emergency.
Appreciating the announcement by the Government of India to observe June 25 (the day Emergency was declared) as ‘Samvidha Hatya Divas’, the Vice President said this day will alert the countrymen about how the Constitution was stabbed in 1975 and its basic spirit was crushed.
Recalling his days spent in the Rajasthan High Court, Dhankhar said he is proud that this court is one of the nine high courts which, despite the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi, decided that even during Emergency, a person cannot be arrested without reason.
The Vice President said that it is a matter of regret that “our respected Supreme Court, which has contributed immensely in promoting democratic values in the country, did not stand up for the citizens during Emergency”.
The Supreme Court overturned the decisions of these nine courts and held that the court cannot give relief to an individual during Emergency and the government can continue with Emergency as long as it wants, Dhankhar said.
He also said that had the Emergency not been imposed, India could have touched new heights of development decades ago.