India's Supreme Court Tuesday appointed a three-member committee to defuse the farmers agitation that continues in the capital New Delhi since November 24 against the three laws farmers say are against their interest.
Not surprisingly, all the farmers leaders have rejected the committee which they said are composed of people who support the controversial farmers' laws. The farmers' leaders described the committee as a government ploy.
The unions reiterated their
refusal to participate in the committee's proceedings. Instead, they vowed to
continue their protest "indefinitely", including plans for a "peaceful" tractor
parade in the capital on Republic Day on January 26.
"We understand that this committee is a government ploy. It is only meant to divert attention from the protest, and to reduce the pressure on the government," said Balbir Singh Rajewal, who heads his own faction of the Bharatiya Kisan Union in Punjab.
"All members of this committee are pro-government, and they have been promoting and justifying these laws from the beginning. They have been writing in the newspapers, claiming that these laws are in farmers' interests," he told The Hindu.
The Supreme Court has also ordered a temporary suspension of the three controversial laws. This order has also been criticized.
In a statement, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) has questioned the Supreme Court's move to stay the implementation of the farm laws without finding them unconstitutional, saying that the order had a "political purpose".
"It is clear from this wording of the order that the stay on the laws has been done only to give farmers a "perception" of achievement so that they may withdraw the protests. It is indeed extraordinary and highly questionable for the Supreme Court to issue orders with a political rather than a constitutional rationale," said the statement from the CPI-ML central committee.
Supreme Court's pro-Modi decisions
This is not the first time the Supreme Court has showed its bias towards the rightist government of Narendra Modi. In a bizarre ruling, on November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court held the Babri mosque's demolition illegal but handed the plot of land to Hindus, who believe the site is the birth place of Lord Ram, a much venerated god-king. The court directed that another plot in Ayodhya be provided to a Muslim group that contested the case.
In another very controversial case, the matter of purchase of 36 Rafale jets, the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to the Modi government, ignoring several clear pieces of evidence that the government kept crucial elements away from the court during the hearing. The Supreme Court also dismissed review petitions filed in the matter.
Tellingly, the above-mentioned two Supreme Court decisions were presided over by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi who was nominated to the Rajiya Sabah (the Upper House of Parliament) on March 19, 2020 barely three months after retirement.
According to Scroll, Gogoi was in such a hurry that just three days left before his retirement he decided to deliver several important verdicts on almost everything he had on his plate. From the Sabrimala review plea, the Rafale review petition to the Finance Act 2017 and the government takeover of tribunals and the transparency of the office of CJI under RTI, the fate of such big judgments were passed in just three days.
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