Rajya Sabha member and Congress spokesperson Abhisek Manu Singhvi has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of promoting personal attacks on judges of the Supreme Court. The Congress claimed that such campaigns are used to pressurise and influence free decision-making of the judiciary.
“There’s a pattern in attacks on judges. It’s an institutionalized and targeted attack. Such trolls are encouraged by BJP leaders to terrorise the judicary,” Singhvi said in his statement.
The Congress spokesperson said that if the BJP felt accountable, their party would have done a bit of introspection and calibration on the act done by Nupur Sharma, the former party spokesperson whose remarks on Prophet Muhammad sparked furore and condemnation from within India and abroad.
“An army of trolls is sent out by the BJP to fabricate and disseminate false information about the judges and altered photos are published to suggest a false closeness with Congress leaders,” Singhvi said.
Earlier, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala had refused to hear a plea by Nupur Sharma to club multiple FIRs filed against her on her controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad. Denying relief to the ex-BJP leader, the top court had come down heavily on her and held her solely responsible for an environment of unrest across the country.
Following the top court’s observations, Justice J B Pardiwala was heavily trolled on social media. Justice Pardiwala later expressed concern over the use of digital media to deliver “personalised opinions” on the decisions of the court.