'Shah's Sabarimala remark show contempt for SC'

A day after Amit Shah pledged 'rock-solid support' to devotees who have been protesting against the apex court's verdict allowing entry to women of all ages to Sabarimala temple, opposition parties criticised the BJP president on Sunday saying the remark was in keeping with "RSS-BJP's contempt for the Constitution and the Supreme Court".

At a function in Kannur on Saturday, Shah had said that governments and courts should "give orders that can be implemented", adding, "They should not give orders that work to break the faith of the people."

Accusing Shah of inciting his partymen to defy the SC order, CPM, which heads the ruling coalition in Kerala, said the BJP chief has "exposed the real hand behind the violent protests against women's entry into Sabarimala". Despite repeated attempts to enter the temple post SC verdict, women in the 10 to 50 age group failed to reach the Ayyappa temple because of violent protests earlier this month.

"That the ruling party president so blatantly ridicules the SC judgment is in keeping with the RSS-BJP's contempt for the Constitution and the Supreme Court. The threat of toppling the Kerala state government, if it continues to uphold the SC judgment, is another display of the anti-democratic, authoritarian attitude typical of Amit Shah," the CPM politburo said in a statement.

Describing Shah's remarks as "uninformed" and "trivial", Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said BJP has been "decimating" and "diluting" institutions to further its interests. "It is the goal of BJP to first weaken institutions and then finish them...there is a long list, be it CBI, EC, CVC and CIC...now same intervention has been made without understanding of law," Singhvi told mediapersons.
"It is an uninformed, loose, trivial comment which is an insult to the intelligence of the institution and the electorate," he added.
BSP chief Mayawati described Shah's remarks as an attempt by BJP to stoke religious sentiments for political gains ahead of assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. "This happens every time an election is round the corner," she said. She said BJP should take a legal recourse if it had a problem with the SC order on the Sabarimala issue. "But instead, it is resorting to violence and threatening to get an elected government in Kerala dismissed," she said, adding that Shah's view was a projection of BJP's "growing arrogance" towards constitutional bodies.
Aam Aadmi Party's national convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal hoped that SC would take cognisance of Shah's remarks.

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from Times of India https://ift.tt/2PmIRT5