M A I N   N E W S

Jaitley spars with Katju over Modi remarks
Says PCI chief playing politics, must quit
Jaitley lying, should quit instead: Justice Katju
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 17
Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley today questioned Press Council of India Chairman Justice (Retd) Markandey Katju’s recent criticism of non-Congress states of Gujarat and Bihar triggering a war of words between the two.

Reacting sharply to Justice Katju’s recent remarks on “purported” lack of press freedom in Bihar and the “purported” role of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi in Godhra riots, Jaitley said PCI chief should quit his quasi-judicial post before making political comments or be sacked.

Justice Katju slammed back daring Jaitley to quit for lying. “Mr Jaitley should quit. He is not worth being in politics because he is lying. I have often spoken against Congress Governments. I criticised the Congress dispensation in Maharashtra after two girls were held for their Facebook post following the demise of Bal Thackeray. It was after my letter that the cops were pulled up,” he said.

Katju reminded the BJP how he had questioned the then Congress Chief of Himachal Virbhadra Singh when he threatened to break the cameras of some press persons. “The report on lack of press freedom in Bihar is not my report. It is by three members of the PCI,” he said. The report was released recently.

Jaitley, meanwhile shot out at his blog against Justice Katju’s recent newspaper article saying it seemed like a personal tirade against Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. In the article Justice Katju said he did not buy the story that Modi had no hand in Godhra riots.

“Justice Katju’s political bias is clear from the fact that on the burning of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra he says there is still a mystery of what happened in Godhra. Is he trying to hold a brief for those convicted for setting the train on fire? He concludes his article with a political appeal and says people should consider all this otherwise they may make the same mistake which the Germans made in 1933,” Jaitley wrote.

He also asks in his blog if the occupant of a job whose functioning is quasi-judicial can openly participate in political activity. “His appeal is political. He appears to be more Congress than the Congress party. If a sitting Judge of the Supreme Court participated in politics so openly he would be liable for impeachment. Retired judges must remember that the rental for occupying a Lutyen's bunglow post retirement has to be political neutrality not political participation,” Jaitley said.

Justice Katju hit back saying many judges had been given post-retirement posts such as Justice J S Verma, Justice Swatantra Kumar and Justice D K Jain, appointed chairmen of the National Human Rights Commission, National Green Tribunal and the Law Commission, respectively, “Why does Mr Jaitley forget the post-retirement appointments given by the NDA when he was the Law Minister? At least two judges were transferred from their parent high courts to the Rajasthan High Court for reasons well known to Mr Jaitley and about which I do not wish to comment,” PCI chief said.

The BJP, however, slammed him with party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad questioning his selective criticism of non Congress states. Jaitley for his part also asked why Justice Katju was extraordinarily soft on those who provided him a post retirement job.

“I am yet to read a comment from him which prefers meritocracy over dynasty as an instrument of leadership creation. Obviously, such comments would embarrass those who desire to legitimise India as a Dynastic Democracy,” Jaitley said.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha also added that “dignified comment was alien to Justice Katju and his attacks on non-Congress governments whether in West Bengal, Bihar or Gujarat seemed more in the nature of thanks-giving to those who provided him with a post retirement job.”

Arguing against Judges being given Government jobs post retirement, the BJP leader said, “In some cases pre-retirement judicial conduct of a judge is influenced by the desire to get a post retirement assignment.”

He also said that the Chairman of PCI had always been a retired judge of the Supreme Court and discharged a statutory job which required political neutrality. “Additionally a Judge, sitting or retired, is expected to conduct himself with sobriety, dignity and grace. He can’t be loud, crude, outlandish or behave like a megalomaniac,” Jaitley said referring to Justice Katju.

The showdown is rooted in PCI chief’s newspaper article which questions the development model in Gujarat saying award of cheap land to industrialists did not mean development. Jaitley said the PCI chief was quoting statistics selectively to question Gujarat’s development which had been globally hailed.